Singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett (at left) and I were set to ride dirt bikes across some 650 miles (695 kilometers) of South America’s Patagonia region for an episode of the show I host, National Geographic EXPLORER. This assignment was going to be a buddy picture, pure action-adventure, sort of Butch and Sundance Do South America.

All good Westerns are ultimately morality plays, complete with affirmations of basic truths. This far-south adventure was no different.

Truth #1: Be careful what you ask for; you just might get it.
I had long been begging National Geographic for a rugged motorcycle adventure. When they finally said yes, I realized that I’d never been on a dirt bike in my life, just a motorcycle. I was about to find out the difference.

Truth #2: Pride goeth before the fall.
I called everyone I knew to share the news: “Yeah, my job’s unbelievably tough this month—I’ve got to go to Chile and ride dirt bikes with Lyle Lovett!” On the first day of our rough-riders adventure, I was cruising along, thinking of how I’d be able to brag about this for years. Suddenly I hit a patch of deep sand and a buried rock. Boom! The fall after the pride.

Photograph by David Evans ©NGT

When I tried to lift my left arm, pain shot through it, and the lower half swung the wrong way. Five hours later, x-rays revealed a severe dislocation. Doctors reset the elbow and put it in a cast for four weeks. My trip was over.

Truth #3: Mom is always right.
When I was a kid, my mother told me not to leave the house wearing dirty underwear, in case I got in an accident. Well, my luggage had been lost on the way to Chile, so I’d been wearing the same underwear for three days. It had taken many years, but Mom’s dire prediction had finally come true.

Mom, you were right after all. Maybe Lyle will at least get a song out of all this.