Right before we left for Texas, I got another e-mail from Roger and he said he had a bonus deal for us on the Muenster ride. A buddy of his is a guy from Denton, Texas, named Brian Storrie. Brian is a very good enduro rider and pro off-road racer and runs the ISDE every year. Last year, Brian was the fourth highest finishing American in the ISDE and won a medal, so obviously he's a super rider.

In any case, Brian Storrie joined us on the Muenster ride. It was great to ride with a world-class rider like Brian Storrie. Throughout one loop, Brian would lead us and he would take off and haul the mail for one-mile segments of trail and then pull over and wait for all of us to catch up and then we would do another mile of trail. I tried hard a couple of times to stay with Brian, but it was impossible for me. I could hang with him for a hundred yards or so and then he would get one corner ahead of me, then two corners, then three and then out of sight and I wouldn't see him again until the next stop. It was amazing how buttery smooth and effortless his riding was. He was riding a nice Gas Gas 300 and was really grunting and lugging that thing through the woods, never really getting it on the pipe until the trail opened up. (Incidentally, Brian is a Gas Gas dealer.)

While Brent, Don, Tom and I were riding on the loop with Brian and Roger, another one of the Texans, Jim, took Anne on a nice loop around Muenster on more hospitable terrain. Roger was riding a 2001 Gas Gas 300 XC and Jim was riding an 2002 KTM 400 SX set up for the woods. Joe and Zach Carnes were riding together on some of the other terrain; Joe was getting Zach familiar with woods riding at Muenster.

In the afternoon, Brian Storrie had to leave and Jim and Roger took us on more fun loops around the park. The surprise of the day and the whole trip really was Zachary Carnes. I think all of us were really expecting Zach to struggle in the woods, but he amazed us with his speed and fearlessness. He did a much better job of riding than anyone anticipated and his speed was right there with the normal group trail pace. He crashed a lot (that seems to be a Carnes trait), and struggled with elevation changes and technical obstacles, but he handled the flatter stuff like a champ and was really quick when the trail opened up. When Zach develops some clutch and throttle control, he'll really be kicking ass in the woods!

At the end of the day at Muenster, Zach and Anne stayed in camp and we went for a relatively fast loop with Jim leading on his KTM thumper. Joe got into second position behind Jim and surprised all of us with his speed. Personally, I've never seen Joe ride that fast or look that good in the woods. He did a tremendous job and hung closely to Jim's rear tire for the whole loop, which was a good 10 miles or so. Tom and Don also did a marvelous job keeping pace. I've personally never seen any of these guys look that good on a ride, I believe the level of riding in this whole group is improving.

At the tail end of the loop, Joe had his first big crash of the trip in a high-speed whoop section. All day long, Joe had been telling us how he was blitzing through the sand whoops at Muenster and I think he was eager to show us his speed there. When Jim led us into a long straight section of whoops, Joe gassed it and he definitely showed us something in the whoops! About halfway through the whoop section, he got out of shape in fifth gear and started swapping ends and finally his Kawasaki spit him off on his ear. I was directly behind him and had to look for open real estate to avoid collecting him, and my evasive maneuvers put me in Brent's path and we nearly had a three-bike crash instead of a solo deal.

Fortunately, Joe wasn't hurt and he actually seemed quite proud of his tumble. That pretty much ended the ride as we were nearing camp and the sun ball was dropping and we were running out of daylight. Jim had 74 miles on his enduro computer for the day, so we had a very good day of riding, it was truly epic, one of the best days of riding I've ever had. In my opinion, the Muenster ride alone made the trip worthwhile. Next year, I plan to ride two days there instead of just one, and I don't think anyone disagrees with me.

After the Muenster ride, Roger and Jim took us to a German restaurant in Muenster that was also fantastic. We had a lot of bench racing and story-telling that lasted a couple of hours there. We made plans to hook up with Jim and Roger again next year and I've since exchanged a couple of e-mails with Roger since we got back and he's very excited about riding with us again.

Day two of riding was at Rush Springs, Okla., with Danny and Nate Ware and it was basically a bust. The weather was terrible with a steady rain all day and all night. It cleared up briefly, and we rode one loop around the Rush Springs cross-country course, but that was it. They added a mile or so of trail to Rush Springs from last year, and it's a very fast course. I followed Danny for one loop, and I got pumped up following him around that place. He flies there. If the weather had cooperated at all, we would've had another great day at Rush, but the damn weather just bit us.

Day three we went to a riding park in Anadarko, Okla. None of us really knew what to expect at Anadarko because it was a new area to us but it turned out to be a great day. The weather started out shaky in the morning, but by late morning the sun came out and it turned out to be a beautiful day. Anadarko has a national-level motocross track that is probably two miles in length with a lot of fast sections and big doubles. In addition to the moto track, there is a seven-mile woods loop that is a blast. The terrain is a combination of sand and red clay, and with all the rain the traction was perfect with no dust at all. We did a lot of loops around that place during the day and everyone had a ball.

Joe began the day struggling on the motocross track. The track was a little greasy and slippery in the morning and Joe was struggling with traction and confidence. One of the big double jumps got the better of him and he took another nice tumble end-over-end when he cased the jump and bent his handlebars and then we got a Carnes tantrum out of it with helmet tossing and kicking and slamming the bike down into the turf! But fortunately for Joe, he had a much better time in the afternoon. He decided the big jumps won for the day and rode in the woods with us after lunch and did very well on the woods loops. He picked up where he left off two days earlier at Muenster and rode exceptionally well in the woods that day.

Zach also impressed again at Anadarko. He was flying through the woods at a very nice pace. He had one big crash into a pine tree where both he and his motorcycle disappeared from sight, but other than that, he did very well and again amazed everyone. My hats off to little Zach! After the trip, Tom made the comment that in a couple of years, we'll all be chasing Zachary!

Anne rode well this trip, she was very smooth and she gelled nicely with her new Gas Gas 200. She loves the motorcycle and likes it more with each ride. It's a really nice motorcycle; I'm impressed with it. And most important, she didn't go down once on this trip and we all returned to Illinois healthy this year.

The loop at Anadarko had a little bit of everything, with some tight woods sections, some really fast top-gear open sections, and some motocross-type obstacles sprinkled in as well. Toward the end of the loop, we found a nice little hill jump and everyone in the group practiced their jumping skills and getting a little air. I actually saw Don Bushby and Anne get both of their wheels off the ground at the same time and actually mean to do it, and that was neat to see. It was a low-pressure chance for everyone to work on those skills and have a little fun for the camera. Of course, then Justin Ware showed up and really showed it how it was done on his 2003 YZ250.

Mid-morning, I took a fast loop around Anadarko with Danny, Justin and Nate and that was a lot of fun. I think Justin was just toying with us, but Danny, Nate and I were riding hard and had a lot of fun going at it and bouncing off of each other in the woods. The open sections were really a gas, we just pinned it and held shut-off contests at every corner! Fun stuff.

Unfortunately, the weather turned sour after our day three at Anadarko. Snow and cold came into the area and we decided to blow off riding on day four and head for home. Don and Tom got an early flight that morning out of Oklahoma City, and we got on the interstate and got stuck in the Trip Home from Hell. Northeastern Oklahoma and the state of Missouri got 10 inches of snow on Sunday afternoon and evening and the road conditions were just abominable. They don't know much about winter road maintenance in Oklahoma and Missouri. That 10 inches of snow got pummeled into three inches of ice by thousands of cars and trucks pounding on it and the roads were just hairy and treacherous. We passed a 36-car pile-up on I-44 near the Oklahoma/Missouri border and I don't think we passed a mile without seeing cars in the ditch. It was an agonizingly slow and scary trip home.

All in all, it was a good trip. The weather put a damper on things and made the trip home an absolute nightmare but despite that, I had fun and don't regret anything. The two full days of riding we did get were fantastic and made it all worthwhile. Next year, we'll do things a little differently though. We will have a backup plan next year and we won't leave Illinois unless good weather is forecasted. We'll pick two dates next year and if the weather doesn't look good, we'll cancel Plan A and reschedule for Plan B; it's that simple. Ware advised us to do that all along, but we got lucky with the weather last year and didn't take his advice and formulate a backup plan this year. I guarantee we'll have a backup plan next year. That's too far to go for crappy weather.