Two years ago, we were on our first big tour, and we had many unexpected things to learn. One of the things we loved most was getting to experience meeting so many wonderful people. Traveling by bicycle gives us the opportunity to do so more than other conventional ways. In 2011 we were in our second week of a four and a half month tour and hurting in ways that were foreign to our bodies. We rocked out an 80 mile day in order to make it to a town that would have a (LDS) church service, which still left us with another 16 miles to do in the morning into Summerside, Prince Edward Island. When we woke up Sunday morning it was raining hard, and being May the weather was quite chilly. We layered up and pedaled hard but despite our best efforts we still arrived at the church soaked and frozen
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| 2011 after heartwarming pork chops |
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| 2013 Starting the West Coast tour. |
.... That was two years ago, why am I sharing this story now? Well, after church that day we had very little desire to leave that building. Doug and Bettie Hogg, were also visiting that ward that week on their cross Canada by RV trip. They saw our sorry faces and invited us into their RV for a warm lunch. Little did we know that we would be making friends to last. That day meant a lot to our spirits. Latter on in that tour we had the pleasure of running into the Hogg's several more times. Once they found us while napping in a field of dandelions in PEI. In Nova Scotia, we spotted the vintage RV outside of a restaurant, where Mary and I surprised them at their table in time for dessert. Then in Newfoundland they found us and we set up plans to spend a couple days with them checking out some viking sites that we otherwise would not have traveled to with our bikes. They made a big impact on our trip and it was great to run into them so many times, even if it was because they kept having engine problems. So naturally when we were planning this trip and decided to start biking from Vancouver, we contacted the Hogg's and again spent a couple of days with them at their home. It was great to see them again, let them play with Leo and meet some of their friends and family. Thanks again Doug and Bettie, you guys have become a staple to our ventures.
Love your story here! Thanks for sharing. It really is such an incredible thing meeting so many people on a cycling tour. But that's one of the big reasons we do that-- hard for a lot of people to understand. It's so fantastic that you have gotten to see Doug and Bettie so many times!
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