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A few days ago the BG received a request from someone on Couchsurfing to stay at our place. The particular night this person requested was actually one where we were planning to be at the beach, but as usual we checked out his profile and then his blog. Incredibly inspired I told BG to see if Amtrekker was going to be in Raleigh after we got back. *Then* I started following him on Twitter. (Heheheheeeee.) After some phone calls we actually met him last night at Napper Tandy’s for some weekly trivia (and Strongbow). He had some amazing stories and when all was said and done, he actually needed a place to stay so we gladly hosted him. Score.

This kid has been traveling around the country achieving goals and making videos about it for nearly a year. He said his family all had wagers on how long he’d be gone, and none of them bet into 2008… here it is nearly June. What’s really interesting, though, is that some of the goals on his list seem totally insane and to achieve them he had to have pretty heavy traffic to his site. We played twenty questions with him asking how he manages to keep the stats up on his site, how often he writes and how the HELL did he get on Good Morning America?! (Through a wild chain of events Diane Sawyer found his friggen blog. CRAZY.)

Anyway, the BG and I are now motivated. We are going to make a list of things to accomplish on our year-long road trip. In addition, the BG has some fantastic ideas about mounting a camera in the Prius and taking pictures at equal intervals throughout. We’re looking into purchasing a GPS data tracker that we will sync with the EXIF data on our photos so that each evening when we’re uploading to Flickr, they will automatically be geotagged and put on the map. We’ll be able to see exactly where we’ve been (and our families will see that we’re not dead). Eeeeee technology!

Right now Amtrekker is still asleep on my floor. And although I feel oddly famous right about now, I realize that he’s simply a shining example of how the internet serves to teach and inspire. Sometimes when I’m nerding out on the interwebs I become overwhelmed by just how much information exists out there. It amazes me that it’s possible to weed through all of it to find something (or someone) that can brighten your day, motivate you, or teach you something you never knew you were interested in.

(That was filmed eight months ago. I’m happy to say that I drove him to the Amtrak station this morning and he commented on how easy it was for us to get there. Glad I could help improve his idea of Raleigh… He somehow did the same for me!)

Check out the other Amtrekker videos here and tell me you don’t just want to eat him alive he’s so damn awesome.