A Bicycle Love Story

So way back in the 80's when I was in grad school I lived in the the tiny town of Oxford, OH. I met my kids father there, and when we met I was shocked and and apalled that he didn't have a bike, as Oxford was the perfect place for biking, both as recreation and just for getting around town. So I cajoled him into a buying a bike so we could ride together. He went uptown to "The Bike Center" and bought a nice red Nishiki, a nicer bike than the one I rode in the color I always wanted my bike to be. I still have never had a red bike... **sniff**

Fast forward to 'now'. I live way out west in Utah. I am divorced. My ex never really was as interested in biking as I am, so he left his bikes behind when he left. My 23 year old son however, is into bikes, and bike building and repairing, so he recognized that the old bike of dads was actually a nice, quality old bike. So last spring he pulled it out of the crawlspace and hauled it back to Durango, CO where he attended college.

This weekend when I was in Durango for his graduation he asked me to take his dads bike back home, since it's winter and his house is tiny (really tiny). As we go to wrangle the bike out of his overcrowded entry way, I ask about the 3rd bike in the pile, a gray Trek, probably from the '90's, which I did not recognize. Turns out it was his girlfriend Alicia's... then he gets excited...

"But get this mom, you know how dad's bike came from Oxford? It still has "The Bike Center" sticker. Look at Alicia's bike... it's from "The Bike Center" too... it has the exact same sticker."

So you have to be kidding me! Sure enough both bikes are labeled exactly the same. I asked where she got her bike, and it turned out she had bought it used, there in Durango. So what is the chance that two old bikes from the tiny town of Oxford, Ohio would come to live together in the same tiny house in Durango, CO? Kind of a bike "love story" of sorts! Two bikes, from a sleepy little Ohio town, travel the west to, decades later, be united 1400 miles from home in Durango, CO!