Tour De Tim Hortons

Since my dad was a teenager in the early 70s he always had a dream of cycling across Canada. In the spring of 2001 he shared this story with me and we decided that we where going to attempt to cycle across Canada during the summer of 2002. We left Langley, BC (60km east of Vancouver) on June 23rd 2002 and arrived at our destination Cape Spear, NF on August 29th 2002 68 days later. Our trip was a huge personal feat as we rode completely solo carrying all our necessities in two small trailers behind our bikes. Both my father and I are what someone would call avid Timmys fansand over the span of our 68 day trip we managed to stop at 78 different Tim Hortons and I kept track on the lap counter on my bikes speedometer. From sleeping in a Timmys in Kamloops in 42 degree weather, running into one in Ontario to escape a surreal downpour; finding a campsite in Atlantic Canada with a picnic table with Tim Hortons engraved into it, to the light of your sign as a shimmering beacon to us as we arrived in Newfoundland at 2am. It is without a doubt that you played a very active part in our trip. As we told our story to friends and family when we arrived back home, some suggested that instead of calling this our Cross Canada Bike Trip that we call it our Tour De Tim Hortons, and we decided to do just that. Of course, it was only fitting that after our plane landed back in the Lower Mainland (visit #78), much to the astonishment of the staff and patrons that we had successfully cycled 8000km coast to coast.