Chapter Five
Connections and Friends

Whenever someone moves into a new area of interest, it is only natural to look for and meet like-minded individuals with whom to share your interest. I found that finding bigfoot pals was not the easiest thing in the world to do. It was hard enough to even bring up the subject — let alone get someone to meet you to go looking for the elusive beast. However, there are ways to meet people and network if you are interested. The cheapest way is to go online and type in bigfoot. You will get many choices. It will really be up to you to decide where you best fit in. For years, my wife (bless her heart!) was my sole bigfoot field partner. She only recently retired from that role when Jake was old enough to start going out with me.

Unlike Jeff Corwin, I cannot honestly say that I have traveled to the Himalayas in search of the Yeti, otherwise known as the Abominable Snowman. However, after my latest trip to the “happiest place on earth”, I have come about as close as I ever will, most likely. If you have not guessed already, the trip was to Orlando, Florida and the place was Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The ride was Expedition Everest.

Chapter Four

Fears (an excerpt)

I, for one, feel that going out looking for bigfoot can be one of the scariest things you can ever do. There is really nothing to worry about if you do not believe in bigfoot. Or is there? There are plenty of other critters already known that can create some real fear when one goes tromping off into the forest. But if you believe in bigfoot and you do go into the forest and you do have your family with you, you are the alpha male. Thus, you will be expected to, and will need to take that role to make your family feel comfortable. My experience has taught me that daytime is the easy part of investigating. Birds are singing, the forest is friendly and bright — and it is hard for something to sneak up and scare you. As I have shared earlier, I have come across a couple of daylight experiences that gave me the creeps, but overall, daytime is easy for me. But in doing bigfoot fieldwork, nighttime can yield some of the best results.

CHAPTER THREE BIGFOOT LITE (excerpt)

As I mentioned previously, it is best to work your kids into the field slowly. I found that planning a first trip that took us into areas of bigfoot activity, but also had side trips and the luxuries of home was a winning combination. Unless we could not find one, we always stayed at RV parks with pools. This may not seem important on the surface but giving kids something to look forward to at the end of the day really is a good motivator. In addition, cable television is nice for nighttime relaxing on a Bigfoot Lite trip. On our first trip, we took to the road in a leisurely fashion. High daily mileage was not important. The process of getting out of town was. It took us three days to get to Northern California.