Wild Times!

Jim then brought us back to his, ridiculously amazing, home in the woods where he showed us his Shitake mushroom farm, his ENORMOUS horses, and tranquill forest- via a all terain cart. Thanks soo much Jim, what an unforgetable experience!
We left Jims' and rode only 20 miles to a town called Mountain View, where we were... picked up at the end of a long dirt driveway by a woman, named Martha, from the Lions Club. We threw the bikes in the back of the pickup and she drove 2 miles deep into the Missouri wilderness. We came to a raging river and without hestitation Martha rips' through the river, only to come out on the otherside where there was a perfect looking log cabin house with butterflies everywhere and wildflowers 360 degrees....is this real?

PARADISE!! Marthas place was something out of a novel. 400 acres of prestine nature and fresh water springs. We stayed for two nights and spent the days hiking and looking for arrowheads. Our nights were filled with good food, arts and crafts, books, and lots of laughs. Leaving Martha's Magical Forest I knew I woul...d be back.........I have a feeling she knows it too. From there we rode east and did a roadside camp in Mark Twain Natinoal Forest - theres nothing like camping when nobody knows your there; its a little scary to. From there we rode on to Poplar Bluff to camp outside of a Country Market food store.....setting up camp in a parking usually turns heads and we had the chance to meet two awesome Missourians named Britt and Janelle - see you in NY guys!

KENTUCKY!! The scenery changed almost immediately as we rode into KT and we enjoyed two days of really beautiful riding. Our last night in Kentucky we were looking to catch some live music....with a small selection around the area we ended up riding an extra 10 miles into the night to get to a bar called Rips. WHATT...A JOINT! We met the owner Joey, who served in the Navy for 24 years, and he was more than interested in our journey. He took us around back to a house that he said was alllll ours for the night. It amazed me how welcoming Joey was and we had a wild wild night singing and dancing with the locals. Towards the end of the night Joey had the lay down the law and throw out two drunkards - one of the guys called the cops on him and the cops ended up arresting him instead...hilarious. We woke up late the next day and got out of there even later....but we had a long way to ride to see our main man and allstar AMERICORE team leader BUCKYY!!

The last time I saw Buck was in the Bangkok Airport, drinking beers and laughing over our adventures; that was nearly 7 months ago. We rode into Tennessee and finally made it to Americores headquarters in Pegram, TN. Seeing Bucky was amazing. He has been heading up an Americore volunteer team in Cheatam County, TN f...or the past month and they were doing great. Chris and I were excited to get to work helping out the flood victims but we didnt know what to expect or how we would react. The next day we caught a glimpse of the devastation and it was really heartbreaking. But when the team of volunteers went to work, everyones spirits lifted. We worked with the team on various projects throughout the week and each one was fulfilling in its own way. These young kids are from all over the country and what they are doing is trully special. Its tough to describe the homes we were in so when I get back I will let the pictures do the talking. An example of the damage is a house we worked on that was knocked off its foundation and floated about 50 yards into a riverbed - this was an 80 ft double wide house, twisted like a churro laying in a stream. The power of the flood seems so unreal.