Amtrekker

Hey Team,

It was looking pretty dicey for a while there. I showed up in West Palm Beach without any kind of plan and with no place to stay. What was I thinking? Excellent question. If I come up with an excellent answer I’ll let you know.

Regardless, a couch surfer swooped in at crunch-time and saved me from trying to find a nice soft spot on the ground to sleep on. Thanks, Rusty.

Now I’m in the middle of learning a very important lesson. I’ve been amazed over and over again how generous people have been on this trip. They hear my story and they leap forward to help in any way they can. It’s no secret I’ve been consistently floored by the kindness of strangers. That being said, I’ve been hung up on six times already today (but only three of them were the super impolite kind).

It seems people aren’t nearly as inclined to help if:

1. I don’t speak to them in person

2. The meeting isn’t a chance encounter

3. It’s not their idea to help

So, I seem to have wasted the better part of my day calling up dive shops and offering my help doing grunge work and my less than impressive writing skills/PR in exchange for some help crossing #28 off the list. Lesson learned.

I emailed a handful of dive clubs that impressed me with their online presence but if nothing comes of that then I’m pretty much at the end of my rope in West Palm Beach and I’ll just have to move on to greener pastures tomorrow morning. (How I manage SCUBA diving in a green pasture will be interesting to see…I would think achieving neutral buoyancy in a meadow would be tough.)

All right, wish me luck.

I’m done.

Brett.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the kindness of strangers:

Why NOT be a kind stranger?

Hey Team,

Here’s a quick look at a day in the life of the Amtrekker. Specifically yesterday. In Raleigh. I hate Raleigh.

As always, if that doesn’t work…here’s the youtube link.

I’m done.

Brett.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the kindness of strangers:

Why NOT be a kind stranger?

Hey Team,

This may be the most indecisive I’ve been so far on this trip. I’m en route but still haven’t decided exactly where I’m en route too. I’m sitting on a bench in Greensboro, NC right now. At 9:21am I board a train for Raleigh and I have a ticket that leaves for Orlando later tonight.

Mostly I’m indecisive because I would like to go diving in the Atlantic this week but I already know I have to be in Florida the 18th-21st for Biketoberfest, (Which I’m totally stoked about. I love being places where everyone has something in common and they’re nothing like me. It such a great way to absorb a lot of information quickly.) so it wouldn’t make for a very efficient trip…but then again who said this trip has anything to do with efficiency.

And I just bought another rail pass yesterday so despite the fact that I’m dangerously close to broke at least I don’t have to worry about any travel expenses for the next month, so getting to and from Florida wont be a problem on that end.

I’m completely exhausted right now after only catching a couple hours of sleep on the train–

Hey! Maybe you can’t relate, but what the crap is up with conductors who try to do assigned seating on the train?! One stop after I got on, despite an almost empty car, the conductor asked me to move my stuff and made some lady sit next to me. Which normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but if all you want to do is spread out and sleep and you can see pairs of empty seats from where you’re sitting it’s kind of aggravating. And not in a “the grass is always greener sort of way.” More like an “are you freakin’ kidding me?” sort of way.

“Hey, do you mind if I head over to one of those pairs of empty seats so I can spread out and take a nap?”

“I’m afraid not sir, we’re going to have a lot of people aboard tonight and we’re going to need all the seats.”

Three hours later, after repeatedly trying (and failing) to speak Spanish to the lady next to me (who spoke less English than I do Spanish, so at least I was entertained) pairs of seats were still open! Eventually my neighbor got tired of my second-rate Spanish and dove into one of the empty spots across the way.

Four hours later I woke up at my stop curled in a ball taking up two seats and looked over to see my ex-neighbor doing the same…so obviously these mystery people who were supposed to take up the whole train weren’t getting on until after I left! So why…arrgh! I’m tired. You can follow the rant to its logical conclusion.

I’m done.

Brett.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the kindness of strangers:

Why NOT be a kind stranger?

Hey Team,

Here’s that new podcast I’ve been promising. I’m trying something a little different this time so I can keep track of the stats a little easier. It should load on its own. Play button should be in the bottom left. But you might need quicktime, so if it doesn’t load on its own click here to download the latest version.

Also, the podcast is available on iTunes now so you should probably drop whatever you’re doing and go subscribe right away.

And if all else fails here’s the link for the youtube version of the podcast.

Thanks a ton for all the support, everyone! Let me know what you think of the video!

I’m done.

Brett!

Hey Team,

The last couple days have been a whirlwind of southern hospitality, baseball and inner tubes. Since being in Georgia for the first time ever I’ve already had peach cobbler with dinner twice (both made with California peaches), seen a Braves game and tubed down the Chattahooche River (Yep! Number one is a goner!).

An itinerary?!

I even got to try “sweet tea” for the first time. And let me just say, they need a better name for that stuff. Maybe ” sugar water” or “diabetes tea.” It tastes like the sugar took the tea out back and hit it over the head with a baseball bat before leaving it for dead.

Apparently I made some sort of face when I tasted it and my host, Robin, asked me if the sweet tea was too sweet, “Do you want to add some water to it?”

I thought to myself the whole point of sweet tea is that it’s sweet, right? It’s cheating to change the experience. That’s like a Spanish butcher asking if the bull testicles are too testicle-y and offering you a meatball instead.

The Braves game was intense, not nearly as intimate as Fenway but a totally different experience anyway. It was “fan appreciation day” and the Braves pulled out a late inning victory that sent the crowd into a tomahawk chopping frenzy. Definitely a fun way to spend the day.

And finally there was TUBING DOWN A RIVER! It was a strange change of pace after the way most of this trip has been, especially after hang gliding. In fact it was probably one of the most relaxing experiences I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, with my limited attention span and inability to sit still for longer than it takes to microwave a cup-o-noodle, the two and a half hour trip was a little longer than it needed to be.

But I still have some cool video for the tubing trip that will make an appearance in a few days. AND the hang gliding video is up on iTunes! Check it out!

I’m done.

Brett.







Welcome to the wonderful world of the kindness of strangers:

Why NOT be a kind stranger?

Hey Team,

I never realized how much I appreciated rail travel until JUST now. The train I had planned on taking down to Atlanta today was sold out, and so here I am sitting on a bus waffling between emotions as far ranging as frustrated-beyond-belief and bored-out-of-my-mind (and uncomfortable…is uncomfortable an emotion?).

So far I’ve returned all my calls, replied to the most pressing emails and beaten my already impressive high score on the brick game that came preloaded on my cell phone.

It’s been 45 minutes.

Only 19 hours and 15 minutes to go.

The most irritating aspect (besides having to sit still in a severely undersized seat for 20 straight hours) is the complete lack of electrical outlets! Come on people, this is the 21st century, get it together!

So now, not only am I missing out on the 20 hours of quality video editing time I thought I’d be getting in my cozy train seat with its convenient 120v outlet but I find myself wedged between two ridiculously narrow arm rests hunched over my notebook writing this article with a pen (a PEN!) so as not to waste what precious little power Charley has stored up in his well designed battery.

(Obviously, by this point, I’ve either copied this over to Charley or you’re the creepy guy sitting right next to me trying to decipher my terrible, underused handwriting.)

However, this weekend I get to go tubing down the Chattahoochee River(!) so it’s hard to be upset for long (not that I’ve ever been that good at being pissed off). Plus there’s lots of exciting stuff going on with the site and I can’t wait to get a couple more videos up now that iTunes is doing its thing!

Okay Team, I better get back to twiddling my thumbs. Only 19 more hours to go.

I’m done.

Brett.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the kindness of strangers:

Why NOT be a kind stranger?