Two are Better is a novel by Tim and Debbie Bishop who are a middle aged couple who have never married before but have always wanted to be married. The two met and over the course of several years fell in love after becoming very good friends. They met over the Internet in 2003 and after getting to know each other decided to meet in person which graduated into good friends and eventually into an engagement in 2010 and quickly married in the same year. The couple planned to marry and then for their honeymoon bicycle across the United States from Pacific to Atlantic during Debbie's summer vacation from her job at school. Tim had just retired from his job and so had plenty of free time. Debbie was busy with end of the school year activities so Tim planned not only the wedding but also the cross country trip. Neither however had time from their April engagement until their June wedding did not leave time to train (though both were physically very active) for their cross country trip or even to get to know their bikes and new equipment. Tim and Jim Massey, Debbie's cousin who lived in Oregon, were putting the bikes and equipment together the night before the couple left. They had few rules but among them were that they would attend church services on Sunday if possible. They though that they were packing light but during the trip lightened again and forwarded the excess to their home. They knew that their trip was in excess of 3000 miles and that they had 2 months to complete it and still get Debbie back in time to start the next school session.
As I started reading this book I didn't think that I was going to like Tim. Debbie had stated that she wanted to carry her share of the load during the trip but when it became evident that she would not physically be able to do this especially with the physical ailment that occurred he still did not help her even after watching her fall with the bike from exhaustion. When her physical ailment finally became debilitating did he rescue her and transfer some of her load to his bike and they shipped some back home. Could be that it just took him that long to figure things out. I enjoyed the ride and it helped me to decide that I am pretty sure that I am cured from ever thinking that I should undertake that long of a trip on a bike. I had no idea of the toll it took on the body. I also think that their marriage benefited from having to depend on each other for most of their needs. It is also something that must have taken a bigger chunk of money than I would have thought and that they maybe would have been better off it more would have been spent on some of their equipment or the repair of it. This couple spent as many of their nights as possible in motels and ate in restaurants along the way so they had some hot meals not cooked over campfires which was most likely more nutritious.
I did end up liking both characters in the book and loved the book and its adventure. It would be suitable reading for any age group that is capable of the reading level.
I won this book in a giveaway from www.interviewsandreviews.com. (submitted by CB)
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