Ohh Canada… - The Tim's Gift Card

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What do you see in this photo, aside from another random Tim Horton’s where I was spending four to six hours a day working while crisscrossing Canada? That’s right, you see a Tim Hortons gift card. So what’s the big deal you might ask???

It was the middle of June and I’d just crossed over the border into Ontario from Manitoba. I ended up at a Tim Hortons in Kenora, my office headquarters for most of this trip.

I was here trying to catch up on some work while Goose was parked near the entrance, overloaded, muddy, and showing off his out of province license plates. I was sitting at my table enjoying a tea and a muffin; looking scruffy and unshaven as is life on the road, and still wearing the same t-shirt and biker pants I’d camped in the night before. I was definitely a sight for sore eyes. 

Typically I get a lot of attention when traveling in other countries, but in my home country, I wasn’t expecting too many people to take an interest. However, even just looking like I was on an adventure seemed to draw people to me. 

Friendly locals had been chatting me up at various Tim Horton’s parking lots throughout my cross-country adventure thus far, but today I felt like a magnet for attention. At one point a young guy on an Africa Twin (the big brother to Goose), who was headed from Alberta to Montreal had seen the KixMarshall.com sticker on the bike and looked me up. Before coming inside he’d read the preview to my last book online and once he had done a little research on me, came over to talk bikes and travel. 

    A little while later, a man who looked well into his retirement years came over and introduced himself. He asked a couple of questions about my trip then proceeded to tell me about an adventure he had been on, taking a small boat from the Arctic to Greenland before strolling off to grab a coffee. He probably got the sense I enjoyed a good adventure story.

    A short while later and onto my second muffin another guy, roughly in his 50s popped by the table to tell me about a DRZ400 bike he’d recently bought. His wife had passed away earlier this year and it sounded like he was a bit lost as to what direction to take with his life moving forward. He said he hadn’t ridden in over twenty years, but this summer he was going to ride to Tuktoyaktuk with some friends. I could certainly relate to his loss of direction in life and turning to a motorbike for inspiration.

    After my Tim's stop to do a bit of work and hear a lot of great stories, I rode across the street to Walmart to grab some snacks for the road. Just as I was parking, a lady in her 70s walked right over to me and told me she was on her way back from Winnipeg; headed home to Thunder Bay with her husband, who was now in his 80s. They had made the trek for an eye surgery he had desperately needed. She said that he used to go on a lot of motorcycle adventures in his younger days, but always preferred to go alone as more people meant more people to worry about. I laughed, as I usually prefer to ride with a plastic monkey and a plastic zebra or my wife if I’m looking to branch out to enjoy the company of humans 🙂

    The lady said her husband's health had recently gotten worse; she kindly asked if I would ride by their car on my way out of the parking lot so he could see my setup. She also told me how excited he got every time a bike went past. So on my way out of the parking lot, I got nice and close to their car and gave a double honk. Up popped a head of lightening white hair and matching bushy eyebrows. He lit up like a Christmas tree and gave me an intriguing smile. I waved and he waved back as this chill ran up the back of my spine. It was this eerie feeling that I was staring at my future self.  A now old man watching a young man riding away on his dirt bike to his next adventure…like the ones he used to take.

    For me, the moment I’ll never forget is the gift card. Before I’d left the Tim Hortons and was sitting there looking like yesterday's leftovers, one more person had come up to me to ask about the adventure.

Lady; “Hi there, it looks like you are traveling, where are you going?”
Me; “Newfoundland, the slow way…”
Lady; “Ohh wow. I’d just come back from PEI and next, I’m going to Yellowknife. It’s been on my bucket list for years and this year I am finally going to both.”

    I have been extremely fortunate to meet thousands of people from all walks of life and from all over the world during my travels. Due to the fact that I usually meet them while on some little adventure to some place or another, they often tell me about some amazing place they have gone to or some amazing place they have always wanted to go to. For some it’s a quick trip in their own country's backyard, for others, it’s to some far-off location on the other side of the planet. For me, it’s always a moving target. Throughout my conversations with these various people, there is a striking and evident commonality…they never wished they had worked more hours, closed more deals, or spent more time at the office. Without fail, the goal or bucket list item is always to see a part of the world they had never seen.

Back to my gift card story and the random lady who came to talk to me.

 She appeared to be in her 60s and was extremely friendly. I had never been to PEI myself, yet, but had recently come from Yellowknife so I offered up a few tips about this and that. As our conversation was wrapping up she opened her purse and said: “I’ve got something for you.” With that, she handed me a Tim Hortons gift card. She insisted she had no idea how much was on the card as though it was just an extra one she had in her purse. She said she knew how expensive it is to travel and thought it might be good for me to get a little meal or something. She smiled, wished me well, and then walked out the door.

The next day I stopped at another Tim’s for a tea and to do some work. I pulled out the gift card I had been given and it had a balance of $20. I remembered that after that lady wished me well she had not gone back to the till, she had gone out the door. I never saw her buy the gift card, but I’m fairly certain that she spotted me on the way in and after getting something for herself, she purchased a gift card for me; then came over to say hello.

Ohh Canada, you’re filled with the nicest people!