Archive for June, 2008
#29 Drive a Race Car!
Jun 29th
Hey Team,
What an incredible day I just had the opportunity to live through! Made even more incredible by the four days of hell preceding it. So in true Amtrekker fashion I’m going to go ahead and pretend all of the bad stuff involving trying to get where I am now didn’t happen and we’ll just focus on all the awesome.
Huron, SD is amazing. And they seem to love Amtrekkers.
When it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to make it to Huron in time for a practice session Friday night Karl (the guy that got the ball rolling on this little adventure) drove three hours each way to come pick me up in Willmar, MN (Which the residents will have you know is pronounced wilmer, one syllable. Not will-mar…like it’s spelled.) and MADE SURE I got where I needed to be to get familiar with the car I was supposed to drive.
After we pulled into the fairgrounds where the raceway is located we were quickly surrounded by a small audience mostly made up of people associated with the racing team that was allowing me to borrow their car. Mike owned the car and Michael, his son, is the regular More >
Greenie Green?!
Jun 27th
Hey Team,
Here’s a quick story since I still haven’t been in one place near an outlet long enough to compress this week’s video.
I jumped off the bus at about five o’clock this morning in Chicago several shades shy of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and decided to meet up with a friend for breakfast before making my next move towards Huron, South Dakota.
Since I had about an hour and a half to kill before Julianne would be up for work I thought, “Why bother taking the metro when I can just walk and explore a piece of the city I’ve never been.” After scoping a map near a metro stop I accosted the nearest security guard for directions to Halsted Street. He seemed really hesitant to tell me where it was and kept asking me for the address I was trying to get to but finally gave in.
After walking for about an hour I finally started to think I might know where I was. Which coincidentally is nearly the exact same moment a toothless man in dirty clothes walked up to me and said, “Do you know where you are?”
“Yeah, this is Halsted St!” If you know me at all you know More >
Toxic Stupidity Spill
Jun 25th
Hey Team,
Here’s a super quick update so I can go jump on a bus real quick and go try to clean up the stupidity spill I caused this morning. (Which, once again, wouldn’t be a problem if I were capable of planning ahead more than half a step. But that’s what makes me so endearing, right? Right? Arrgh.)
Had I looked into the actual logistics of what my head thought sounded like a perfect plan for this week I would have discovered that there is only one bus a day that heads toward the great (I assume) state of South Dakota. And it leaves at 11pm. From New York. Arriving almost two days later.
So suddenly I found myself under a ridiculous time crunch that would either prevent me from driving a race car in South Dakota or going through a coal mine in Pennsylvania. Luckily the coal mine isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But several people have already put in the legwork to ensure that the race car adventure happens this Friday. (Which means I assured everyone I’d be there by Thursday. Which is officially impossible unless I can stir up a ride somewhere from the Chicago area. It’s not detrimental More >
Pseudo-sport Olympics
Jun 23rd
Hey Team,
I’m sorry so many of you out there couldn’t partake in the 1st Annual Pseudo-sports Olympics…because yesterday was AWESOME!
The Olympics are a testament to the competition and sportsmanship inherent in the human spirit. A grand event dedicated to the best in us and an opportunity for us all to vicariously experience greatness.
The PSEUDO-SPORT Olympics are more like thirty people running around in a park all day playing games they haven’t played since elementary school. In short it’s a grand event dedicated to the fun we all forget to keep having when we all “grow up.”
It started with a five-inning game of kickball that (let’s be honest) wouldn’t have been kickball without the occasional bloody toe or unexpected blow to the head while running down the baseline. There was even plenty of screaming about what constitutes “baby bouncies” and how wide the imaginary bases were. It was like none of us had ever grown up (that was supposed to sound more positive and less pathetic than I think it came out).
Also, blue team won that round. No big deal…but I feel that should be pointed out.
Next up was horseshoes and badminton which were both awesome but tougher to organize teams More >
A Stitch in Time Saves Nine
Jun 21st
Hey Team,
Some will say, “I didn’t want to know that?”
Most will say, “Why are you tell this to the world?”
My answer to both? “It’s too funny not to pass along.”
Those of you that follow my twitter feed already know a portion of the story but that doesn’t mean you have all the gory (read: ridiculous) details.
You all know I only travel with one pair of shorts and one pair of pants so you can imagine how disturbed I was when I ripped a hole in the crotch of my shorts on one of my Greyhound long hauls the other day. But I’m less positive you all truly understand how cheap I can be. Despite the threadbare status of these shorts I was determined than I could fix them myself. (It wouldn’t be pretty but it would be serviceable until the next hole cropped up.)
So, when I found myself in North Carolina last night with a needle and thread that just happened to do a really good of matching my shorts sitting next to me I knew what had to be done.
Unfortunately, I was still wearing the aforementioned ripped shorts and through sheer force of laziness decided it wasn’t worth it More >
#16 Learn to Sail! [podcast]
Jun 18th
Hey Team,
Here it is! After acting like a sick little sissy for a week I finally managed to finish up the sailing podcast! Enjoy!
“Amtrekker travels to New York City of all places to learn to sail in the Hudson River courtesy of the Atlantic Yachting Association! In two short days he manages to break sailing and earn his keel boat certification!
“Heaving to”ensues.”
Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player. var WT1_1 = { params : { wmode : "opaque", allowscriptaccess : "always", allownetworking : "all", allowfullscreen : "true"}, flashvars : { file : "http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amtrekker.com%2Findex.php%3Fxspf%3Dtrue%26id%3D10", volume : "80", bufferlength : "5", controlbar : "over", 'logo.hide' : "false", shuffle : "false", playlist : "bottom"}, attr : { id : "WT1", name : "WT1"}, start : function() { swfobject.embedSWF("http://www.amtrekker.com/wp-content/uploads/player.swf", "WT1_1", "437", "522", "9.0.0", false, this.flashvars, this.params , this.attr ); } } WT1_1.start();And here’s the YouTube link!
Thanks, Team!
I’m done.
Brett.
If you enjoy the podcasts…why not donate?
Don’t let me stop you.
AKPC_IDS += "325,";
Kiteboarding!
Jun 16th
Hey Team,
I may not be at 100% just yet as I continue to recover from that wicked cold/flu/cholera from last week but that didn’t stop me from getting dragged face first through the Atlantic Ocean today!
I’m back in Charleston, SC where I met up with Chris, who it turns out isn’t just a better than average kiteboarder, he’s also a terrific instructor with an ample supply of kites.
We hit the beach around 4:30 in the evening and got started with a trainer kite (MUCH smaller and less complicated than the kites you actually strap to yourself). Even with such a “small” kite it was pretty clear that I had underestimated how much power they have. Kites that size have no conscience when it comes to dragging you around and letting you know who’s boss. Regardless, I managed to catch on to steering the trainer pretty quickly so Chris decided to move me up to his large kite.
Here’s the interesting thing about the large kite. If the little one had so little respect for people that it wouldn’t even help a little old lady across the street then the big kite would have happily pushed that same little old lady into More >
I’ve Made a Huge Mistake?
Jun 13th
Hey Team,
So about that potential mistake I may or may not have made…
I spent just about everything I had left today on a sixty day pass that will take me everywhere I need to go for the next two months. The down side? 1) It’s on Greyhound and 2) I still have to survive.
But, this should take most of the pressure off of finding transportation and in the long run will probably save a little cash. Not only that but you guys would be sick if you knew how much time I spent trying to arrange transportation to and from various cities in the first place (which by the way I’m working on a way to show you guys just how much time I waste on certain tasks thanks to some friends over at Tsheets.com).
Nowhere has that been a bigger problem in the past than in the Midwest. It’s relatively easy to catch rideshares on craigslist from one major city to another, so the coasts don’t pose too much of a threat, but things are so spread out in Middle America that I routinely found myself trapped places for longer than I would have liked. AND, since most of what’s left More >