The Bicycle Effect

When you stop to notice the little things in life, you wonder how much they really affect you. Are the little things in life really small at all? I call this the Bicycle Effect. For instance, in Whitefish, Montana when we asked a lady where a grocery store was, she said in a not-so-nice way that they were all closed. Then after a bit of thinking, she mentioned a local place called Marcus’s, a small but good market. And that’s where we met Perrin and her family. As we stood outside the store looking at the map, she walked up and started talking with us. Long story short, we spent two wonderful days there because some unfriendly person helped us.

The second Bicycle Effect was that if we had not wasted time counting the train cars (112 cars) outside of Hope, Idaho we would not have crossed paths with the great people at the Hope store. At the Hope store and restaurant, a guy named Erik yelled for us to come over and have some beers. Without hesitation, we took him up on the offer and in seconds had cold brews in our hands. Soon after we were heading to Erik and Jen’s house to have some more fun. In this case I thank the train for letting us have a wonderful time meeting new and great people. I know how they build wooden canoes.

The third Bicycle Effect happened on the road from Rugby to Esmond. Peddling in the rain, an older gentleman passed us and felt sorry for the two fools that were all wet. He offered to let us stay in his spare bedrooms. There was no choice but to take him up on the offer. It was so endearing how he offered us everything followed sincerely by, “That’ll be just fine.” Sylvester was such a wonderful host that after dinner and breakfast, we didn’t leave till two o’clock in the afternoon.

I think that what Chase and I are experiencing is kindheartedness brought on by our good looks. Just kidding! It’s our steel horses that bring us all these great adventures. People see them and think automatically that we are nice folks. It is the case, but it’s great that people assume that. This is something that I have never experienced before, and from now on I will try to be like one of the great people that we have met.