Most Unusual, Weird, or Exclusive places you have been?

[MCRoads]

Well, the title might be pretty self explanatory, but...

What are some places that you went to, that not many people have gone to? Wether it is unheard of and off the beaten path, or many people have heard of it, it is just hard to go there because it isn't open to the general public, or, maybe it's something that is in plain sight, but not many people know to ask. If you want to talk about it, here is the place to do it!

I'll go ahead and start:

For me, I have a couple of places that I think are worth mentioning:

I have been on a US Navy submarine (I believe the USS Helena), the USS Gerald R. Ford before it was commissioned in 2017, the top of the Griffon roller coaster at Bush Gardens VA, and inside Cheyenne Mountain.

[hotdogPi]

On the field at Fenway Park

Backstage at Symphony Hall in Boston

[CoreySamson]

I can only think of two especially interesting places I've been:

- I shot a free throw at the Toyota Center on the court.

- I've been to this place on the riverbed at the back of Brazos Bend State Park, about a 4 mile hike from the parking lot. It's the best non-beach scenery you'll find in Brazoria County.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

-I was on the field at the Metrodome on two separate occasions, one for touch football and once on a school trip.
-I PAed a couple games for my high school at Target Center in Minneapolis.
-I've broadcast high school hockey from the press box at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

[jeffandnicole]

Since the first few answers involved sports:  I've been in the dugout at former Veterans Stadium in Philly.  I was there with another guy one day "interviewing" to be a volunteer for the 1996 All Star Game.  Afterwards, he brought me down to the field where he knew one of the guys working.  I wandered into the dugout and picked up the phone.  That phone ring was so loud, it echoed around the empty stadium and everyone looked in my direction! lol

[Max Rockatansky]

The San Rafael Swell after a blizzard was the most unusual and alien environment I've been in.  It's a totally different experience compared to how it usually is and felt otherworldly.

Always felt exclusive doing odd jobs as a kid for a NASCAR team, especially at the 1996 Daytona 500.   

[jeffandnicole]

Roadwise, I've worked at NJ Turnpike toll plazas 1, 3, 4 & 7A.  So I've been in the tunnel under the toll plaza at 7A, and over the toll plaza at 1.  3 & 4 don't have tunnels, so you just walk across the toll lanes there.

[index]

Any of you all remember from the past going to school early in the morning  for a field trip, when it's still dark outside and nobody else is there? That environment always feels unusual, weird, and exclusive.

As for actual weird/unusual/exclusive places, I have nothing to offer, unless you count nabbing a soda from a hotel storage closet somebody accidentally left unlocked to be an "exclusive" place.

[MCRoads]

The San Rafael Swell after a blizzard was the most unusual and alien environment I've been in.  It's a totally different experience compared to how it usually is and felt otherworldly.

Always felt exclusive doing odd jobs as a kid for a NASCAR team, especially at the 1996 Daytona 500.

Used to be really into NASCAR until everything started changing. When I was younger, that would have been the bomb!

[TravelingBethelite]

Any of you all remember from the past going to school early in the morning  for a field trip, when it's still dark outside and nobody else is there? That environment always feels unusual, weird, and exclusive.

You're a man of high culture.

As for my answer, never really been to too many exclusive places, but I did get to spend 10 days in Cuba before the Trump administration shut down U.S. travel again.

[Bruce]

Very top floor of the Columbia Center, the tallest building in the Pacific NW (and only available to club members and guests).

Walked through a light rail tunnel and station before it was complete (on a press tour)

Been on a test train for a light rail line before it was opened to the public (another press tour)

[Dirt Roads]

The upper and lower levels of the 63rd Street tubes in Queens just before start of construction of the 63rd Street Connector to the Queens Boulevard Line.  Even though the upper tubes were some 90 feet below the surface, there were several homeless camps that needed to be cleared before the inspection team arrived.  I've been down numerous manholes, but that one takes the cake.

[JoePCool14]

I got to see Sen. Chuck Schumer speaking to a mostly-empty Senate chamber live. We also were in the House chamber that same day, but I don't remember who was speaking. This was in mid-2017 during the Obamacare repeal debates.

[dlsterner]

Here's a few that I can think of:

(three times)  On the playing field of the Orange Bowl in Miami during a Dolphins game (halftime show with marching band in high school).

In the press box, the warning track on the field, and the home team dugout, locker room, and clubhouse at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore (guided tour of the stadium).

Underneath the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando.  (Guided tour; there is a network of tunnels underneath the park used by employees).

Grímsey (an island about 25 miles north of Iceland, part of Iceland) that sits on the Arctic Circle.  It's about two square miles in size, about 60 people live there, and it has a small airstrip.  There's a monument marking the spot where the Arctic Circle crosses the island.
Grímsey on Google Maps:   http://www.google.com/maps/@66.5475657,-18.0206734,6979m/data=!3m1!1e3

[Rothman]

I have been within the exhaust duct for the Thimble Shoals Tunnel of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, over the roadway below.  Probably the most unique place I've been due to a tour when I was an intern with FHWA.

There was also this strange, half-built apartment tower at the northern boundary of the Sovetskii Raion of Volgograd, Russia that a co-worker of mine and I climbed the stairs to the top of, but locals probably did as well.

[Dirt Roads]

When in high school, we were taken on a field trip and got to go up into both of the cooling towers at the John Amos power plant along the Kanawha River.  We first went into the western cooling tower when it wasn't working.  Then they took us over into the eastern cooling tower while it was working, which was like a sauna bath.  The steam was so dense you couldn't see 5 feet in front of yourself. 

[jp the roadgeek]

On the floor of the House, and rode one of the underground trains that leads from the House office buildings to the Capitol. 

Got to take a geology field trip on the stretch of CT 9 between I-91 and the Berlin Turnpike about 2 months before it opened to traffic.  Was neat riding out on the open highway and walking in the lanes with no traffic on it. 

Got to go to the top floor of the warehouse at Camden Yards to the Camden Club.  Also went in many of the restricted areas of Lucas Oil Stadium on a tour. 

Attended the 1986 NHL All Star Game and ALCS Game 2 later that year.

[MCRoads]

On the floor of the House, and rode one of the underground trains that leads from the House office buildings to the Capitol. 

Oh man, I've been on a tour of the capital building as well, but totally forgot about the underground trains! That was a cool experience, as we also got to go up into the dome. We couldn't go on the highest walkway, as this was when the dome was undergoing mantenence, but we got to go about 50 feet up! Iirc the highest they (used to, at least) take tours was about halfway up, around 180 feet above the rotunda.

[bulldog1979]

I've been to the top of the south tower of the Mackinac Bridge.

[Route66Fan]

Back in 1993, My family & I went on a trip up to Wisconsin & went to "The House on the Rock", I was a kid at the time & the automated musical instruments & some of the mechanical scenes that they had there, creeped me out.

[Mapmikey]

Can't think of any real exclusive places I've been to...

But I have been inside several reactor compartments of nuclear vessels and I have been underneath an aircraft carrier in a drydock (this is a strange place to be).

Probably the weirdest thing I've intentionally gone to seen (courtesy of my wife) is a library in Trondheim Norway that when they expanded their footprint found some human skeletal remains related to a nearby church.  They left the remains in place and they can be seen from a walkway above them. 

[webny99]

"Exclusive" is a pretty high bar, at least for places that the general public would know/care about. But I did go inside Mount Morris Dam on a school field trip once.

[JoePCool14]

On the floor of the House, and rode one of the underground trains that leads from the House office buildings to the Capitol.

Forgot about the tunnels! I didn't ride the train, but I did walk the tunnel from one of the House buildings. I've been in my House rep's office, though he was not there at the time.

[NWI_Irish96]

When I was in 8th Grade, I got a tour of the US Capitol and White House guided by a US Senator. I got to see some areas that normal tours didn't cover, even in the pre-9/11 days.

[GaryV]

On the floor of the old Georgia Dome (reffing the FLL World Festival)

And, to make it road-related, at the north end of US-102:  https://www.usends.com/covington.html