Being stuck at home offers up rare opportunity to meet a personal hero

He got within two people of one of his personal heroes with his question ready. But, Ryker Dodd’s just missed his chance to meet Josh Gates, the producer and host of The Discovery Channel show, Expedition Unknown, when it was announced the Q&A session at the end of Gates’ lecture was ending.

Little did Ryker know that he would get another chance to speak to his hero in the near future.

Ryker, 8, and his younger brother, Beckett, 6, enjoy the archeologist’s frenetic and often funny adventures investigating mysteries and legends around the world. Gates’ affable nature on camera as he’s searching for Amelia Earhart in the jungles of Papua New Guinea or getting to the bottom of weird occurrences in the Bermuda Triangle easily pulls young adventurers in.

Although their younger sister Lennox doesn’t necessarily share their enthusiasm for the show, the three siblings join their parents, Josh and Megan, weekly to watch Gates’ most recent adventure.

“We travel a lot and enjoy exploring new places,” Josh explained adding that naturally leads into the boys’ appreciation of Gates’ travels and exploration of the world.

Ryker, a second-grader at Fifth Street Elementary, has even read Gates’ book, Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter.

As any responsible parent would do for a child with enthusiasm for archeology and adventure, Josh and Megan have also introduced the boys to Indiana Jones. Raiders of the Lost Ark is Ryker’s favorite in the series and he’s sure he wants to become an archeologist when he grows up.

Recently, Ryker dressed up like Gates for dress-up day at school and Josh shared the image on Instagram tagging Gates in the post. Little did Josh know at the time but soon after that photo was posted, schools shut down and as stay-at-home orders came out across the country, Gates began a new show, Josh Gates Tonight: Safer at Home, hosted from the study in his home.

During the show, Gates spends time diving into some of the backstories on the explorations in Expedition Unknown as well as revealing bloopers that occur during filming. He also has a segment in which he reaches out with a surprise video chat with fans.

After seeing Josh’s post, a producer reached out to him on Instagram to plan for a potential surprise meetup between the boys and Gates. Josh explained the family’s love for adventure and how the show had fueled some good discussions with the boys. Josh even revealed that he shares certain episodes with his art history class at Jasper High School as a reward.

Last Friday evening, the boys had an inkling that something was up as Josh and Megan prepped a room in the house with some special lighting that was necessary for the surprise interview. The producers wanted the boys’ genuine reaction so Josh and Megan couldn’t tell them much.

“We told the boys they were going to meet someone famous,” Josh said.

When the Zoom call came in, Beckett got to the screen first. “I knew Ryker would be really surprised,” he said.

When Ryker saw Gates was on the screen to talk to them, he could hardly hold in his excitement. “I was like “Oh my gosh,'” he said slapping his hands over his mouth in surprise.

After the initial surprise, Ryker and Beckett had a chance to talk to Gates about his adventures and ask questions. Ryker asked him what he considered was his craziest adventure and Gates told him it was a recent episode where he and the crew investigated the deaths of a group of skiers in Russia’s Ural Mountains. The 1959 incident remains unsolved and investigators have been puzzled by the evidence they found at the campsite including the appearance that the tents had been ripped open from the inside as the skiers made a hasty escape, some only wearing socks or in their bare feet.

Beckett asked Gates about the time he got stuck underground. “I asked him how long he got stuck in there,” Beckett said. “And he said he was stuck about 30 minutes.”

This gave Beckett the opportunity to tell Gates about the time he got his hand stuck under the turtle tank in the bathroom at their Jasper home. According to Beckett, he had gone into the bathroom for a drink and one of his toys had fallen behind the tank. As he reached under to retrieve it, his arm got stuck. “It was at night,” Beckett said adding that he thought he would just have to sleep there for the night.

Fortunately, Josh investigated the sounds coming from the bathroom and rescued Beckett from his predicament.

Gates told Beckett not to worry about it, things like that can happen to the best of us.

During the interview, Gates also commended Megan for her work at Memorial Hospital’s emergency room where she is the emergency room secretary.

The segment featuring the Dodds will air tonight (Wednesday) at 9 p.m. Eastern on The Discovery Channel. Episodes are also available after they air on the Discovery Channel App.