They call themselves Recumbent Ray and Laidback Leon. And as you read this, they are embarking on a journey some would call crazy. Or risky, at the very least.
Friday, May 25 was their scheduled departure date from Victoria BC, heading east over the Rockies, across the prairies, and ending in Beausejour, MB – Leon’s home town.
The trip will cover 2,500 rather daunting kilometres. Daunting because they’re travelling on trikes.
Lying down on the job
Ray Harris and Leon Dionne’s preferred mode of transportation is the recumbent trike - you know, the kind that has three wheels, a seat with a back and the rider’s legs horizontal to the ground.
Tour de France racers they are not.
“I think the best way to describe us,” said Ray, “is Two Old Guys Trying to Relive Their Youth and succeeding or giving it a darn good try.”
Harris (68) is a retired cop, handyman and artist who lives in Oak Lake. Dionne (70) is a retired field service engineer who lives in Beausejour.
The men met two years ago when they were put on the same team at the Gimli Multiple Sclerosis Bike Tour. At that time, Dionne was still riding a two-wheeler. But then…
“Last year he mentions that I just looked too comfortable on my trike,” says Harris, “So he went and bought one himself.”
Epic adventure
The following year, they wound up on the same Gimli Bike team again and discovered they shared a common hankering to cycle tour.
A plan for a truly epic adventure was hatched.
Dionne said this was something he has wanted to do for over 20 years. And Recumbent Ray?
“All I can say is, this is as young as I'm ever going to be.
“I'd hate to look back and say ‘I wish I tried doing this when I was younger and regret not at least trying!’”
Their planned route takes them down back roads through the BC lower mainland, then the Trans-Canada Highway to Hope, down Highway 3 to Medicine Hat, and back on the No. 1 for the rest of the trip. The two travelers plan to tent most nights, stay with billets or in motels if they have to.
They’re budgeting five to six weeks for the whole thing.
“What’s it for?”
It wasn’t supposed to be one of those cross-country fundraising journeys you see every summer going down the highway.
But after people starting asking, “What’s it for?” Harris decided to use the opportunity to solicit donations for his charity of choice, MS.
Is he at all worried the two of them, although laidback, might get on each other’s nerves with constant exposure for a month and a half?
“I'm sure a bond of some kind will be made,” muses Harris. “What kind of a bond? We will only know by the end of the tour.”
