I said good-bye to your bike today, Dad. The young man who bought your bike was from Fargo. He said he had sold his previous smaller bike and that this bike of yours was his dream bike. He’d been looking for quite some time, but they were just so expensive. His name was Miguel and he wanted to be able to ride across the country before he had to be stationed out in Afghanistan in August – he was in the service. I told him Dad would be watching over him. And, I gave him a picture of you to keep in his saddlebag.

Even though, your bike is no longer here, you’ve left us with this gift of riding. The seeds were planted young and it didn’t take long for Scott to round me up a bike when I said it was time for me to have a bigger one.

I understand your passion – being out there on a bike somehow blows the cobwebs of the day’s worries away. It’s cheaper than therapy and I think we should be able to deduct our bikes on our taxes under medical expenses. I’m going to ask our tax man about that.