Next week, residents of the Four States will have two opportunities to see an author speak about her over 10,000-mile bicycle ride following the Monarch butterfly’s migration. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.

Kansas native, amphibian researcher, and outdoor educator Sara Dykman will appear next Monday and Tuesday. She’s the author of the 2021 release, Bicycling with Butterflies: My 10,201-Mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration.

The book details Dykman’s 10-month audacity from March until December of 2017, following the migration pattern of the butterflies from the Midwest, into the northeast and Canada, all the way down to central Mexico. To survive, Dykman met and made many new friends along the way.

“So I stayed with 68 different families, most of them were strangers before I arrived during my tour. And I had met them on the side of the road. I met them through social media. I met them doing interviews.”

She’ll be speaking Monday, September 26 at 7 pm at Pittsburg State’s Yates Hall. And the following day, Tuesday, September 27, at 6 pm at the Joplin Public Library. Both events are free and open to the public. For 89 9 KRPS, I’m Fred Fletcher-Fierro.