Hello Missouri

And Helllooo Missouri! We rode into Joplin yesterday where we spent the night at Zan's campground. We set up next to the river and Chris started fishing while I gathered wood and cooked some grub. Just as we were about to eat the rain started dumping down on us. Instant saturation. We scurried into the Alpine mans...ion and enjoyed our feast. After we ate we had quite possibly the most epic jam session on the trip accompanied by the sounds or raindrops on our tent and the local owls who wanted in on the music festival. Just as we lay our wet heads to bed it was time to get wet again. A friendly neighbor came by our site late at night to remind us that the river was a risin mighty fast. So we moved the tent to higher ground and saved the mansion from complete devastation and eternal wetness. Close call.

So we rode out of Joplin, Missouri and cruised into a small town called Willow Springs. We went into a YMCA to ask if we could throw up a tent and the girl pointed to a guy in a graveyard across the street and said, "Ask him, he pret...ty much owns everything in town..", score! We went to the graveyard and began helping this man lift and restores some of the headstones. He then said that we could sleep in a service station he owned across the street. We went into the old service station and the guys turned on the light and all around us were political campaigning posters....WENDELL BAILEY for Governor '92 / WENDELL BAILEY for Congress. Turns out we were sleeping in an ex United States Congress man's campaigning lair...SCORE!

He was the BOSS of Willow Springs, everywhere we went people knew him and he always made loud announcements about who we were....it was hilarious. He took us to his house where his wife baked us cookies, to his son, John,car dealership, and to his Lions Club meeting; where we met some great people!
At the meeting Stets... and myself put ourselves to work preparing dessert and man'ing the grill (square burgers?)- we were also the only one's man'ing cold beers haha. So at the meeting we told everyone about our trip and everyone was really supportive and excited for our journey, so excited they donated 230$ towards the school! While we were at the meeting we met a great woman named Martha and a really great guy named Jim. We spoke with Jim about the area and he explained to us that he had an Ultra Lite flying machine at the local small airport. We began speaking to him about it with gleam and excitement in our eyes and he picked up on it and said , "Would you want to go flying tomorrow morning?" our response "Does a bear poop in the woods?" That night we went to a local bar and spoke politics with an old hippie who was the real deal...huge protester in NYC during the 70's, had a husband who was followed by the CIA...REAL DEAL! She told us young freedom fighters to always fight for what is right and just and to GO FOR IT! Thanks Marcie
The next morning we got out of our dust covered sleeping bags and rode to the airport where we saw it glistening in the sun....no, not Jims huge white beard....the ULTRA LITE! The ultra lite is a huge hangglider with a 2 seat cart on the bottom, a propeller on the back and really cool helmets to boot....this thing was nasty.
Rock, Paper, Scissors.....shoot....victory! I was the first to go up with "Wildman Jim" from Missouri. I saddled up in the back seat, threw on my glorified baseball helmet and hit the runnway....10....15....20...25....GRRRRRRRR ZOOOOOOOOOOOM we had liftoff....500 ft, 1000ft, 1500ft and we were soaring over breathtaking... scenery. As far as the eyes could see were the greenest fields imaginable, green-red-and orange canopys, streams and rivers which looked like they were filled with diamonds and railroad tracks that stictched up the entire heavely ball which was below us....and then without hesitation Jim started corkscrewing us down, very fast, towards this beauty....ahhhhhh! We touched down and I was exstatic...WOOOOOWEEEEE what a ride! Eat your heart out Howard Hues!