Epic Road Trip for Lifelong Friends from Vegreville

Epic Road Trip for Lifelong Friends from Vegreville

Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

Former school chums and lifelong friends recently completed an epic four-day road trip from Vegreville to Vermilion to Wainwright to Viking and back to Vegreville.

Hobe Horton, Rob Nawrot, Arnie Olyan and Keith Steinbach cycled 286 kilometres between Aug. 15-18 along with Wendall James and Jim Bradshaw as well as Arnie’s wife Lori and Hobe’s wife Helen.

“We also convinced two other classmates, Janice Demco and Heather Paziuk, to accompany us by driving support vehicles. The eight Vegreville folks took all 12 years of schooling in Vegreville and graduated together in 1975,” said Horton.

The ride was very special for a number of reasons, but the biggest was marking the 50th anniversary of the original ride Horton, Nawrot, Olyan and Steinback took in the summer of 1972.

Horton stated that, “Back in 1972, 10-speed bikes had just recently begun getting popular among Vegreville kids. The four of us had had our bikes for two years or less. Rob and I often rode to Lavoy and back before school just for something to do.

I can’t remember who came up with the idea to do the long ride and we are all a bit surprised that our parents allowed us to attempt it. We didn’t have much money back then so we just took sleeping bags with the expectation of sleeping under the stars at the free provincial campgrounds that existed in the day.”

Celebrating at the end of the ride at Pysanka Park.

(Heather Paziuk/Submitted Photo)

In addition to the challenging terrain and difficult weather conditions nearly forced them to stop the ride on day three of their journey. They waited out a bad rain storm, but Horton had to make the very difficult decision to not ride ahead on day four. “I had a bad cold and had been feeling worse every day of the ride so I called my dad to come pick me up. The others rode from Fabyan to Vegreville on day four.”

Horton said it always bothered him that I didn’t finish the ride and that’s why he has always been keen to try it again.

“The big motivator for me was the fact that it was the 50th anniversary. It also coincided with a high school reunion that was being held the weekend before the ride, so it was easy for all of us to make ourselves available.

Start of the original ride. Pictured from L-R: Hobe Horton, Rob Nawrot, Arnie Olyan and Keith Steinbach.

(Mrs. Essie Olyan/Submitted Photo)

All of us are either retired or in transition to retirement so work commitments didn’t get in the way. For me personally, this year’s ride finally gave me the chance to finish what I had been unable to do 50 years ago. Doing so gave me immense satisfaction and being able to it with long-time friends made the achievement extra special.

I think that it is fair to say that we are fortunate, perhaps even blessed, to all be in sufficiently robust health to have successfully undertaken and completed this odyssey twice in a lifetime – with 50 years between trips!”

He felt the trip would be a good opportunity to raise money for a charity. “One of our riders is diabetic and suggested we ride for Diabetes Canada and we thought that was a great idea. We set up a website and to date more than $4,000 has been donated by ourselves, our friends and our families.”