By now I’m sure you’ve heard about Ron Burgundy anchoring a local newscast in Bismarck, ND on Saturday, November 30. It was my good fortune to be in Bismarck that weekend as my family and I spent Thanksgiving in the North Dakota capital city with great friends.
As we sat watching the amazing finish of the Alabama/Auburn football game a scroll came across the screen encouraging viewers to stay tuned for the local news with a very special surprise guest.
After the football game was over we switched channels to another game because that’s what you do Thanksgiving weekend. One of the thirty or so people we were with that evening came down to the family room telling us that Ron Burgundy, or someone looking very much like him, was doing the local news. We switched over and were shocked at the resemblance and wondered, if it is Ron Burgundy, what is he doing in Bismarck?
It didn’t take long for my friend, Rod, to say, “Let’s go meet him!” I hesitated at first but quickly thought about how much fun it would be to meet the Anchorman, what a great story that would be! No one else had the spirit of adventure that Rod and I had and we jumped in his car.
As we drove to the station we wondered if anyone else would be doing what we were doing. We talked about bringing him back to Rod’s house for our pizza party and game night that was still to come. We were sure that he would want to go pheasant hunting with us the next day because, well, who wouldn’t want to do that? How cool would it be to go back to Rod’s house, with our families waiting, to walk in with RON BURGUNDY!?
As we pulled up to the station there were probably around twenty or so others who were already there. Rod and I got out of our car and walked up to a group of young people who were standing around not really knowing what their next step would be. We quickly found a guy from the station who had come out some side door and asked him what was going on. He told us that Ron was no longer there. He had taped the news at 3:30 that afternoon and was already in Canada for some curling event that he was involved with in some way.
Rod and I pulled the guy aside for a quiet conversation, just between us guys. We said, “Look, we know he’s still here. You can tell everyone else the story and they will leave. We’ll stick around and you can take us in with you and we’ll visit with Ron and invite him over for pizza and games tonight and pheasant hunting tomorrow.”
He assured us that he was gone and we could hang around as long as we wanted but it would be fruitless.
We were disappointed but decided to take a horrible picture with this unnamed station employee and tell our families it was Ron himself. We knew they wouldn’t buy it, and I’m sure you didn’t buy it either, but it’s still a memory of our quest to meet the Anchorman!
As Rod and I drove back to his house we were sorry that it hadn’t turned out the way we had hoped. And yet, we felt good that we had made the effort and put our sense of adventure to work. Even though we didn’t meet Ron, it’s still a great story!
How is your sense of adventure? Do you often sit back and listen to people’s stories and wish you would have done what they did? Maybe it’s time for you to put on your courage cap and step out of your comfort zone. What will you do the next time someone says, “Hey, why don’t we……?”
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!
