When I asked Couch 49 why he chose to contact me and nominate his couch, it was out of curiosity about “Why do people want to participate in this? Like… Why did you answer my SOS and offer your couch?” I gotta say, his reply made me smile – “Well… when you see someone stand in the middle of the road, and have 8 motorcycles speed directly at him at 50 mph, so he can jump out of the way at the last minute… for 2 days… you sort of know it’ll be interesting.” Flippo had then also mentioned that there are 2 types of people… those who observe life, and those who live life… and the kind of person who stands in front of motorcycles, and stays on strangers’ couches without fear or worry, is probably the type that lives life… that has a certain faith in humanity. I hadn’t forgotten how I had met Flippo… but it was certainly not at the top of my mind when we were hanging out just now. When he said that, I was reminded of the time I went with these guys from Jacksonville to Ft. Dodge Iowa to photograph their 2 day stunts show. I stood in the middle of the road, and had them come at me. It was quite a rush… jumping out of the way at the last minute. I was even mentioned in the newspaper as crazier than those guys… ’cause at least they had helmets.

Anyways… Friday morning, I got a call from Flippo… “It was surprisingly cold last night, and a bit dewy this morning… so.. I checked this fallen tree, and there were some mushrooms. I thought we could look for Morels (extremely tasty gourmet mushrooms that grow in Iowa). I was just hanging out @ Couch 48′s, and have just completed a few days of running, swimming, tanning, jacuzzi’ing, drinking, and eating tons of really spicy hot sauce. So, after I cooked up a nice meal for me and the boys over @ 48′s (Chicken, with Serano peppers, cream cheese, peanut butter, cheese, tomato, vietnamese hot sauce, sage, italian seasoning), and everyone thought it was extremely tasty, I drove to 49′s. It was supposed to be about an hour drive, but ended up being much longer… for good reason though! There was a motorcycle accident on the 20 (This road I took to get there).

I saw all this crap in the middle of the road, and all these cars were pulled over to either side of the road. It looked as though the pickup truck that had a tarp on it, and was at the front of the line, had the tarp fly off, and its belongings were on the road, and no one wanted to run that stuff over. As I drove past most the cars, to the front of the line, I realized there was a motorcycle in the middle of the road. What had happened is that this guy was riding with his friends he met on the road… he was in the back of their group… all of a sudden he started swerving, and hit the side of the road, and did sideways barrel-rolls until his bike landed in the middle of the street, and he elsewhere on the side of the road. He was so bloody that they couldn’t get him air at 1st. Some of the people who stopped were nurses, and the truckers had 1st aid kits. I had to make a U-turn, and thankfully had a GPS. My GPS helped me get to Ft. Dodge, on dirt roads — although it did miss the final destination. A phone call and common sense fixed that.

I arrived, put some stuff in, and then it was time to trespass. We walked across the street, and what looked like fields was actually an amazing drop-off into this small valley with a river or some kind of stream. For the next 2-3 hours we crossed a stream and went looking in cow-poop and under rotted logs for various mushrooms. Apparently, Morels are out of season, because there’s supposed to be a bunch in this area. We found a good many kinds, and they were pretty cool looking. When you go to find mushrooms in the wild, it’s called “Hunting” – I like that. I’ve never been hunting before, so technically, now I can say that I have. Dan did show me his giant 44 Magnum Ruger Super Red Hawk double action pistol. This thing is cool looking… I may have to pose with it. He’s actually got lots of guns…. that’s why he voted for George Bush, though he regrets that now. He laid out some eggs too, so maybe we can shoot some coyotes or raccoons. He sells the pelts sometimes for extra cash. We got back with our stash of mushrooms, put ‘em in a bag or 2, and went playing with the bow & arrow.

While we shot these off, I also found – and caught – some giant grasshoppers. We were going to freeze them (not to kill them, you sickos! Just to slow them down.. they kind of sit there), but not at this junction… there were groceries to be gotten (So our hoppy friends just sat in a jar with air-holes)

After that, Flippo made me this amazing surf-n-turf dinner. We went to the store first to get additional garlic (I confessed my love of garlic, and Dan is also a big fan)….. which definitely got put to use. Dan is part Japanese, part Italian, part European mutt, and he likes cuisine in general. So… whereas I had to use a plastic spoon to stir and cook (despite its potential to melt) in Couch 48′s kitchen, Couch 49 was definitely better equipped! Complete with a wide range of high-end chef’s knives, Flippo went to work while I worked on repairing his laptop computer.



I decided that we probably wouldn’t have time to shoot Macro shots of the grass hoppers, so I would rather set them free, rather than keep them caged up in a small jar. I set them free, but since it was dark, they decided to just chill out (no, they had not been frozen, and they were definitely not dead). I decided to go ahead and shoot them, since they were very docile now.

After a delicious dinner (washed down with Grape-Juice & Vodka), we sat there in the tv-room, and we were getting pretty tired… comfort + food + vodka. Since I had seen work-lights in Dan’s garage earlier, and asked if he smokes (’cause work lights + cigarettes make for cool photos!), and he said he doesn’t smoke cigarettes, but smokes cigars. Since we were now sitting there, and getting tired, he said he needs to stretch his legs, and that since I asked about smoking earlier, he now feels like a stogie (cigar). We went to the garage, and I quickly went to get my camera. I got some photos of Dan with his 1st cigar (it’s a huge cigar, so he cut it in 2), and then I took him up on his offer for a cigar for me… but I was going to light mine with a propane torch. Dan comes from a film background, so I was showing him settings, and other things to do to get a great picture. Two days later, I showed him some photoshop- so look for that post of a new image.



After the cigar shots, I was pretty trashed – ’cause I basically sucked up a whole cigar very quickly, so was a tiny bit woozy (and still sleepy from an amazing dinner). ADVENTURE! (Word of the day– for every day!)