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Christmas Eve - The Time of Amazing Coincidences


Marty Backe

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I just had to relay this amazing coincidence. Today, Christmas Eve, I took my KS14S for a short 1/2-mile ride to a nearby strip mall to grab a hot lunch. On the way I decided to take a quick diversion to a pedestrian freeway overpass. The same one where I shot this short Mten3 video

I think the last time I was there was when I shot the video - two months ago. I don't go there that often.

I rode to the top and spent maybe 2-minutes riding around up there, mainly doing various reversals. Then I continued on my way to lunch.

A short while later I get a text from @Sketch

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Hey Marty. I'm going up the 5 freeway to LA today and I noticed a guy on the pedestrian overpass near Paramount and Lakewood who looked like you riding your KS14S. Was that you?

Now @Sketch is a fellow Southern California rider who lives 20+ miles south of me and probably doesn't get up to my neck of the woods very often. Some of you may know that it's his KS18S that I've been riding a lot lately, and he my MSuper V3s+

I then texted him back:

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That is sooooo funny. It was me. What are the odds of that? Did you honk - I heard a honk.

And Matt's reply

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Oh man... that's so funny. I didn't have time to honk. I was driving and looked up and recognized a guy riding a wheel and then realized that it looked a lot like you. I remembered that you have ridden on those overpass bridges in the past. I then had my wife use my phone to text you. That's so great!

So folks, the odds of this encounter is exceedingly small. I rarely (once every couple of months) take a trip on this short overpass. I assume that Matt rarely takes the 5 freeway this far from his home. BTW, Matt doesn't really know where I live nor I where he lives. So he wouldn't be on the lookout for me riding my wheel. Can you imagine, on the spur of the moment I decide to visit the overpass and in that 2-minute window he's driving under it. And we know each other and have each others wheels as this moment. Southern California has over 20-million people and covers a huge area.

It's really quite freaky. Made me smile and made my day.

Thought you guys would enjoy this little EUC story :)

P.s. Great 'seeing' you today @Sketch :cheers:

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I rarely see anyone riding EUCs and to see Marty Backe above me as I drove my family to Christmas Eve dinner was quite a pleasant shock.  I make that drive a handful of times a year and usually avoid that freeway due to high traffic.  Since Christmas Eve was on a Sunday, the traffic was light and I decided to take this route.  Truely a fun experience!

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3 minutes ago, Bob Eisenman said:

Actually this house better fits the view from the ramp title graphic on the video

71279.png

And this overpass is at the location of the house.

71282.png

And this long driveway and truck look familiar

71284.png

 

Pardon my map searching...?

 

 

Wow, you're really scouting out the neighborhood. Thanks for not posting the address, and I'm impressed that you found it ;)

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34 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

Wow, you're really scouting out the neighborhood. Thanks for not posting the address, and I'm impressed that you found it ;)

Hopefully mine is harder to find. Nice house BTW!

25454342338_3f7150c214_b.jpg

 

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31 minutes ago, Rehab1 said:

Hopefully mine is harder to find. Nice house BTW!

25454342338_3f7150c214_b.jpg

 

I have those pictures of your house. What was the street name again, just between you and me :ph34r:

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19 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

I have those pictures of your house. What was the street name again, just between you and me :ph34r:

Saint Backe Hwy 

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10 hours ago, WARPed1701D said:

This all just got creepy. Not the first time either.

Who wouldn’t want a road map published on an international forum leading to their home <--- sarcasm :cry2: 

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10 hours ago, Rehab1 said:

Hopefully mine is harder to find. Nice house BTW!

Challenge accepted...

FYI - It took about 10 minutes.

1 hour ago, Rehab1 said:

Who wouldn’t want a road map published on an international forum leading to their home  :cry2:

Well in that case... it starts with an 8

Nice pool, BTW!

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2 hours ago, The Fat Unicyclist said:

Challenge accepted...

FYI - It took about 10 minutes.

Well in that case... it starts with an 8

Nice pool, BTW!

Nice. Was I wearing my speedo? :)At least you are keeping it to yourself. Much appreciated!

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On 25/12/2017 at 11:39 AM, meepmeepmayer said:

Backe Sightings are a sign of good luck to riders, maybe. When you're down and desperate, just don't give up, and watch the corner of your eyes... there may be a Marty MiracleTMwhen you least expect it:efee8319ab:

Another humble St. Becke experience to share: I just had a Customer drop by the office to take a look at a KS16S he preordered & check out some of the Wheel option. Within 2 minutes, Marty's name was inevitable brought up in conversation; it goes without saying that within the Wheeling World, he's a superstar. 

uc?export=view&id=1TUqv05R8GK7-4o9CxvEUN

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12 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

This all just got creepy.

Here's a picture of the house my parents bought in 1969. My father said to me once....I'll never see it paid off. By 1981 he had died. Insurance money replaced the person. With insurance money the house was paid off in the 1990's. In the years following my Mom's passing in 1983 my career employment ended. For the years following her death I tried to restore the very old house. Walls painted, ceilings painted, window wells glazed, furnace replaced, crushed rock under downspout flooding areas, shutters repainted, rear stairs rebuilt (to code?) etc. Turkeys walk around in spring and also in the fall. On the week the house sold a deer was in the back (no pun) yard. It vaulted over the fence (6 feet) as I approached. The rear yard started losing elevation from soil fill loss adjacent to the neighbors pool which my Dad consented to before it was built. It was odd each year to see the ground drop adjacent to the pool (2 feet) with enlarging cave in areas. The neighbor who bought the house next door conceived a kid. Nothing went unrepaired in their house. The roof began to leak and the rear porch roof leaked profusely onto indoor outdoor carpet. It takes money, that I didn't have except for furnace and repairs,  to keep up a house. 

71370.png

BTW that's my old Chevy Cavalier in the driveway with 200+ thousand miles on it when sold. I wonder if the big pine tree has been removed. It started as a chest high pine taken from the woods of New Hampshire by a neighbor (deceased) across the street. The guy worked at the post office and had hearing loss from wwii boot camp. When I was younger and worked full time he asked for a ride to the commuter rail from where he reached the VA for treatment. One day he fell off a ladder and injured his ankle while doing house chores. I wonder if his hearing loss and the fall were related (balance issues?). 

The new owner of the house works in a hospital.

?

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32 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

Also, I'm totally not envious of the stable in that photo, not at all:pooping: Nice!

I can see the smile on your face.

smile

 

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16 hours ago, Bob Eisenman said:

Pardon my map searching...?

Dear Bob:

It would be to the benefit of EUC Forum members if you would please refrain from posting map searches of their home locations.

Thank you,

Dan

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Dan,

Google is an impressively powerful research. The effort required to obtain key bits of information followed by a direct map search is possibly a problem for many people, not just the EUC community. Marty is a prolific EUC videographer who has created a lot of clues. I have no such quest as your note seems to imply.

BTW...Great Christmas tree drawing with your invention.

Bob

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1 hour ago, Rehab1 said:

I enjoy your historic posts and scenic photos! 

Me in the late 1950s with family

71444.png

 

 

I've grown a lot since this late 1950s picture from the Cyprus Gardens area seated with my Dad, sister, and Scottish immigrant Grandmother (1913 ish) . I never new my Dad's father who died before I came into the world, so he's not present in the picture. Google searching for my grandmother's house in Binghamton, NY finds an empty lot which after my Dad sold the house, was subsequently torn down to serve as parking access for a church which was constructed atop the land were my father's father's (1884 ish immigrant) family house stood (according to census). That man (1884 ish immigrant) went back to France , perhaps his native Alsace after his Alsacian immigrant wife passed away about 1930. No one seems to know where he passed away across the pond.

My sister kids me that my grandmother's house, which sat along the T intersection across from another road with a driveway extending artificially from that T intersection to the garage, once had an incident where a moving vehicle passed from the incoming Street to cross the road and enter the driveway. The errant driver continued on and through the garage door (at night)

 

I certainly would benefit from an incremental increase in maturity to match my size increase. Thanks for your comments.

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