In the Pursuit of Life: A Three-Week Vacation Turned into the Adventure of a Lifetime

Riding a dirt bike home from South America wasn’t what Jim Anderson had planned when he boarded a (first class!) flight for Sao Paulo in January of 2009. He promises it wasn’t. But after days of long, crowded bus rides through busy Brazilian streets, how could he and friends (Diesel) Dave Kiley and (Brian) Nian Allphin resist plunking down their hard-earned vacation money for three used Brazilian motorbikes? They couldn’t!Three guys who met on a Lake Powell houseboat solidified a lifelong friendship as they traveled from Sao Paulo to Manaus, charming everyone they met along the way, from humble Brazilian families and ace mechanics to hostile military policemen. Unable to sell their bikes in Manaus as planned and fly home, the boys hatched a brilliant, horrible plan.But sometime while riding the muddiest portions of the Trans-Amazonian dirt Highway and smuggling their motorbikes over the Caribbean Sea on drunk Captain Pedro’s boat, Jim, Dave, and Nian experienced the unmistakable hand of divine protection as they crossed border after border. And somewhere in the torrential rain storms of Brazil and under some of God’s most beautiful sunsets, the Wolfpack found out what kind of stuff they’re really made of.Can you guess what kind of stuff it is? If you can’t, you should get better at guessing.Jim’s recounting of the three-month journey home to Fillmore, Utah is unlike any other travelogue you’re likely to pick up. Jim’s pursuit of life has become an awesome collection of once-in-a-lifetime experiences punctuated by moments of gratitude for the goodness of God. You’ll wish you’d been riding doubles on the back of his bike.