No joke. I ran into a guy who’s organizing an expedition to find…
Well, I probably shouldn’t say. It’s his business. But it’s something out of European History that just doesn’t belong in the U.S., but which he maintains is buried here. Imagine if someone told you that the Holy Grail was actually buried in Central Massachusetts. Or one of the lost original copies of the Magna Carta.
This guy seems extremely sincere, but the object of his search seems highly improbable.
Should I go?
Arrrrrrgggghhh, matey!
Yes, of course you should go! I mean, a friggin’ treasure hunt. How cool is that?
Yeah! Go! (As long as he ain’t hittin’ you up for Major Funding.)
If you find it, woo hoo!, you’re famous! The chicks will dig you! You might even get a big endorcement deal! (Probably shovels, but still…)
If you don’t find squat, it’ll still be an Adventure. When was the last time you were on an Adventure?
-Rue. (the Adventurer)
I should mention – this would be, apparently, a full-time job. So I’d have to quit my Gainful Employment to join in. And the guy who’s running it believes that he has a special ability to find old lost tunnels.
Can you do that? If you can, then why pass up the chance of a lifetime? Even if you don’t find the hidden booty, you’ll always be the person at the party with a story no one else can top.
Hmmm, ability to find lost tunnels, ok.
I’m assume (since you seem to be thinking about this) that you can quit your Gainful Employment. The question is, can you quit and then not find what you’re looking for ?
If you can, then as MachV said, do it.
I’d offer up something which might take the edge off not finding anything. Don’t do it with the intent of actually finding the Holy Grail or whatever, but do it with the intent of writing a book/article/website/journal etc describing the journey and the adventure.
Take notes, pictures, sketches, whatever you’re best at. Then either way you should have a good amount of material you can turn into something that might bring in some money.
Hey if you find the stuff they might make a film, you can ponder who they’ll get to play you. 
I’m rambling again – I’ll stop now. Good luck, whatever you decide to do.
SD
Oooh! Do it! Do it!
Well, do it as long as it’s not Geraldo Rivera doing the asking, 
and only if you can still support yourself. I’m sure there’s not too much job security as a Treasure Hunter.
No matter what your decision, would you be able to tell us one day what he’s looking for? (And if it’s Geraldo?;))
I’m with Space Dog… if you are able to quit the Gainful Employment w/o little or no consequences to go do this. I’d do it. How often does an opportunity like this come around?
I’ll tell you this, it’s a true story. Some guy I met had an opportunity to do a treasure hunt of some type years ago. His friend had been researching some lost pirate ship or something similar and he believed he knew where it was. So he wanted to organize an expedition to find it and all its treasure. Well, the guy I knew decided not to go. Lo and behold they find the stinkin’ thing and the guys that went were set for life. (It did them like 10 years or something though).
Anyway, I would go with the mindset that I was only thing interesting I would find are pretty flowers. Like SpaceDog said, turn it into an adventure… take notes and pictures and make a book out of it. It’ll be fun.
Of course this does mean you’ll have to stop going to parties with Bob Ballard.
-Rue.