Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I am going to take a break until after the new year! So much family stuff going on!

I would just like to say that I have had a wonderful year meeting all of you and traveling across the United States to meet researchers and enthusiasts from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine!

My year in review:

January - Salt Fork State Park - Temps were below zero and my Endeavor slid into a ditch. Not a very good outing.

March - West Virginia MABRC Expedition - Met with Rick Skeen and his wife Sylvia, Nick from North Carolina and Jason from West Virginia and the most awesome Larry Surf from southern Ohio. Temps were in the 30's, Rick and Larry both had heard strange noises in the middle of the night. The wind was almost tornadic. Nothing to report from there, but made a whole bunch of new friends.

April - Local squatching with my partner Bob D. aka Lowrider.

May - The Ohio Conference hosted by Don Keating. I met hundreds of people there. Met up with old friends Mark and Kelly, aka the Mohican Hikers. That was the day the girl fell and died at Hosack's Cave.

Also in May, I attended the MABRC Oklahoma expedition in Honobia. That was a lot of fun and it was my first time on a 4-wheeler :) (I'm like a little kid!). I hiked with Bobbie Lee and Carol, Bobbie fell into the creek...good times. We had strange whistling all night. An armadillo came into camp. And I saw 2 sets of red eyeshine on our night hike.

August - My adventure to the Pacific Northwest! Started out in San Jose to have dinner and a movie with Kathy and Bob Strain and John and Montra Freitas, then drove up the west coast to Bluff Creek California. Met up with Mike Esordi, Diana Smith and Brad of the Believeit Tour!, Steve Streufert, Bobo, Slasher. Spent the night at Bluff Creek, 40 degree temps, (why is squatching so cold?) The next day our car almost falling over the cliff. Then on to Happy Camp to meet Linda Jo Martin and Bob. We found a partial print! Pushing forward to Eugene, Oregon to visit Autumn Williams and her mom Sali, spent the night in her camper then driving up to Lincoln City, Oregon for the Beachfoot 2009 and Peter Byrne's 80th birthday. I can't even tell you how many people I met there! Shall I try?
Tom Yamarone, Bob Gimlin, Paul Graves, Jerry Hein, Cliff Barackman, Todd and Yvonne Neiss (our hosts) Diane Stocking (had met her in Ohio) Robert Michael Pyle, John Kirk and his wife, Hal and Lupe Halderman, the beautiful Rhonda Morehead and her not too shabby dad Ron, Orey Innis and his "not a poyne cone" son Steve, Joe Beelert, Tom Steenberg, Chris Murphy, Patti and Bob Reinhold, Cathy Griffin and more! What an amazing trip that was!

In September was the TBRC conference in Tyler, Texas. Stellar line up of guests and I got to hang out with my old pals and some fun new ones! Lee and John Murphy, Sean Whitley, Scott Herriott, Bob Gimlin, my all time favorite-Peter Matthieson (love him!) The fabulous Loren Coleman, my best friend Craig Woolheater, Monica Rawlins, Chris Buntenbah, anyway you get the idea...

Also in September I went night squatching with Eric, Dwayne and Dave of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society. Had rocks thrown at me all night from somewhere in the woods...what a rush!

October - Attended Bigfoot Discovery Days III in Felton, California. Later that month I attended the Eerie horror Film Festival. I hung out with Eric Altman and Bruce Harrington and again met more new friends.

November - My trip to the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

December - Mt. Clemens, Michigan to follow up on a bigfoot sighting report.

WHEW! Despite having such a fun year, it has been a difficult year. The economy is bad, the passing of loved ones. I pray that you all have a prosperous new year and that we will all work together to share our information and educate the world on the existence of the bipedal primate known as Bigfoot!

Mt Clemens Bigfoot?

Ahhhh the life of a Bigfoot Researcher...

Fortunately I did not head out to Mt. Clemens Michigan for the sole purpose of investigating an alleged bigfoot sighting.

With the ultimate destination being the MGM Grand Casino in downtown Detroit, I coerced my husband to tag along for a bigfoot sighting investigation. He was more than excited to finally be allowed to join me on one of my excursions. I told him not to get used to it!

We headed out of Cleveland around 1:30 p.m. The day had been cold, dark and gloomy and by the time we had driven the 3 hours to Mt. Clemens, it was already dark out.

We drove along a river and woods that seemed like a very promising area for bigfoots to dwell. There were factories and what appeared to be an old mill nestled along the river bank.

As I followed the directions I had printed out, I found that we were actually leaving the woodsy area and headed towards the heart of downtown Mt. Clemens.

The city was actually very Currier and Ives with all of the Christmas decorations and the snow gently falling all around us.

The more I drove, the more disappointed I was becoming. We were getting deeper into a high traffic downtown area with a strip mall, office buildings and banks.

Then we see the Buffalo Wild Wings. Man was I pissed. There is no way a bigfoot could have gotten to the dumpster located behind the building without having been seen by hundreds of people.

I did a brief sweep of the location, snapped some pics, then headed inside to talk to this employee "Lou Klively".

The hostess was walking us to our table and I asked her if there was an employee named Lou there and she said not that she knows of. I then told her that he supposedly had a bigfoot sighting out back near the dumpster and wow did she give me the crazy stink eye!

Well, after a pretty crappy meal we headed over to the hotel and out for a night of gambling.

We came home ahead $200.00 so all in all, it was a pretty fun trip.

I guess part of reporting is that things and people are not always what they claim to be.