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Bill  On The Road

 by: Bill Oetinger  4/1/2022

Friends

Yesterday, our neighbor Tony invited a few friends over to sample his latest batch of home-made beer. (Tony makes very good beer and even grows his own hops.) That may not seem like earth-shaking news and I suppose it’s not. But if there were more news stories like this, the world would be a better place.

What makes this newsworthy for me—or at least fodder for a bike column—is that everyone who attended the party was connected to one another through cycling. We all ride. We don’t all ride the same way or have the same cycling plans or practices. Tony’s wife likes to load up a sturdy touring bike and head off on her own for a month of solo exploring in some far-off wonderland. Others are—or have been—closer to the “typical” template of racers or century riders. There are those who hew to the randonneur way of doing things. Almost everyone there has been on at least one of my summer tours. All of us met through some interactions within the Santa Rosa Cycling Club. Some of the friendships go back 30 years.

We met because we all joined the club. We joined the club because we wanted to take part in club rides; wanted to expand and improve our bike lives. And out of those incidental meetings on club rides—those shared adventures—we found a few people with whom we bonded in other ways than just as folks you meet on Saturday for a ride. We found other common themes in our lives. Shared values and pleasures and priorities. Each of us might have met some of the other people through some other matrix of social connection. Tony and his wife live just around the corner from me and my wife, in a small town. We might have crossed paths with them via other community connections. Or not. There are dozens of people who live nearer to me than they do—almost across the street—and who have lived that near to me for over 30 years…and I don’t even know their names, nor would I recognize some of them on the street. But I know where all the cyclists in the neighborhood live.

It’s the cycling that brought us together initially. To some degree it’s still the tie that binds us. Now, however, our common ground spreads well beyond cycling. We’re just as happy talking about our kids or grandkids, about our jobs or hobbies or gardens or current events. But eventually, we always circle back to biking. At the party, with a replay of Tirenno-Adriatico playing quietly on the TV in the corner, we sooner or later rolled out the old anecdotes, the tall tales about past rides. We got going on flats…on double flats. We recalled a broken seat bolt in Italy, riding in a downpour in France, the kindness of a stranger in Napa. So many rides, so many stories, big and little, scary or funny or just plain weird. It’s all grist for the mills of memory.

We may not ride as fast or as far as we used to. The average age at Tony’s party was…well, let’s just say middle-aged and leave it at that. But all those accumulated years add up to a wealth of experiences and adventures..a whole lot of been-there-done-that. We like unpacking the old yarns, both as tellers and listeners. We understand and respect one another. We are…friends.

This is always of great value for us, the social animals that we are. But it seems especially poignant and pertinent right now, as we are emerging from two-plus years of enforced isolation and “social distancing” in the dread shadow of the pandemic. It’s as if we’re cautiously climbing out of the storm cellar after the tornado has passed. Being able to once again meet with our friends for something as simple and as sublime as an afternoon of beer and chips and cheerful conversation…that seems just about as precious a gift as our world has to offer us. 

So thank you to cycling for finding me these genial companions, these fellow travelers upon life’s back roads. There are many reasons why we ride but these endearing and enduring friendships are right near the top of the list for me.

Bill can be reached at srccride@sonic.net



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