Amtrekker

Hey Team,

This week has definitely been unique and I have to admit I’m a little frustrated right now. So many interesting things have happened that I’d love to be writing about and there’s just not enough room on the page. Hopefully over the next couple days it’ll all spill out, but there’s SO much editing to do too.

“What? Why’s that? You just have the Biketoberfest footage to deal with, right…right?”

“HA! That’s where you’re wrong, stupid misinformed disembodied voice!”

I’m in Orlando right now staying with an old friend from my Walt Disney World days and it struck me just before I got here that way back when (it’s been five years since I’ve worked for the mouse on this coast) there used to be a street performer that worked out on the Boardwalk region of the resort performing con games.

“What kind of con games?”

Will someone tell that creepy voice to stop interrupting?

Three card Monte, of course! It was a total long shot but we headed over to the Boardwalk and asked around. It was raining so we figured any performers would have packed it in already anyway but eventually we ran into a guy that was dressed like someone that I would expect to rip me off circa 1930. Luckily, (for me, not him) he was just packing up and getting ready to leave when I trapped him with talk of 50 lists and a learning spirit.

Kevin, the performer, then took us to a less crowded area and proceeded to make us all (Ting, Tye, Abbey, Taryn, and me) look like idiots for a solid ten minutes before giving me a hands on demonstration of some of the slight of hand involved in the game.

I have to say this ranks right up there with the coolest of the accomplished objectives so far! I had a rush for the next 24 hours solid and couldn’t stop practicing the (admittedly VERY) basic moves he showed me. But basic or not they were good enough to fool the couple of people I tried it on once I felt confident enough to show off!

I can’t wait to go over the tape and learn the rest of the moves! The guy was REALLY good. PLUS, I didn’t have to trade crack to some New York City street hustler for the chance to learn the moves. On the downside, I didn’t have to trade crack to some New York City street hustler for the chance to learn the moves. I bet that would have made for one crazy story.

Seriously, I got some cool stuff on tape and I can’t wait to show you guys. It’s going to take a lot of work to catch up though. I still have to go through the Biketoberfest stuff!

Last thing. About that “nomadic serendipity” I mentioned yesterday: I’m staying with my friend Ting. He has a roommate named Tye. Tye had two friends staying over the last couple days too. They were from New York/New Jersey. They both HAPPEN to work for Six Flags. And Six Flags in New Jersey HAPPENS to be the amusement park with the countries fastest roller coaster! And thanks to my chance encounter with Abbey and Taryn I now know that particular park only has TWO DAYS of operation left between now and April! This Saturday and Sunday.

And since my rail pass expires on Thursday and I don’t have the shoestrings to pick up another one right now, I have to jump on a train tomorrow to head up North again. There was still some stuff I needed to do in Florida, but it’s just going to have to wait; I’m hoping the list will be done by the time the park reopens next year.

That was a long one…and sadly you guys STILL aren’t as up to date as I’d like you to be. But the important stuff is out there…#20 is DONE!!!

And so am I.

Brett.

P.S. Watch out for this guy.

If you liked this post, why not donate and save some poor suckers from my con game learning wrath?

Don’t let me stop you.