Two Are Better book review
Tim and Debbie Bishop
Inspiration/Travel/Adventure
ISBN: 9780985624828
May 2013
Open Road Press
19.95 full color paperback
7.99 ebook
From the back:
Go for it! This unique and entertaining story proves it’s
never too late to make your dreams come true. From an engagement to a
cross-country trip in just ten weeks? And with no experience bicycle touring—or
marriage! While Tim left behind a 26-year corporate career and familiar
surroundings, Debbie was about to enter a “classroom” she hadn’t seen in 24
years of teaching. Was it a grand getaway or a big mistake?
My review:
Tim and Debbie Bishop are brave. They asked me to read and
review Two Are Better, and I agreed, not realizing what an adventure I’d been
given. My first shock was learning that the Bishops were my age when they
undertook first-time marriage, followed by a cross-country bike trip for a
honeymoon. My second shock was thinking, I wonder if I passed them, because
some of the same roads they traveled out west were the same ones my husband and
I took from the safety of our car, about the same time. We pass cyclists and
shake our heads.
This book is not simply a travelogue, but a reflection on
undertaking a life-transforming journey at what most people consider middle
age. Changing one’s entire lifestyle by marriage is one thing, but then to go
on a trip for which they both declared they were unprepared immediately
thereafter is an interesting throw-you-in-the-deep-end method of learning to
swim. The Bishops were honest about the trip and their feelings, and the
events, throughout the trip.
Maps with the stops accompany the narrative, most of which
is written by Tim, with paragraphs inserted in a different color by Debbie. My
husband is a teacher, and I kept thinking while reading, he’d never, ever,
allow himself to get home only hours before starting a new school year. He’s a
different kind of teacher, though. I read the account also from a perspective
of being married for more than half my life. It takes special people to be
brave and blissfully ignorant to attempt a trip like this. I loved the
photographs and accounts of crossing our country, what they learned about each
other and themselves, as they traveled. While Tim’s style of writing
occasionally waxes eloquently, a few quotes stuck out: “A delicate balancing
act of making progress on multiple fronts was an instructional tutorial on
married life.” “Most fears have some basis in reality, but we usually give them
too much power….Everyone has the opportunity to come face to face with
discovery.” And from Debbie, “Later, I came to realize that life as I had known
it was gone forever....Although change may be more difficult [as we age], that
doesn’t mean it can’t or shouldn’t happen. When we stop changing, we stop
growing.”
This is a great book for couples at any stage of their
relationship, whether or not you’re planning an adventure. The Bishops are also
working on a tutorial book about bicycle touring.
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