Encounters…
Two wheels on the road
“That’s interesting”, I thought as the bike and trailer stopped at the start of the track to the beach. Then another whizzed by and pulled in next to it. I went over.
Ruby and Nick are their names. They are a long way from home in Vancouver. Part way through their cycle tour of the East Coast, they stopped off in Old Bar on the afternoon the Old Bar Beach Festival was closing.
“We hoped to be here in time for the festival”, Nick said. Too late. “We might go surfing tomorrow”, he said in an optimistic tone.
I looked at their rig. Nicks bike was laden with camping equipment. He towed a trailer loaded with a couple surfboards, a skateboard and a pizza in a box. Hungry from the road, Ruby opened the box, extracted a segment of pizza and started eating.
With panniers front and rear, Ruby’s bike, too, carried her belongings for life on the road. Did she have a wetsuit stuffed in there somewhere? On one side her surfboard was firmly attached to its rack.
Two people. Two bicycles. Three surfboards. One skateboard. A long road behind. A long one ahead.
