At 8 o'clock in the morning on Saturday, December 6, 2003 I emailed a guy that I had been corresponding with through JDate to ask if he would be interested in test riding a tandem with me (I had always wanted a tandem and decided I would buy one for myself for my recent birthday). I didn't expect him to respond in time, since I doubted that he was awake, or checking email at 8am, but shortly after I wrote to him, he called me.
Steve said he'd be happy to check out the tandem with me, but was taken aback when I asked him what kind of car he drove. He decided he would meet me after all, when I explained that I was only asking to see if his car was big enough to transport the bike home should I choose to buy it. The answer was obviously no, since his Toyota Corolla was barely bigger than my Toyota Tercel.
When we arrived at the house of the gentleman who owned the Schwinn Twinn we were about to ride, I informed Steve that he would need to captain it (ride in front and steer) since I am much smaller than him. This was news to Steve, but he got huge points for still being willing to try it, on a first date, with the date being an experienced cyclist. What guy is confident enough to do that?
The tandem ride lasted only minutes, but the date lasted 5 more hours. I bought the tandem. This December will mark the eighth anniversary of that tandem ride, and though I just sold the tandem (it was a tank and Steve hated riding it), I can't imagine anyone I'd rather ride our new tandem with.
I also said goodbye to our Trek. Now that we have kids, we never get a chance to ride either of these tandems.
And the purchase that made these two sales necessary: I finally found a tandem that I can captain. In order to warrant purchasing a new tandem, I had to clear out the old ones. Samuel and I have a blast riding this together, and within the next year, Shira will be hooked up behind us on the trail a bike.
It was easy to sell the Trek.
But selling the Schwinn that Steve and I rode and I purchased on our first date, was hard to come to terms with.
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