ZOOMing in on Montreal
Like so many people, we had all these great travel plans for 2020. Starting in April, we planned to cruise the Chesapeake Bay for a couple of weeks. Then in September, we were riding our bicycles from Hendersonville to Savannah Georgia. Already for early 2021, we were piecing together a barge trip with bicycling in the South Burgundy region in France.
But our plans got changed, thanks to the uninvited COVID interloper. Instead of rubber on the road, our excursions became vicarious trips via the Internet. We were traveling in late 2019 by a conveyance we hadn’t heard about – ZOOM. It gave us a chance to visit with friends on last year’s bike tour. Likewise, unexpectedly, it expanded our horizon with a different kind of bike travel.
The FOGBEE Bike Club was formed fifteen years ago on Indian Lake Peninsula as a half dozen of us sat in Phil Vickery’s rec-room above his garage. We were engaged in our usual post-ride routine – downing a growler of Yazoo Dos Perros. One of us said, “We need to form a bike club.”
Our fondest activity was the bike tour: find someplace we hadn’t been, map out a route on the back roads, load up the bike with supplies, and take off from three days to three weeks. Some bike tourists liked to camp, but after pedaling fifty or sixty miles in a day, a tent was an anathema for our elderly bones. Our desired evening was in an air-conditioned and dry motel room with a comfortable bed.
As they said, “The rest was history.”
Shortly after that exclamation, three FOGBEES, Aussie Bob, Bruce Day, David Irvine headed to Great Britain for a six-week bike tour of the island. Aussie Bob from Australia planned the entire route. They, like our common practice, carried cameras and authored an extensive photo journal upon returning. The other club members shared the adventure vicariously.
But the unfortunate march of time has been breaking up “that old gang of mine.” We retire and often move to places far from Indian Lake Peninsula. Getting together to share adventures has gotten more difficult every year. However, COVID has had its serendipity – the ZOOM get-together.
We now have weekly ZOOM Nerd Nite meetings with FOGBEES who have moved to West Virginia, New Jersey, and other Tennessee locations. We have even joined the ZOOM bike club meetings of friends we made last year in Montreal. And that brings me to the topic of this article – the Montreal Bike Club (MBC). which claims to be a reformation of the first bicycle club in North America.
But our plans got changed, thanks to the uninvited COVID interloper. Instead of rubber on the road, our excursions became vicarious trips via the Internet. We were traveling in late 2019 by a conveyance we hadn’t heard about – ZOOM. It gave us a chance to visit with friends on last year’s bike tour. Likewise, unexpectedly, it expanded our horizon with a different kind of bike travel.
The FOGBEE Bike Club was formed fifteen years ago on Indian Lake Peninsula as a half dozen of us sat in Phil Vickery’s rec-room above his garage. We were engaged in our usual post-ride routine – downing a growler of Yazoo Dos Perros. One of us said, “We need to form a bike club.”
Our fondest activity was the bike tour: find someplace we hadn’t been, map out a route on the back roads, load up the bike with supplies, and take off from three days to three weeks. Some bike tourists liked to camp, but after pedaling fifty or sixty miles in a day, a tent was an anathema for our elderly bones. Our desired evening was in an air-conditioned and dry motel room with a comfortable bed.
As they said, “The rest was history.”
Shortly after that exclamation, three FOGBEES, Aussie Bob, Bruce Day, David Irvine headed to Great Britain for a six-week bike tour of the island. Aussie Bob from Australia planned the entire route. They, like our common practice, carried cameras and authored an extensive photo journal upon returning. The other club members shared the adventure vicariously.
But the unfortunate march of time has been breaking up “that old gang of mine.” We retire and often move to places far from Indian Lake Peninsula. Getting together to share adventures has gotten more difficult every year. However, COVID has had its serendipity – the ZOOM get-together.
We now have weekly ZOOM Nerd Nite meetings with FOGBEES who have moved to West Virginia, New Jersey, and other Tennessee locations. We have even joined the ZOOM bike club meetings of friends we made last year in Montreal. And that brings me to the topic of this article – the Montreal Bike Club (MBC). which claims to be a reformation of the first bicycle club in North America.
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| 20 June 2019 FOGBEE's Tour of Montreal |
Our eighty-three-year-old West Virginia FOGBEE transplant David Irvine who rode his bike with us last year to Montreal has had a real affinity for these guys north of the border. I think I know why he has been routinely sharing their frequent photo journals with us.
He recently said, “These frequent photo postings remind me of the Fogbee ride photos that used to be posted; I recall that Phil Vickery had a good eye for Kodak moments.”
I replied, ”The MBC is like what the FOGBEES were about 15 years ago. As I watch what the ‘kids’ in MBC are doing, I feel a bit of nostalgia and envy.”
I love Tennessee's history and have organized several local rides to relive it. With camera in hand, I have been known to chase down an old buffalo trail. The MBC loves Montreal and bicycle history. They have organized many local bike rides to relive that. Their website at www.montrealbicycleclub.com has a wealth of information about bicycling in the late nineteenth century and their blog postings have dozens of photo tours with maps of Montreal and the surrounding countryside. Even more valuable, their photography work is excellent. With great pleasure, we ZOOM in on their club meetings at some coffee shop in Montreal and discuss their latest adventure.
He recently said, “These frequent photo postings remind me of the Fogbee ride photos that used to be posted; I recall that Phil Vickery had a good eye for Kodak moments.”
I replied, ”The MBC is like what the FOGBEES were about 15 years ago. As I watch what the ‘kids’ in MBC are doing, I feel a bit of nostalgia and envy.”
I love Tennessee's history and have organized several local rides to relive it. With camera in hand, I have been known to chase down an old buffalo trail. The MBC loves Montreal and bicycle history. They have organized many local bike rides to relive that. Their website at www.montrealbicycleclub.com has a wealth of information about bicycling in the late nineteenth century and their blog postings have dozens of photo tours with maps of Montreal and the surrounding countryside. Even more valuable, their photography work is excellent. With great pleasure, we ZOOM in on their club meetings at some coffee shop in Montreal and discuss their latest adventure.
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| Montreal Bicycle Club Symbol |
Tom Evans
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