Amtrekker

Hey Team,

Yep. Still behind on videos. But here’s your early Christmas present, and furthermore, you have my solemn word that the next video will be there for you by Christmas morning so you can sit down next to your nice warm coal fueled fire and see what I’ve been up to in my never-ending travels.

That being said here’s a little video in which Amtrekker visits the great mud pit that is the Arkansas Crater of Diamonds State Park and spends the day looking for diamonds, talking to strangers and talking to himself…a lot.

Searching ensues.

And here’s that ever present youtube link!

Okay, Team…

I’m done.

Brett.

If you liked the video and want to make up for my lack of diamond finding then feel free to…

Don’t let me stop you.

Hey Team,

I’ve been stuck in the middle of nowhere without a signal for the last several days now, hence no updates. Lucky for you, now I’m stuck in the middle of somewhere. (Still stuck…but now I have a signal.)

Okay, on to the good stuff! Say goodbye to number 35 and hello to fame and fortune! (Minus both notoriety and wealth…don’t ask how that works.) But the important thing is that I spent the day exploring the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas (a.k.a. the giant mud pit). It was definitely lacking in “the pretty” that I’ve become accustomed to seeing in other state parks but I suppose it made up for that in the “potential to make you ridiculously wealthy” department.

In fact I found, amongst other treasures, a piece of polished glass, some quartz, mica, a piece of a shovel, two rusted nails and a chewed piece of gum! Not bad for a couple hours of scouring.

Treasure aside, the highlight of the day was meeting the regulars. One man I talked to, Denis, found a diamond EVERY SINGLE DAY during the month of October. Of course he has a pretty intricate set-up that he has built on a plot of land he rents from the state.

Two days ago he spent the entire day working the soil in the same hole to no avail. THEN, on the walk out of the park he stumbled across the biggest diamond he’s found to date! Weighing in at 3.48 carats it was just sitting there on the top of the soil after a heavy rain.

But since I walked away with nothing more impressive than some cool footage it seems that my fabled good luck isn’t capable of producing diamonds. I guess all it’s good for is keeping me alive despite the stupid situations I put myself into…but I guess that’s something.

In other news: The hitchhiking podcast is done but the “middle of somewhere” connection still isn’t fast enough to upload so you may have to wait another day or two for that one. I’ll try to fast track the Crater of Diamonds video to make up for this weeks lag in news. But for now…#35 is DONE! KA-KOW!

And so am I.

Brett.

If you liked this story you can make up for my lack of diamond finding and…

‘Tis the season to build karma.

Hey Team,

I’m staying in a little town outside Little Rock, Arkansas called Bald Knob (no…seriously) tonight with a friend of my grandparents, Jim.

Jim totally came to my rescue today after a near hellish trek just trying to get to Arkansas. (It was ALMOST as bad as when I was frantically trying to get to Vancouver to trespass in a closed hedge maze.)

After yesterday’s aforementioned miserable failure of a hitchhiking attempt I went back to Nashville and hung out with my new friends there for a couple more hours before getting dropped off at the bus station around 2am to catch the 3:15 bus…which left at 6:30.

I fell asleep shortly after getting on the bus at 3:15 and before the bus even had time to leave the station I woke up drenched in sweat to the sound of the bus driver’s PA announcement about the broken air conditioning preventing us from leaving on time.

“Everyone please get off the bus and head back into the station while we get this checked out.”

Almost three and a half hours later (it felt like less, I was curled up in a little ball on the floor using my backpack full of technology as a pillow) we were finally on the road and sadly, for you guys, I have no exciting pedophile’s under arrest stories. Everyone was exhausted at this point so it was just a series of fitful naps in tiny seats for everyone aboard.

Now, like I said, I’m sitting in a comfy bed in Bald Knob (*snicker), falling asleep on Charley and trying to wrap up this tale so I can just let the unconsciousness take over.

Goodnight.

Brett.