Thanks...

I feel this is a good time to let everyone know how much I appreciate your book orders and the response I have received about the story line of the book. I've said it before and I really mean it it is great to know that readers like the book as well as want to read the second book in the series which has a working title of "Missouri Sunrise". In this book young Joe grows into one of the first Missouri Mule Traders and encounters several adventures as he does. Most of the characters in the first book are in the second, along with a host of new ones that should keep your interest. The book is finished except for the editing. My Judy is doing that for me and I've heard her laugh as well as caught her with tears in her eyes more than once. So please be patient and the second installment will be along soon.
One of the questions I've been asked is about bears in Missouri. The questions I have been asked varied from Where there bears in Missouri back then to are there bears in Missouri today. Are they Grizzly bears, brown bears or black bears. Where do they live, what do the eat, do they sleep all winter? The answers to these questions in some cases are pretty obvious. The television news carries every bear story they can get, bears have been sited all over Southwest Missouri. Not only in southwest Missouri, they have been sited as far east as Eureka, Mo. and as far south as Kennet Missouri in the south east corner of the state. Most of them are black bears, they are basically night creatures, however daytime sitings are not uncommon. One recent call to the Stone County Sheriff's office came in just in the evening time. A lady near Crane, Missouri called to say there was a bear in her driveway. After a few more minutes she decided that it really was a great thing and that she really did not want the Sheriff's Office to make an issue. After all its not everyone that has their own bear in the driveway.
My Judy wants to see a live bear so bad she dreams about it in her sleep.This past spring it was rumored that there was one being seen on Hwy 13 just south of DD, she became a moving traffic hazard for several weeks trying to get a glimpse of the creature. MY biggest worry about bears in our neighborhood is that I will see one when she is not with me and I will not be able to tell anyone because she would feel cheated. On a fishing trip into Canada one year I had to take her to a local dump just to see one. She is that committed to seeing one in the wild here in Missouri. So, if anyone has a bear story to share post me a comment. If not, get a copy of my book Missouri Beginnings and read about my spirit bear.