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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Wow! It finally happened. For the last week and a half the awesome team over at CNN’s News To Me has been scrambling to try to put me, a horse and a covered bridge together at the same point in time and space. I can’t tell you how many calls I got from the Associate Producer, Grayson, that went something like this:

“Brett, that horse contact fell through but I think we might have another one…maybe.”

“Brett, there’s no way that bridge is going to work. It looks like we’re back to square one.”

“Brett, the other bridge I wanted to use is under construction right now…”

Meanwhile I was trying to get in touch with everyone I know in the Atlanta area in the hopes that someone could help out while watching the days on the calendar tick away. And yet, after almost a year and a half of similar situations working out time and again, even with the deadline of the Amtrekker party looming, I kind of felt like Geoffrey Rush’s character in Shakespeare in Love.

“Brett, I’m so sorry this isn’t working out. I feel terrible for getting you all the way out here and not being able to get you on a horse. How worried should I be? What happens if we can’t make this work?”

“Don’t worry about it, man. It will all work out. I trust you.”

How? I don’t know. It’s a mystery.

Final, yesterday, I found myself standing next to a creek down the road from a BEAUTIFUL covered bridge. It was only five minutes before Betty Ann was supposed to meet us with her horse and things were STILL up in the air. Would she be able to get the horse trailer to the location? Would the horse tolerate all the traffic? Would it walk through a covered bridge? (Something I never considered but have been told repeatedly in the last year is that horses strongly dislike walking through low covered spaces.)

Then Betty Ann showed up with her daughter, Ginger, and Ginger’s Appaloosa, Danket a.k.a. the sweetest horse ever (and possibly most disproportionate).

Grayson and Betty Ann blocked traffic on either side of the one lane bridge while I hopped up on Danket and Ginger helped lead him through the bridge while Chase (another member of Team Amtrekker that I met almost a year ago when I hitchhiked to his house) filmed the goings on.

I opted out of wearing the flaming pumpkin on my head and threatening passersby a la The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (the inspiration behind this item making the list in the first place) figuring the last thing I need to do at this point was complicate matters further and scare Danket.

Betty Ann, Ginger, Grayson and Chase were all awesome out there and I love seeing people come together to make something like this happen. Especially when it’s so clear that everyone is enjoying the adventure. It’s really the backbone of why this trip was possible (and I never really knew for sure that it was) but it’s an important lesson to learn and I’ll toss out a few theories after this adventure officially closes.

I’ve learned a LOT about people in the last 476 days and I can’t wait to share it with everyone.

Thanks SO MUCH everyone. See you Saturday!!!

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 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!

I was on a morning show called The Daily Buzz this morning! They gave me a call a couple days ago from a San Diego number but I didn’t have my phone on me. When they called again yesterday I couldn’t answer because I was in an attraction at EPCOT. Eventually I called back, apologizing for remaining in “O’Canada!,” when they called…

“What?! You’re in town!”

“No, I’m in Orlando. Wait…what do you mean?”

Turns out The Daily Buzz tapes right her in “The Sunshine State!”

I even got to help host the weather!

Here’s the link: http://www.amtrekker.com/wp-content/uploads/amtrekker.mov

In other news: I won’t be riding the horse through the covered bridge in Atlanta until Tuesday so it’s going to be a mad dash across the country to get to Amtrekkapalooza in time!

AND, there are a few people that were a big part of this adventure that would love to make it to the big finish on October 25th but have limited funds so if anyone has any connections with airlines that can maybe get a few of these folks some cheap standby tickets let me know!

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 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!

Guess who went SCUBA diving in the Atlantic…

Hmm…this is a dumb game. I can’t even hear you.

Oh well. The answer: ME!

After heading down to Sebring, FL with The Getaway Girl and meeting her family (Who, I’m told, were pretty leery of homeless folk crashing their lodgings…until they met me.) we borrowed her dad’s SCUBA gear and shot east to Fort Pierce.

The easiest option was to dive from shore so after lying on the beach for a while trying figure out how I wanted to shoot the madness I handed the camera off to GG and started to suit up. It was a nice change from the Pacific Ocean in that stepping in the water didn’t instantly make me cringe and scream like a little girl from temperature shock. I didn’t even have to wear a wetsuit, which was kind of a novelty for me.

Eventually I managed to get my gear on (including flippers) without falling down and high step into the waves like an idiot with the entire coastline watching the one guy in SCUBA gear wondering why he’s planning on diving in murky water with a lobster basket tied to him when there have been Bull Shark sightings all week.

Well, duh. Because he’s an Amtrekker.

The water was super cloudy and visibility was down to a few feet but the water felt incredible and it was such a beautiful day that it didn’t matter that much. I caught sight of a couple small fish, a drainage pipe and (just in time to have the surge throw me into them) rocks.

I came out of the water satisfied, dry mouthed and bleeding with a smile on my face at the thought that I’m literally, after almost a year and a half of the most time consuming “work” I’ve ever had to do, only ONE single, solitary item away from my first opportunity to see home again!

I am SO stoked people! Party’s at my place. October 25th. Clovis, CA. Be there.

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 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!

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!