About 1,700 miles from Baltimore, near Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, Ace was drawing attention from a few people as we walked the dusty streets in the tiny tourist town of Medora.

"Can I talk to your dog?" one woman asked as she approached.

As she and her husband petted Ace, she spoke of how she missed her own dog back home.

"Where's that?" I asked.

"Baltimore," she answered.

Claire and Harvey Hoffman, of Lutherville -- that's them to the left, with Ace -- had flown from Baltimore to North Dakota for a long weekend.

That's fairly unusual in itself. That we happened to run into each other was quite a coincidence, too. What's stranger yet, is that their visit was part of their nearly completed quest to visit all 50 states -- a feat I had just accomplished the night before when I entered the state.

For the Hoffman's, North Dakota is state No. 49. The only one left is South Dakota, and they hope to visit it next year.

Claire, a semi-retired federal government attorney, and Harvey, a hospital product salesman, were spending a long weekend in North Dakota, playing some golf and visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

In yet another coincidence, their dog, a golden retriever named Bailey, is a therapy dog, like Ace. Hoffman and Bailey visit hospitals and nursing homes through a program called Pets on Wheels. Ace had become a therapy dog this summer with a group called Karma Dogs. (That story  will appear soon in the Sun and on Baltimoresun.com., where the video version will be available.)

"Bailey is so loveable and sweet," Hoffman said. "I get so much joy from her that I just want to share it."

It's amazing the bridges that can be crossed with dogs -- and the walls that can get knocked down.

Our running into the Hoffmans brought that point home again. For if not for Ace, we likely would have passed each other -- fellow dog-loving Baltimoreans, 1,700 miles from home -- with nothing more than a nod.