St. Joe State Park, a place with great meaning and lots of memories! Well, what makes this place so special to me? There's tons of reasons why I love this place… One being that it introduced me into dirtbikes and the motorsports world in general. Another big reason is because of the connections I was able to make and grow because of the park. 

When I was younger, probably around the age of 14 my friend asked me if me and my dad wanted to go riding with him and his dad at St. Joe State Park. Me and my dad were both a little skeptical because we had never done anything like that, outside of riding four wheelers around the house. We decided to go and it was very challenging for me and my dad, but we ended up having a lot of fun and really enjoyed it. This one time at the park is what sparked both our interest into the sport and really got us into it. Almost immediately after that trip, we got our own side by side to ride around there and we continued to go. Eventually I got a dirtbike and this opened up a whole new dimension of riding for me, and my buddy who also started riding dirt bikes when I got mine. We were going almost every weekend for a while and it was a blast, we were having the time of our lives. Even though we sucked at riding, we both progressed a lot every time and got faster and more confident in ourselves. Later on my dad sold our side by side and upgraded to a much nicer one because we were really using and abusing it and decided it was time for an upgrade. That got us a really good connection at St. Louis Powersports and to this day we still use him for anything powersports related we need. Me and my dad were spending a ton of time together and it really grew our bond as well. The trip there was always an adventure with him and we always made the boring truck ride down there fun. I was always more invested in the sport than him, so it was always fun being able to teach him how to do things in the side by side and work on it together. I crashed a lot over the years riding there, and every time I could use it as a learning experience to better myself as a rider and grow on it. Every time I crashed my dad was always right there making sure I was okay, and usually taking pictures to make fun of me later on with. One of my favorite memories was actually pretty recent, we had just unloaded the four wheeler and side by side and were cruising around the park because we took my sister's husband with us to show him what it was like. I was talking about this mud hole and how it’s the nastiest and deepest in the park and how everyone gets stuck in it. Not even 5 minutes later I'm stuck in the hole, water over my shoulders, clay up to my knees and the four wheeler is fighting to get out.. Long story short i got stuck and the motor took in a lot of sand, water and clay and ultimately we had to rebuild the motor of the fourwheeler when we got back home. My dad wasn’t the happiest about that one but it definitely makes a funny story. St. Joe State Park holds a lot of great memories and will always be a favorite place of mine!