Amtrekker

Hey Team,

Enjoy the New Year’s Eve shenanigans! Here’s my gift to you (inspired by a desire to vindicate myself in the face of that crazy SOB William Shatner).

“Amtrekker travels to Beulah, MI to create a crop circle!

Failures and ethnically insensitive impressions ensue.”

I’m done.

Brett.

Hey Team,

Okay! No more of that silly waiting for Brett to do his thing. Here it is! Let me know what you think!

“Amtrekker travels to Caruthers, CA for the Caruthers Nationals flattrack dirtbike races where he manages to (of course) crash multiply times and show the crowd why people should never get on a bike for the first time for a race.”

The chat is for tonight and the comments are for posterity. (You can sign on using Facebook Connect AND you can leave VIDEO comments now! How cool is that, right?)

Thanks Team!

I’m excited.

Brett.

If you like the site, it’s still your help that keeps things going! Thanks a ton, everyone!

Obviously I let a couple of guest articles and some other writing projects distract me this week but to get now I’m ready. Let’s get back to those whys so you guys can stop emailing me about why I haven’t written the rest of the whys.

5. Enter a hot dog eating contest: The truth is this one was a long standing desire and I’d kill to be in just about any “eating” contest it’s just that hot dogs are kind of the end all, be all of eating contests and I’ve always believed that the more specific your goals are the more likely you’ll be to step up to the plate and make it happen.

Once upon a time I though that I would finally get my chance to out-eat anyone with less dedication to the task during an after-school program sponsored caramel apple eating contest. I got off to a great start and was at least a half apple ahead of everyone else by the time I reached for the fourth and final caramel coated confection…

Which turned out to be an onion instead of an apple. At the risk of tossing out an absurdly bad pun…that always left a bad taste in my mouth and I wanted another opportunity to strut my stuff.

Enter Paul Parowski, Cody Willard and the crew over at Happy Hour on Fox Business News. Thanks, guys!

6. Walk to the top of the Empire State Building: This was one of those things that, upon writing the list, I always thought of as a slightly lame tourist trap that would take zero effort and maybe a ten dollar bill to make happen. Little did I know that two years later whenever anyone asks me what the toughest thing I had to do on the trip was I would, without hesitation, tell the story of trying to find a way into a stairwell that is mandated closed by the NYC fire marshals 364 days a year.

7. See a live taping of the Colbert Report: I’m not sure this one requires any explanation at all. Who wouldn’t want to see a live taping of the Colbert Report? And since the story of how I got snubbed and had my camera taken away is already on the site there’s nothing left to say but, “Thanks, Ace!”

8. See a game at Fenway Park: I’m not nearly as big a baseball fan now as I once was but I still remember that feeling of walking into a major league ballpark (the Oakland Coliseum) for the first time and being blown away by the enormity of what I was about to experience.

I guess what I was hoping for with Fenway was to relive that experience but in a different time. A prouder time, maybe? It’s hard to describe because for some reason baseball and America are inextricably linked in my brain and I think I’m continually searching for those little nuggets of life that I can point to and say things have been great and they CAN get better. Too much cheese?

Regardless, I was blown away by Fenway and if you ever want to see baseball played in a place that just FEELS like that’s where baseball SHOULD be played…go there. Thanks, Jill!

P.S. Since it’s kind of apropos, here’s another article I wrote this week for Amateur Traveler

I’m done.

Brett.

Just for the record. Bookingbuddy really is a pretty rad website if you’re looking to plan a trip. It actually allows you to search most of the top website from one location. Pretty handy! But more importantly…our new affiliation with bookingbuddy.com means all you have to do to help out Amtrekker is click on one of their ads and sign up for an awesome newsletter filled with travel deals! Thanks everyone!

Thanks!

Hey Team,

Here’s the fun stuff!

“Amtrekker and Dr. Tiki travel into international waters under cover of night to show you how to distill moonshine.

Mistakes are made…not the least of which are actually tasting the booze.

(Part two of a two part series! Part one is right here.)”

Follow Amtrekker, Dr. Tiki and TikiTosca on twitter.

Subscribe to Amtrekker on iTunes!

And here’s the YouTube link.

Thanks Team!

I’m done.

Brett.

Just for the record. Bookingbuddy really is a pretty rad website if you’re looking to plan a trip. It actually allows you to search most of the top website from one location. Pretty handy! But more importantly…our new affiliation with bookingbuddy.com means all you have to do to help out Amtrekker is click on one of their ads and sign up for an awesome newsletter filled with travel deals! Thanks everyone!

Thanks!

Hey Team,

Lots of stuff going on. Plenty of adventures around the corner. A new literary agent. A book proposal to write. But MOST importantly…everyone’s favorite videos are BACK! Today it’s the horse through through the covered bridge, the video of the party will be out in a few days and then it will be back to the old Wednesday at 6pm Pacific schedule! Ah, the good old days.

There are literally a TON (okay, not literally…it’s all digital so it really doesn’t take up much space) of videos still to come! Things will take on a slightly different format now that I’m back but there are still a lot of “Tales From the Wayback Machine” I’ve yet to show you guys! I’m pretty excited to be able to sit somewhere for an extended period of time without being kicked out so I can ramp up the production quality as much as I can.

Okay, less talk more action. Here it is:

“Amtrekker travels to Atlanta, GA where with the help of Grayson from CNN’s News To Me team, Betty Ann, Ginger, Chase and a horse named Danket he finally gets to live out a cartoon!

Flaming pumpkins ensue.”

And here’s the YouTube link.

Thanks Team!

I’m done.

Brett.

Just for the record. Bookingbuddy really is a pretty rad website if you’re looking to plan a trip. It actually allows you to search most of the top website from one location. Pretty handy! But more importantly…our new affiliation with bookingbuddy.com means all you have to do to help out Amtrekker is click on one of their ads and sign up for an awesome newsletter filled with travel deals! Thanks everyone!

Thanks!

Hey Team,

I’m done.

That’s the first time I’ve ever had the chance to START a post with that line. Yesterday was completely surreal. Driving up to my house my stomach was filled with butterflies and I was even shaking with anticipation. As we pulled up to the gate of the two acre parcel my folks live on in Middle-Of-Nowhere, CA Ron Fairbanks walked up and blocked my entry.

Apparently, in my absence a vote was taken and I wasn’t even going to be allowed on the property where the homecoming party was being held until I found the final geocache. Eventually a horde of people gathered around and suddenly I was practically onstage wandering around in circles following a GPS I had never used before…poorly. I thought, “Geez, all these people are here just to watch me find a geocache…this is pretty intimidating. I guess I should at least make a show of it.”

Near ground zero according to the GPS was a small DSL box with the wiring running down a post. I figured I might as well look in a few places it was OBVIOUSLY never going to be hidden just to keep things interesting. I opened the DSL box and…Ka-KOW! The cache fell out onto my foot!

Everyone cheered. I continued to shake and my heart continued to pound. Hugs all around. I walk toward the house hugging my mom and smiling too big for my head not to come unhinged.

The rest of the day was a blur of telling stories and faces from the “past.” And more importantly, trying to come up with an answer to the question, “Now what?”

I know you guys are all wondering the same thing so here’s the best answer I’ve been able to come up with so far:

I have enough footage of awesome adventures and I’m far enough behind on the editing that Amtrekker.com will continue to post new episodes for a few more months as “Tales From the Wayback Machine!” It’s going to be exciting to be able to sit down and put a little more effort into the production of these so keep a weathered eye out. The party podcast will be up in a couple days then we’ll start traveling backwards.

There’s a book proposal to be written and I have to choose between a handful of excited literary agents so things are looking good on that front.

There may be an opportunity to start producing some segments for a syndicated television show that hopefully I can say more about after next week.

AND…I’ll be shooting the “pilot” for a new web series similar to Amtrekker but with the focus on YOU GUYS instead of this old dog (of course by “old” I mean “young” and by “dog” I mean “super cool dude”). I think it could be really special and a LOT of fun. It may not appear for several months and it’s also going to be a very low budget independent undertaking but I’m super stoked about it. So send in your fifty lists and maybe we can make some magic happen!

I’m done! (kinda)

Brett.

Just for the record. Bookingbuddy really is a pretty rad website if you’re looking to plan a trip. It actually allows you to search most of the top websites from one location. Pretty handy! But more importantly…our new affiliation with bookingbuddy.com means all you have to do to help out Amtrekker is click on one of their ads and sign up for an awesome newsletter filled with travel deals! Thanks everyone!

Thanks!