I know there is another Forum about "happy encounters" here somewhere because I responded to it.  It was mostly referring to chance encounters.  This one is slightly different.  

I've had a few occasions where I've met up with old friends and family while on tour.  Some were planned well in advance, a couple of them were very impromptu.

Mother's Day is tomorrow and the holiday reminded me of the time my mom and dad drove out on Mother's Day to meet with me while on my Mississippi River tour.  They were about the only people I actually knew who were reading my journal every day.

https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/goingup/it-will-never-be-1973-again/

A couple years later my mom died.  I have many great memories of her, but on Mother's Day, this is the greatest of all.

Anybody else care to share meet-ups with friends and family?

A beautiful post Greg, wishing you much strength for Mothers Day, there's nothing like the support sons get from their mothers, treasure those memories forever. Thankfully I've still got my mum, although I don't think she never reads my cycle touring posts (computer illiterate).

Lednar

Now that you mention it, I've met up with old friends on several of my tours. 

On my 2018 tour from DC to Portland OR, I met up with friend from my college days in Pittsburgh. They took me out to dinner and gave me the cook's tour of the town. Hundreds of miles later I stayed with a friend from grad school who I hadn't seen in twenty years. I took a day off at her place in St. Paul and we had a great time. Met her husband and daughter as well. North of Seattle I diverted from my route to stay on Camano Island with a high school classmate whom I had not seen since 1998. Again I stayed a day to rest up. After over 3,000 miles of riding and only two days of rest, I really needed the break. 

On my trip from DC to Key West in 2017 I stayed with a college friend in Southport NC. I hadn't seen her since 2002. Had a great time staying up way too late reminiscing. She arranged to have me stay with her aunt and uncle in South Carolina.

 In West Palm Beach I stayed with another friend from my college days. It was the first time we'd seen each other since 1978. Had an amazing time. She introduced me to chicken and waffles. Again we stayed up way past midnight talking a blue streak.

Finally, on my Erie Canal transit of New York State in 2004 I stopped in Lyons NY where an old college friend had a restaurant. I didn't have his contact info but the town lumber yard had his name on it. I stopped in and they sent me over to the restaurant. Good times. 

I suppose you could do a High Fidelity tour, riding to see all the women/men you broke up with in your younger days. That might not turn out so well but you'd have tales to tell.

Greg this post resonates with me because I have just done exactly this. At the conclusion of a 3,800 km ride across Australia, I’ve visited a cousin (Eric) who left from my home village to join the army in the early 1960s. I was nine years old, he was 18 years old. 

I didn’t see him again for about 58 years when he and his wife visited me in Canberra a few years ago. He thought I was joking at the time when I said that I’d cycle tour across Australia to see him in Perth te-pay the visit. 

Four days ago I visited cousin Eric and his wide in Perth at the conclusion of my Canberra to Perth ride. It was wonder to see him again. He’s had an extraordinarily eventful and productive  life since leaving our home village in about 1962. 

In 2018, I planned a trip from Syracuse to Philadelphia (You CAN go home again). I chose this route because it passed by my parent's house in Yardley, PA, and I could stay an overnight with them. Yes, the route had some things I wanted to see, like touring through the Finger Lakes region, and finding bike trails from Scranton all the way to the Lehigh Valley and then into Philadelphia (what was later to be created as the D&L Trail. And, seeing my parents was a good destination since I'm 13 hours away and too far to make Sunday night dinners.

All during the last day, my mom excitedly messaged me wondering where I was and how far away on the trail, and when I would plan to arrive, and what I wanted for lunch, and the choices of sandwiches she had for lunch. You know, mom-type-texts. I rolled in and met them in Washington Crossing, my mom brought me a sandwich, then we ran some errands, and had dinner at their favorite local place. In the morning, it was raining so instead of me riding to the Philadelphia train station, they gave me a lift in the car. They dropped me off and it was the last time I saw my dad alive. He died later that year, and I wrote about that while I was on tour on the Fool's Loop.

So, I was glad I made the trip and was able to see my dad that year. Since it worked out so well, I routed my trip to end in 2019 from Maine with a stopover at my mom's house. We did very much the same thing before I took off for the train station the next day.