First Time For Everything

John Gray over at Going Gently started this one talking about significant firsts in his life.

• My first glimpse of the Grand Canyon, is one of my earliest memories, I was about 6. Yes it is that spectacular of a hole in the ground.  
• First plane flight, would be before I was born, my father learned to fly a few years before I was born,  My mother got airsick, so they didn't travel much by air. 
• First airline flight, was to Florida to drive my Grandmother to Michigan, after my great grandmother fell and broke a hip, I was 17. 
• First bush plane flight, was Anchorage to Mt. Denali about 10 years ago.  
• First Zeppelin ride, August 22nd, 2015. 
• Losing my virginity - I was 20 and she was 40 - I was seduced by the wife of a client. 
• Losing my virginity part 2, about 10 years later, a professional acquaintance - he was much more fun. 
• First trip to Europe, London in May of 1990. 
• First house I purchased, Dobbin Drive in Orlando in 1982, with a bargain 13.5% mortgage, I sold it 18 months later and made money on it.   
• Earliest memory, my father and a friend recovering the wings of an airplane in our garage, the smell of lacquer thinner triggers this one, I was 4 or 5.
• First real camera, a Konica T-3, February 14, 1974. 
• First ride on a professional road racing bike, May 1999, a Trek 1200 Aluminum.  I bought it on the spot, I still own it.  It is frighteningly fast.   
• First minor surgery, I was 17, the doctor sliced into a cyst on the side of my face and said "oops."  A second doctor finished the job about 9 months later.  One thing you never want to hear a doctor say is "oops!" 
• First major surgery, May 13, 2015.  I have talked enough about my schwannoma. 
• First car I owned, a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royal Coupe, I bought in 1977.  The trunk leaked from the first day I owned it.  
• First new - new car, a 1982 Renault Le Car.  It was cheap, had a sunroof and the coldest air conditioning of any car I have owned, I kept it little more than a year 
• First death of someone close to me, my paternal grandfather when I was 18, my maternal grandfather died 8 weeks later.