Canadian Cyclists Visit Vermilion – April 1961 – Part 2

It wasn’t very difficult to find one of the Canadian high school students who came through our area back in April 1961 during their bicycle tour around Lake Erie. His name came up in a Google search in a matter of seconds.

With a name like Adriaan Vanderlugt, however, I guess that’s not too surprising, eh?

But there he was, on the other side of the world in Australia, having enjoyed a long and successful career as a sculptor that shows no sign of slowing down. His wife Denise is a talented artist as well, specializing in quilt making but also working across a variety of mediums, including printmaking, collages and books.

After visiting the Vanderlugts’ studio website, I reached out to Adriaan via email to find out how he was doing these days. (I sent him a copy of the Journal front page featuring him and his cycling pals. I assumed he had seen it, but thought he might get a kick out of seeing it again.)

 I received a reply the very next day.

"G’day Dan Brady!” was the greeting.

"What a treat it was to receive your email. And what a surprise.

“Yes, I have the picture and caption in my scrap book, but not the story. What a delight to read it again. Thank you so much. And on the front page of the Lorain Journal, with JFK indeed!”  

Did Adriaan have any idea as to what his cycling partners were doing these days?

"I have lost touch totally with Darryl,” he wrote, "but after high school, Colin Watson went to University and I went to an advertising art studio and have made a living as an artist. Colin became an engineer and has worked overseas.

 

"I noted you checked out my website, but you would not know that I made the front page of the New Zealand Herald, not with a bicycle but with my 305cc Honda Super Hawk in 1969. History repeating itself.”

Here is the article about Adriaan’s tour around the world by motorcycle and how he was sidetracked in Australia by cupid’s arrow.

Adriaan continued with an update as to what he was doing these days.

"From advertising art, I morphed into full time sculpture in 1985 and have had a most exciting career. 

"Just yesterday we had an unveiling of my latest sculpture in scrap metal depicting the ‘Musicians of Bremen,’ a Grimm Brothers Fairy Tale. 

"My friend is doing animal rescues and has chosen this image for her logo and asked me to make a sculpture which we positioned at the start of the drive way to her farm. The sculpture is over 9 ft high on a 2.5 ft concrete base.”

Here’s a photo of the wonderful sculpture.

Adriaan also sent me the newspaper account of the sculpture’s unveiling.

"And here we are, 60 years later and still making the papers,” he noted, "although not quite on the front page but in colour this time! How the graphics have changed!

"Regards, Adriaan.”

It was great to catch up with Adriaan. Sixty years after his bike ride around Lake Erie, he's still showing us how it's possible to live life in a happy and serendipitous manner, doing what you love.

****

UPDATE (May 3, 2021)

The trip around Lake Erie wasn’t the only one that Adriaan and Colin took on their bicycles back in 1961. They followed it up in August 1961 with a 900-mile trip around Lake Ontario to Montreal and New York State! 

Here are some clippings from that second bike adventure that Adriaan sent me. The first two are from their hometown Hamilton Spectator; the third article is from a Watertown, New York newspaper.