Amtrekker

Hey Team,

Just a quick heads up. The podcast will be coming out on Friday this week thanks to all the intense madness that Good Morning America has rained down on the head of this one-man band. But it should be a good one.

In other news the live Internet Superstar and Diggnation is tonight at Mighty in San Francisco (119 Utah Street). I’ll be there. I think I’m even one of the guests on Internet Superstar…I was distracted by free ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s free cone day when I got the phone call so maybe I’m just making that up. Come out and we’ll find out together!

I’m done.

Brett.






If you can’t come out tonight maybe I have another way for you to show your support…

Don’t let me stop you.

Hey Team,

It looks like I survived another airline adventure. Narrowly dodging a grizzly fate and three-dollar Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

My “day” actually started in Boston about three days ago but you kids have already heard some of that so we’ll just skip ahead:

I was waiting for the bus to LaGuardia on a street corner in Queens with a couple from Canada. The world seemed a little more colorful than I’m used to but I’m not sure if that was because I had such a great four days or I was just hallucinating still. If I were going to be honest with the world and myself I’d probably assume the latter.

I was running kind of late (old story) and I was even really sure that the bus would get me there in time. Then a town car pulled up and asked the couple if they wanted a ride to the airport for twelve bucks. As they were debating I spoke up, “I’ll split the fare with you guys if you want.”

It was only after we dove in that I found out they were in town from Canada to see the Braves game and since I was still covered in makeup I told them about the Canada AM thing. One thing led to another and these amazing people not only paid the entire fair but even gave me the last few dollars of American money they happened to be holding. How can you not love people when these are the kinds of things you run into everyday?

As it turned out I didn’t need to be in much of a hurry and instead spent the next two hours sitting around waiting for my delayed flight. Not a huge problem. I had Charley to keep me company but as the delay dragged on I realized there was no way I was going to make my connection in Denver.

Once I realized that would mean that after two FULL days without sleep I was going to be trapped in an airport for NINE hours waiting for the next flight to SF I got a little downhearted. But thanks to the magic of the “interwebs” and Twitter in particular when I got to Denver Lauren (casuallydrowned) came to my rescue! All of a sudden I had a nice soft couch to be unconscious on, just outside of Denver! Amazing!

I did, however, manage to wake up to a dislocated shoulder thanks to some poorly thought out stretching on my part. It hurts like no other and means my shoulder will be throbbing for the next twelve hours but it happens often enough that it wasn’t too big of a problem to deal with and it’s a MUCH quicker alternative to coffee.

And now I’m back in the “first place state” safe and sound and looking forward to tomorrow night’s live Internet Superstar and Diggnation and all the Amtrekker hoopla the next week or so should bring. Kiteboarding and sailing…maybe a surprise or two!

Okay, that bring everyone up to date and now I can leave the airport because…

I’m done.

Ooops, wait. One more thing. Someone posted the video of the Good Morning America interview here.

NOW, I’m done.

Brett.

If you want to help out you know where to click!

Don’t let me stop you.

Hey Team,

As if my life hasn’t been surreal enough for the last ten months things have just been getting progressively weirder. Here’s a fun fact: Since Friday in only four days four different Amtrekker interviews will be aired nationally a total of eleven times! How crazy is that?

Made crazier by the thought that nothing else has really changed. I still managed to find myself sitting up in a donut shop in New York because I was too dumb to arrange for a place to stay here before jumping on the bus in Boston at 11:30pm. So suddenly I found myself in Chinatown on Manhattan at 3:15 in the morning with no idea how I was supposed to fill the seven and a half hours before my next interview and no hope sleeping in that intervening time.

On the upside I’ve finally gotten around to reading all of the email I’ve received over the last week. AND, not only that but I even responded to at LEAST four pieces. That’s almost one WHOLE percent! Way to go me!

At 10:40 am today (Monday) all you Canadians will be able to see the Amtrekker interview happen live on CTV’s Canada AM. I can’t guarantee I will be coherent…but I will be there, so you should check it out too! I would have given everyone more warning but it was another spur of the moment thing where the time and place (I’ll be in one of CNN’s NY studios) wasn’t even set until earlier today. (Sunday, needless to say days kind of bleed together sometimes.)

After the interview I’ll either hope for a rideshare south so I can do some geocaching or I’ll just hop on a buddy pass provided flight to San Francisco to get thing moving over there.

I’m done.

Wish me luck.

Brett.

If you want to help out you know where to click!

Don’t let me stop you.

Hey Team,

I had to wake up at the crack of dawn yesterday for the Good Morning America interview. I know when I say crack of dawn I usually MEAN noonish…but this time the sun wasn’t even up when I was.

I also have to say that at that point (in light of the craziness from the day before) I was still kind of in denial about whether or not it was really happening. Even when the car pulled up I was thinking to myself, “Are my friends big enough douche bags to be willing to rent a car and driver just to make me look like an idiot?”

This way of thinking was compounded when I got to the studio in Times Square and my name wasn’t on the list for security. I got to stand around wearing my backpack and a stupid grin while people ran around trying to find someone that had heard of me.

Finally:

“Is this where you’re supposed to be?”

“I really have no idea. This is just where the car dropped me off.”

“OOOHHHH! You’re one of the guests! This way.”

I was led upstairs to the greenroom (right next door to Mariah Carey’s dressing room) and told to set down my stuff and they’d get me over to hair and makeup in a few minutes. (I tried to explain that I wasn’t a girl…they didn’t laugh.)

“Would you like a beverage Mr. Rounsaville?”

“Um…do you have orange juice?”

Of course they did but before I even had time to enjoy more than a couple sips they whisked me off to “hair and makeup” and told me to leave it behind.

“Right this way Mr. Rounsaville.”

“Um…I don’t know how this works but would you mind just calling me Brett?”

The hair lady seemed to be pretty happy that I was planning on keeping my hat on so it was just a quick powder to the face before I got to go back to my orange juice…which was promptly taken away from me as I was led out to the set…

And offered a beverage.

“Do you have orange juice?”

The blue mug it came in said “Good Morning America” across the front and for some reason that’s one of the few memories that still sticks out. Everything else that happened for the next few minutes was so ridiculously surreal and amazing that I’m still having a hard time processing it. I had to watch the actual segment earlier today otherwise I wouldn’t have a clue what I had said.

I DO know that I spoke to Donald freakin’ Trump (not his real middle name) over the phone and that I am one step closer to home!!! (I’m trying to get a hold of a copy of the segment that I can link to for anyone that hasn’t seen it. I wasn’t able to film anything while I was there so it won’t make it into a podcast.)

After we shot for the show I was hustled off to another location in the building where I did my first ever radio interview. It was for the Good Morning America radio program on XM Satellite Radio and I remember that portion a little more clearly. I was definitely talked to about how the radio host couldn’t believe how polite I was to “The Donald” and I definitely expounded on how petrified I am of feathered dinosaurs.

Back to the greenroom where I met Linda (not Laura as some careless travelers would have you believe), Frank and Suneet who would later be mistake for my parents and my bodyguard! They were all super nice and were there as guests of one of the producers to check out the Mariah Carey performance. And as fun as that was I think the highlight of my day actually came as I was trying to leave the studio.

A huge crowd had formed outside the doors thanks to everyone’s favorite glitter encrusted diva and I had to get to “my car.” So, despite the fact that I’m basically a homeless bum with a firm grasp of technology one of the security guards pushed his way through the crowd ahead of me saying, “Your car is this way, sir.” As the throng of bored people stared at me trying to figure out why I was important.

We got to the car where the driver was holding the door for me and I jumped in; cue more interested but ultimately confused looks. And as we were driving away some guy with a press pass looked into the window and shouted, “How you doing, Brett?”

“Great!!!”

“Nice job today!”

“Thanks.”

And then “my driver” drove “my car” to the nearest Chinatown bus where I dropped fifteen bucks to sit uncomfortably wedged in a seat for the four-hour trip up to Boston. Back to being another average vagrant!

So…here it is!

I’m done.

Brett.

If you want to help out you know where to click!

Don’t let me stop you.

Hey Team!

Holy Geez! Twelve hours later and my mind is still going a million miles a minute. I couldn’t even remember most of what I said on Good Morning America today. It was a total out of body experience. However, I finally got a chance to watch the final product a few minutes ago and everything makes a little more sense now.

But where do I start?! The story about how I came to be on GMA is every bit as surreal as actually being interview by Robin Robertson!

I was in the subway with Justin (who I had just met outside the internet for the first time) and his wife. Obviously I had no cell reception. And it was coming up on six o’clock.

The three of us walk up the stairs for their first look at Times Square and predictably I start walking us in the wrong direction…a situation made worse by the sudden incessant ringing of my telephone.

I looked down and realized that I had accrued three text messages and two voicemails in the short time I had been underground. All three texts were from my little sister. Here are the actual texts in the order I read them:

5:44
“Oh Oh! Call me call me!!”

Geez, she always says that and then I end up helping her with her math homework.

5:48
“Seriously like NOW ASAP someone very very important is trying to get ahold of you”

That’s weird. If it’s that important why don’t they just call me themselves?

5:49
“Diane Sawyer wants to interview you tomorrow morning…”

WHAT?!?!

Apparently, the folks over at ABC News had seen another interview I had done and said, “Let’s get that kid on as soon as we can.” Followed closely by, “Oh man, he’s in New York RIGHT NOW!”

So after some private eyeing they came up with my Great Aunt’s phone number. Which led them to my Mom’s work number…where my sister happens to handle the admin and answering phones.

The next six hours were spent on the phone with various producers and writers while trying to balance seeing all the Team Amtrekker folk in NY I had wanted to see. (Ace, the intern that hooked me up with the Colbert Report. Abbey, the Six Flags HR rep that originally told me I only had two days to make it Kingda Ka last October. And Alek the awesome dude that set me up with hang gliding!) Followed closely by me frantically trying to fix any existing bugs on the site and updating any details I had been skipping not to mention a couple urgent phone calls to GoDaddy to make sure I had enough bandwidth to handle all the new visitors.

Bottom line: I got to bed at 3am. The alarm went off at five. And the GMA car picked me up at 5:45. I’ve had exactly two hours of sleep to prepare me for what has easily been the strangest most exciting day of my life to date…

And sadly for you that means I have to take a nap before I write about all the actual GMA hoopla including the chat with Mr. The Donald himself! (That’ll be up tomorrow!)

I’m done.

Brett.

If you’re looking to help out with the vicarious adventure of a lifetime then boy, do I have a button for you!

It’s just so cute…you KNOW it wants to be clicked.

Hey Team,

Before I dive into the Colbert Report adventure I have some exciting news! Here’s an except from an email I got last night:

“I wanted to write and tell you that the team here at “News to Me” have selected a few of our favorite stories from the past year to include in our anniversary show which is coming up in a few weeks. Yours is one of our faves! We want to leave it up to the viewers though to determine which was THEIR favorite of the year so we’ve set up a vote on our website http://www.cnn.com/newstome.”

So, you guys know what you have to do. Go to their website. Find the poll on the right hand side. And vote for Amtrekker!

Also, apparently the segment is re-airing this weekend also!

Thanks guys, you rock.

Okay. The Colbert Report. Done. Thanks to Ace I got hooked up with a VIP ticket to last nights show where the guest was author, Mitch Albom.

Turns out Stephen Colbert is even funnier live! I had a great time and before the taping Colbert came out and did a quick Q&A with the audience that was out of character so that was pretty cool to see.

I’ve seen a couple live tapings of various shows before so when people are always saying, “The set is SO SMALL!” I’d usually agree. But Colbert’s set was surprisingly quite a bit bigger than I expected it to be.

All this AWESOMENESS aside: Security took my cameras away the second I set foot in the building. So…

1. I’m not sure what I’m going to do for next week’s podcast.

But more importantly:

2. What is Colbert hiding! What doesn’t he want me to show to America!!!

Is he afraid I’ll expose John Stewart putting on his Stephen Colbert mask? (Yep, stole that line from satori.) Is he protecting his extraordinarily hairy not so ironically bigfooted intern? Do aliens do all of his writing for him?!?!

The world wants to know.

And so do I.

I’m done.

Brett.

As long as you guys are going around pushing buttons I ask you to…you might as well push that little yellow one down there too!

Don’t let me stop you.