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!

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!

I decided to release the Moonshining with Dr. Tiki video in two parts (it will be a few weeks before part 2 rears it’s ugly head thanks to the fermentation process). So, here it is!

“Amtrekker travels to international waters to meet with the famed Dr. Tiki for some moonshining hijinks!

Uncertainty ensues.”

And here’s the YouTube link

I’m done.

Brett.

Annnddd…here are two great ways to help out Team Amtrekker! Our new affiliation with bookingbuddy.com means all you have to do to help out the site is click on one of their ads and sign up for an awesome newsletter filled with travel deals! Thanks everyone!

Thanks!

Hey Team,

Not that I’m not known for making bad decisions (who doesn’t love double negatives) but I’ve had better ideas than allowing the first time I’ve ever so much as sat down on a dirt bike to be the practice lap for a dirt bike race. Seriously. What was I thinking?

I can only tell you what was going through my mind after I had made my decision and I sat on the bike in a line of dozens of other riders all waiting for their turns at the track. (Everyone gets the opportunity to take a few laps before the races to get a feel for the dirt and the nuances of the track. Unfortunately for me…I got those same few laps to learn how to ride a dirt bike.)

“Well, at least this bike can’t kick me to death if I piss it off,” I thought aloud as I looked down to see if the bruise from the ostrich-racing escapade had healed yet. But as I looked down I saw the bike next to me and thought about how unforgiving that knobby-wheeled little machine must be when it runs you over after you fall on turn one like an amateur (or an amtrekker).

Then I started to think, “Wait, if that thing is going to run me over then that means I was in front! That’s a win-win. Either I’m losing and I don’t get run over or I’m winning at the expense of tread marks across my face!” (Obviously, it’s pretty easy for me to talk myself into doing stupid things.)

I kick started the bike and revved the throttle, motioning to my cousin Lisa (who would be one of only two people I would be racing against later) giving her the “going down” threat…right after pointing at myself.

Finally our turn to hit the track came and without hesitating I shot out into the dirt flat track and instantly realized how unprepared I was. I spent the next several minutes of my life getting lapped by kids I could pick up and toss over the chain link fence without much effort but could never hope to beat in a race around an oval track.

Thoroughly disappointed in myself I sought out friends and family for advice and was basically told that it takes practice, much more practice than I’ve had.

I regained a little sparkle of hope when I saw that there were only four racers, including myself, scheduled for my class. I felt better still when one of those racers (the only one I didn’t know) dropped out. It meant I would at least come away with third place in the first heat.

Barely. Yep, after a mediocre start, terrible technical skills and a crash in turn one of lap four I almost succeeded in getting fourth place out of three.

When the main event came around Lisa’s tire had come down with an irreparable flat thanks to a gaping hole in her tire roughly the width of my switchblade. Unfortunately, Kenny never left his bike unguarded and I was forced to find a more creative way to beat him. I tried blackmail and bribery but without any money to my name both were destined for failure.

With a spark of inspiration I dove into the race with more poor technical skills and another crash (this time in turn four of lap four) but even that wasn’t enough to win the day! I was forced to settle for second place.

But let me just end on this slightly depressing note. I was CRAZY frustrated with myself. I would MUCH rather get 49th place out of 50 than 2nd out of two. Man, do I ever hate losing.

Regardless, thanks so much to APF Motorcycle Salvage and the folks who put on the Caruthers Nationals for helping me find out how much more practice I’m going to need to just to move up to “sucks” on the “How good am I on a dirtbike scale?” I’ll get some pictures up when I have a chance to pull them off my video camera!

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 travel ticketing 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!

Here’s the update on “Moonshinery 2008.” You all know Jeff MacPherson (better known on the webbernets as Dr. Tiki) and I got the ball rolling late last week with an attempt at mash (which, for you non-hillbillies out there is the fermented liquid that gets distilled into moonshine). As far as we know (which isn’t very far) things went well…

Yesterday I got a call from Dr. Tiki saying that, after five days, our (more than likely poisonous) mixture of sugar, cornmeal and yeast definitely smelled like booze…and bread. And since I have to be in Virginia City tomorrow to ride an ostrich(!) we decided to jump the gun a little and see if we couldn’t manage to distill some grade A moonshine from what had already fermented.

We couldn’t.

Despite our ingenious still setup we had nothing to show for our early efforts after several hours. Which isn’t to say we’ve failed…yet. The yeast in our toxic brew is still doing it’s thing and as soon as that poison stops bubbling and things start smelling more like alcohol than bread we’ll jump back in and see what we can make happen!

Until then…I’m going to go jump head first into the terrifying world of ostrich racing! Wish me luck!

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!

I’ve been reading quite a bit about moonshine lately since I’ve recently decided I don’t want to poison myself like so many ill-advised hillbillies before me. As a result I felt pretty confident when I set out this afternoon to hunt down some grain for the “mash” to start the fermentation process. A quick half hour to and from the Tack and Feed store and I’d be set. Easy.

Here’s the thing. Nothing is every easy in my world. (Of course I wouldn’t have it any other way. Where would the fun be in that? And where would I get all these ridiculous stories from?!)

When it comes right down to it, even after HOURS of researching moonshine making techniques and recipes, all I really new was that the recipe I had decided to use (because it looked simple) recommended a five gallon bucket of “MannaPro Hi Grain sweet feed.”

I have no idea what that means.

“Hi. Do you guys sell, MannaPro Hi Grain sweet feed?”

“What’s that?”

“I thought you were suppose to take it from there. I don’t even know what the words I just said mean…I’m just on an errand for my aunt.” Ha! That’ll throw them off the scent. Now they’ll never know I’m secretly trying to make moonshine! (I’m ashamed to admit that is painfully close to what I was actually thinking when I said that.)

“Let me ask around.” She disappeared behind a door to talk to some sort of federal agent that knew “MannaPro Hi Grain sweet feed” was the preferred grain of moonshiners. (I’d been watching way too much “Burn Notice.”)

“Nope, sorry. We don’t have that.”

“Do you have any other ‘all grain horse feeds?’” I parroted the only other piece of information I could remember from the recipe.

“Blah blah blah gibberish nonsense.” She explained.

“Oh.” I blinked. “Thanks. I’ll just try somewhere else.”

I called around and was shot down by three other feed stores before finally deciding I needed to take a new tactic. After jumping back on Charley I found that an easy substitute for the horse feed would be corn meal. Easy.

I stopped at the nearest supermarket and took a stroll down the “baking needs” aisle. There was a box marked corn meal for about $4 that was only about a third of what I needed or several bags marked Harina Masa that as near as I could tell basically translated to “corn flour” and had as much mass as I would require for a doable $1.50! But not knowing if they would be interchangeable and terrified I was going to kill myself with this concoction I continued to stare at my options for another ten minutes before finally eliciting help from the internets.

Armed with newfound knowledge from multiple sources I stared for another ten minutes before getting flustered and leaving empty handed.

But NOW. Now, I have everything I need to start the fermentation process! Tomorrow is the big day…kind of.

It’s the day Moonshinery 2008 begins and I start the process that could easily be screwed up at any one of a number of junctures resulting in failure.

Wish me luck.

I’m done.

Brett.

And here are two great ways to help out Team Amtrekker! Our new affiliation with bookingbuddy.com means all you have to do to help out the site is click on one of their ads and sign up for an awesome newsletter filled with travel deals! Thanks everyone!

Thanks!

Not everything on the list is adrenaline fueled (obviously). But a great case in point is #11 “Go into a coal mine.” I may have mentioned this before but a good portion of the list exists because I occasionally get that feeling that I was born in either the wrong time or the wrong place to experience everything I would like to experience. So rather than get my heart rate up, the coal mine is really more of a steep slide into Nerdville. A learning experience and not much more.

And that’s exactly what I got at the Lackawana County Coal Mine yesterday. Most important lesson learned: I now know exactly why so many people told me there was no way they were going to let me into a working coal mine. Turns out there are a billion and one easy ways to get yourself killed in a working mine. Good to know.

Besides the obvious black lung (which I avoided mentioning on tape mostly out of the shame created by a “too easy” joke) there where a hundred ways to get squished, crushed, or otherwise trampled before you even make it to the coal vein in the morning. Dynamite can blow off important bits. Exposed wiring can electrocute you with impunity. Methane gas buildups can explode or choke the oxygen out of the room. Limbs can be lost to all manner of simple machinery. In short, over 100,000 people have died in mine related accidents in America alone.

BUT, I got to wander around with a cool “Amtrekker green” hard hat on and learn about all the potential hazards from a tour guide in a mine that has been closed since 1966. Too easy.

The temperature underground was about the only saving grace to the job. These guys do not have an easy life.

I wish I had time to write more but I’m actually writing this from on set of “The Surrogates” crossing another one off the list! Plus I still have to get that race car podcast out. All this time on the bus is KILLING my productivity. Okay, less talk, more action!

I’m done.

Brett.

I like writing. You like reading. Anyone like donating?

*hint hint wink wink nudge nudge* Say no more.

After a long wait I finally managed to stay in one place long enough to compress the kiteboarding video! Here it is!

“Amtrekker travels back to Charleston, SC to get dragged face first through the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to “try his hand at kiteboarding.”

Calamity ensues.”

Here’s the YouTube link!

Thanks!

I’m done.

Brett.

If you enjoy the podcasts…why not donate?

Don’t let me stop you.

Here it is! After acting like a sick little sissy for a week I finally managed to finish up the sailing podcast! Enjoy!

“Amtrekker travels to New York City of all places to learn to sail in the Hudson River courtesy of the Atlantic Yachting Association! In two short days he manages to break sailing and earn his keel boat certification!

“Heaving to”ensues.”

And here’s the YouTube link!

Thanks, Team!

I’m done.

Brett.

If you enjoy the podcasts…why not donate?

Don’t let me stop you.

I may not be at 100% just yet as I continue to recover from that wicked cold/flu/cholera from last week but that didn’t stop me from getting dragged face first through the Atlantic Ocean today!

I’m back in Charleston, SC where I met up with Chris, who it turns out isn’t just a better than average kiteboarder, he’s also a terrific instructor with an ample supply of kites.

We hit the beach around 4:30 in the evening and got started with a trainer kite (MUCH smaller and less complicated than the kites you actually strap to yourself). Even with such a “small” kite it was pretty clear that I had underestimated how much power they have. Kites that size have no conscience when it comes to dragging you around and letting you know who’s boss. Regardless, I managed to catch on to steering the trainer pretty quickly so Chris decided to move me up to his large kite.

Here’s the interesting thing about the large kite. If the little one had so little respect for people that it wouldn’t even help a little old lady across the street then the big kite would have happily pushed that same little old lady into oncoming traffic and giggled as she slid beneath a city bus’s Goodyears.

Yes, I caught onto the big kite pretty quickly too, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t drag me through the water unrelentingly a fair amount first. And you should probably just take my word for it when I say that there’s a HUGE difference between swallowing water and having it forced so far down your throat you end up with a reverse colon cleansing.

Back to the important bits: Kiteboarding is AMAZING!!! I was able to stand up and ride for a while and it was even more fun than I had hoped it would be (and I had high hopes). This, more than most of the other objectives, really embodies what the list is about. I’ve literally been wanting to try kiteboarding for YEARS and somehow or another it’s just one of those things that I never got around to. Now that it’s done I’m SO much happier than I was yesterday just for having the new experience and for the second time in a little over a week I’ve run into a hobby that I CAN’T WAIT to try again.

I can’t thank Chris enough but I should cut this short so I can get back to editing and actually get a podcast up eventually.

I’m done.

Brett.

If you enjoy following the adventure and want to help pay to have that reverse colon cleansing reversed feel free to hit that donate button!

Don’t let me stop you.