We've all seen the pictures of people running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. I, at least, have questioned what would make a relatively intelligently looking individual to get out in front of a bull weighing several hundred pounds with a set of horns three feet long and try to outrun it. Yet every year several hundred people, mostly young men according to one published report, take to the streets for just that sort of fun.

Last week I got an e-mail from a mom who began by saying she had already survived her only son parasailing over the Alps and was therefore somewhat prepared for his next adventure. And you already know what that was.

In her words: "Well, I survived the pictures of Brandon several thousand feet in the air over the Alps parasailing-- but knowing he's running in the streets today with 1,500 bulls right behind him is just a bit much for a mom to take... You may want to watch your favorite sports news tonight... I'm sure they'll show some video highlights like they usually do every year.  Hopefully he remembered to wear his running shoes and not his flip flops... 

"Guess we can't say that he isn't taking advantage of every single opportunity while in Europe this summer--I'll feel much better knowing he's sitting in the stands at the World Cup Soccer Championship tomorrow--although sometimes those fans can be as dangerous as the bulls--"

Brandon's mom is Beverly Burcham.

Beverly sent the e-mail out on Saturday, July 8. I called her about five days after that to get an update on all of Number 1 son's experiences. At that time she was still waiting to hear from him.

Beverly did watch ESPN to see the highlights of the bullrunning, but never did see her baby boy.

"Actually, there were six people hurt and two of them seriously," she said, "but since we haven't heard from him I guess he's still kicking." I'm sure that was no pun.

Just a short while later Beverly got an e-mail from the wayward lad which she forwarded to me. In his own words (I'll keep this to the bull running and World Cup experience):

"Day 2- Got up and walked around the awesome town of Barcelona. It was great. We spent most of the afternoon taking care of our train plans to Pamplona for the next day. It was kind of a drag dealing with this, but it was worth it. Come to find out, there were no available trains to Pamplona the day we HAD to go, therefore we paid for a bus ticket and departed Barcelona at 9 p.m....little did we know that our bus ride would take forever. We got in Pamplona at 4 in the MORNING. I was awoken by crazy Spaniards banging on our bus in the streets. This is without a doubt the craziest (and most dangerous) place that i have been to EVER! It is the festival of San Fermine and it lasts exactly one week...literally...non-stop. We were shoulder to shoulder in this pretty good size town (maybe Kennett or smaller), and we had to go buy our 'uniforms' for the bull run. We scouted out the route in which we would run. Here's the great part about all of this: The Bull run kicks off at 8:00 and it lasts only around 5-6 minutes. It is a 1\2 mile road and the bulls run it in no time flat. I will have to tell you my bull run story by phone, because it is impossible to 'type-tell' you. So, the tricky part is that we had to catch a flight to Frankfurt, Germany that night and the ONLY train to Barcelona from Pamplona that day left at...(Drum roll)...8:35! Which gave us 35 minutes from the 1st rocket letting the town know that the bulls were out to our departure from the bus station ALL THE WAY ACROSS TOWN! We legged it on out of there as soon as all the bulls ran by us and managed to make our bus with 6 minutes to spare. We went back to Barcelona and hung out there for the afternoon and met up with some friends at the airport and flew to Frankfurt. We spent the night in the airport/bus/train station all-in-one. Fantastic times were had.

"Day 3- Got up and trained to inner-city Frankfurt from the airport at 6:30 and caught another train to Berlin (Charlie, Chris, and I). Berlin can only be described as one semi-word: Rad. We had an amazing time. We were there the night of the world cup final match (championship) but didn't go because the cheapest ticket was stinkin' 1900 Euro. (Which roughly translates to around 2000 U.S dollars.) That definitely wasn't happening. So we ... watched the game right outside the stadium on a huge T.V. and walked around Berlin that night."

There are a couple of other rather interesting details that probably added a few gray hairs to the heads of his parents - leaving his passport on the train, for instance - but I'll let them share the other details.

Running with the bulls - out-running the bulls is perhaps a better way to experience that particular activity - and attending a World Cup is pretty heady stuff for a guy from the Bootheel.

Bud Hunt is publisher of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.