The Totally Rad Experience
Dec 19th
Hey Team,
Being back in California almost feels like cheating. No, I’m still not going home until everything is crossed off the list (which is reeking havoc on my family’s holiday plans) but I feel so comfortable here that sometimes I wonder what home really means. (Pretty deep, I know. We better save that particular pondering for a day in the near future when I have a little more time to write.)
California or not I’ve still been spending my time riding couches and yesterday I spent the entire day watching the Totally Rad Show guys do their thing. It was interesting to watch people fighting with some of the same problems I run into pretty regularly (and handling them better than I do). Putting out free entertainment to the masses is no easy job and these guys have a much better system in place than I do. I have to admit, I was a little jealous.
Even though they felt the need to constantly point out how low budget they are it must be nice to not have to carry your entire production in a backpack. (I wonder what I’m going to do when this trip is over?) Regardless, they do an awesome More >
Y’all Come Back Now…
Dec 18th
Hey Team,
Wow…rough travel week.
Just when I thought I had recovered from that 43-hour marathon of suck, I end up in a westbound car for a solid 22 straight hours of travel time. As a result y’all (Texas hasn’t worn off yet.) are just going to have to stop being all snooty about this weeks sporadic updates.
And since we’re on the subject of updates…here’s the important bit.
The Alamo Drafthouse is god’s gift to movie going debauchery. (And by debauchery I mostly mean pizza and drinks.)
And even cooler than being served food and drinks inside a plush movie theater with a full service wait staff is the fact that the Drafthouse doesn’t just waste its time on the newest trashiest excuse for cultural entertainment…they also spend some time on old trashy cultural entertainment.
The day before I left Austin (I wish I could tell you what day that was but everything kind of bleeds together when you live 40 hour days.) I went to a midnight showing of Home Alone to cross number 46 off my list!
Now, this was no average showing of Home Alone. This was what the Drafthouse folks call the Master Pancake Theater showing of Home Alone. For those of More >
Out of Texas -N- In to a Burger.
Dec 16th
Hey Team,
I just have a couple minutes to give you a quick update. I’m about 10 minutes away from jumping into a rideshare found via craigslist.org that’s headed towards my beloved California so my family doesn’t have to drive so far to see me for Christmas. Charley’s battery is just about dead so for the next NINETEEN HOURS of drive-time I may not be able to update…but the salient facts are these.
1. I am SO not looking forward to being in a car for that long.
2. I’m headed towards Southern California so all you SoCal fans better start lining up the pre-Christmas fun!
3. Someone, Somewhere, better have an In-N-Out burger waiting for me.
Peace out, kids. Catch you on the west side.
I’m done.
Brett.
AKPC_IDS += "146,";
#15 Hitchhiking! [podcast (finally!)]
Dec 13th
Hey Team,
Here it is! No more waiting! No more angry emails! No more middle of nowhere! Just 10 minutes and 37 seconds of entertainment!
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%3D33", 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 the obligatory you tube link is right here.
That’s it. No more words! I’m done.
Brett.
Okay a couple more words…
AKPC_IDS += "145,";
Escape from Arkadelphia (updated with pictures!)
Dec 13th
Hey Team,
Here’s an adventure story for you. And since it largely happened on the 12th it’s completely expected. (I wont go into why my aversion to the number 12 is literally the ONLY superstition I hold onto. Suffice it to say multiple broken bones are involved.)
After the Crater of Diamonds experience I had Jim drop me off by the side of the road in a town called Arkadelphia (you can’t make these names up) figuring I could catch a ride to Texas or grab a bus. Unfortunately, I quickly learned there was no such thing as buses in Arkadelphia, or trains…or people willing to offer a personable guy a ride.
Five hours later my “TEXAS PLEASE” sign had elicited no rides but it was such a beautiful day I really didn’t mind. In fact I even got a message from Chase in Nashville asking how things were going to which I said, “I’m stuck again but at least it’s a nice night.”
Five minutes later the wind picked up and suddenly my “TEXAS PLEASE” sign was more like an unfurled sail ready to drag me to Texas by whatever means necessary. Slightly inconvenient but not enough to kill my good mood. Cue More >
Crater of Mud State Park
Dec 11th
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 More >
Bald Knob (for realsies)
Dec 9th
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) More >
Quitters Never Prosper
Dec 8th
Hey Team,
Anyone know of a hitchhiking 101 course I could crash at a local JC or anything? What is it about hitchhiking and colossal failures in the world of Amtrekker? I JUST got picked up 19 miles outside of Nashville by Chase, one of the guys I’ve been staying with for the last few days, after spending the last SEVEN hours “hitchhiking.”
Yeah, you read that right, NINETEEN miles in SEVEN hours. That’s 2.71 miles per hour…I might as well have started walking to Little Rock.
Bottom line: I’m a quitter. Once it was clear I wasn’t going to be picked up in the dark I called Chase, who earned a gold star by coming to my rescue, and then promptly caved and bought a bus ticket for the 12:40 am bus.
I hate that.
I’m done.
Brett.
Anyone want to help pay for a bus ticket?
You never know, you might get a good pedophile story out of it.
AKPC_IDS += "141,";
