Some Meetups

Cycleblaze riders take special pleasure in arranging meetups with other riders while out on the road. We plan routes based on all kinds of objectives, but do not seem to specifically target encountering others, at least not much in advance. But when it seems a "collision" might be possible, we will bend the route to try to make it happen. Another variant of this is to plan to pass through cities where we know cycling friends live, and then to "drop in" on them. Finally for us here at home, there are touring cyclists living nearby, and we often try to get together with them, to check in on their plans.

The Classens of Victoria have often been "victims" of this strategy. The Classens have already written up nine trips across Europe, and we are always interested to see what they are cooking up next.

Our usual meeting place is the Cafe Fantastico, which is adjacent to the Fol Epi bakery. Aside from meeting our friends, it's a chance for us to experience European food while not on tour. By European standards, these places are fabulously expensive, so it's good these meetings are not all that frequent!

Kathleen and Keith at Fantastico. They cycle over to meet us, of course.

At the opposite end of our usual stomping grounds, we usually meet up with Sue and Jim Price in Chemainus. Chemainus boasts the Willow Street Cafe, which is in a lovely old wooden building, on a beautiful street. We used to cycle up there from our place, a 70 km ride with about 500m of climbs. That is all in a day's fun when we are on a trip, but somehow of late it seems awfully far! So much easier to zip up there in the EV!

Sue and Jim Price, have somewhat paused their cycle travel career, in favour of enjoying the Baja Peninsula of Mexico.

The Prices read some of our blogs ages ago, and drove down to our place from Nanaimo to see what tips we could share. That way, Cycleblaze brought us together. By the way, Champion Power Equipment gave me that tee shirt for writing a review of one of their tillers or log splitters. Perhaps for that I can claim to be an internet "influencer"!

The general reader might be noticing that the Grampies and these various folks at meetups are rather old and grey. Yes, there is no denying it. But there is also some new blood in our world. Of course, as "Grampies" we have some grandchildren in the background. In the old days we worked on introducing them to cycle touring, but time and distance have taken a bit of a toll. Here we see Avi and Violet, celebrating their new EV!:

And remember those three Montreal cyclists who were with us on the Loire?

Joshua joined us on the ride along the Loire with the kids. He is looking very nice here, possibly due to the French's ketchup on the table. French's famously restarted the making of ketchup from Leamington, Ontario tomatoes, after Heinz closed their plant there and moves south. This became a "cause celebre", which gains significance in the present tariff wars.

This type of nationalism is, or had been, rare in Canada.

The three model "Grampies on Tour" tee shirts.

These kids are still pretty young, but we also have some even fresher prospects coming up. For example, we have had several meetups with Ferdinand, who is now 10 (months). (His parents - Sandra and Marius - used to spend a lot of time translating German map books for us, and they still often drive us to or from the airport.)

Sandra and Ferdinand. Ferdinand will grow up speaking both English and German.

We will be looking to secure Ferdinand's first "bike" in a few months. Laurie recommends the same one Avi and Violet had: the Wheely Bug.

Wheely bug has become as expensive as a big bike!

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Kathleen ClassenYou are leaving soon if I remember correctly. Hopefully not Air Canada!!!!
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5 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Kathleen ClassenThankfully NOT Air Canada, but we are flying out tomorrow evening on Westjet.
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5 months ago

Karen PoretTo Steve Miller/GrampiesNow we KNOW you two will really be airborne shortly…😆
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5 months ago

Kathleen ClassenTo Steve Miller/GrampiesSo glad you chose WestJet. I see in this morning’s .news that Air Canada has reached a tentative agreement but it will take time to resume operations. Too late for my friend who was flying today, and fingers crossed for our daughter in law’s Mom Christine, who flies back to Australia on Friday. Truth is, we all will be delighted if we have a few more days with Christine! So many people have not been in that fortunate position with this strike.
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5 months ago