No animated gifs please.  Very bad eyes on my part.  I'm not to the point of having seizures yet, but I do get migraines.

From the description above.
[color=f7941d][b]You and your friends are alien conspiracy “nuts”.  You believe in UFO, alien astronauts, the works.[/b][/color]  

If the character doesn't fit that description, then it doesn't work here.  I am looking for card carrying UFO fanatics who believe in aliens.  Remember, taking off like this doesn't exactly mesh well with careers where you work 9-5.  So if you hold such a job you are going to need something better than a rumor to go on.  We are talking about a road trip that could last a long time.

The military guy might still work.  He needs to believe that SOMEthing happened to his brother.  You might even want to do up both characters.  Also, former military would work better - unless you want him AWOL.

The nuclear engineer might work.  But my character is already rich enough (even if he doesn't seem like it).

The author.  I like the character, but not sure about the background fit.  Kinda needs a stronger hook.