But for some biking enthusiasts, such as Tulsans Tom Jolly and Alexis LeMieux, FreeWheel is actually where families begin.

After biking 60 miles from Tahlequah to Pryor, Jolly, 26, proposed to LeMieux, his girlfriend of six years, Thursday -- her 24th birthday.

"I'm still in shock," LeMieux said Friday, after biking 60 more miles from Pryor to Grove. "It doesn't feel like it's real yet, but it's definitely a story you can tell people."

In its 28th year, Oklahoma FreeWheel is the subject of many relationship stories for a handful of couples, many of whom return to the event each year.

Even before her proposal, LeMieux was familiar with relationship milestones on the road. Seventeen years earlier, her father, Mark LeMieux, met his wife during a FreeWheel tour.

A carpenter and former bicycle shop owner, Mark LeMieux has worked as a FreeWheel mechanic for 20 years. During one of his service calls on the road, he picked up his future bride.

"We spent a wonderful day together and a few years later, we made it permanent," he said.

Mark LeMieux doesn't like to say it's ironic that he met his wife and that his daughter got engaged at the same event, but he admits FreeWheel is very special to him and his family.

"I think it's so neat -- not necessarily ironic, but not terribly unusual either," he said. "You never know what's going to blossom."

For another couple, meeting at FreeWheel was only the beginning. Six years later, they had their wedding ceremony during the same event.

Bob and Kim Restor of Sand Springs met in Chandler during FreeWheel 1997 and were married in Hominy during FreeWheel 2003.

"I say I met him on a bike, and I married him on a bike," said Kim Restor, 49.

Both Bob, 60, and Kim Restor had participated in FreeWheel before but never met until 1997, when they joined a mutual friend on the tour.

"Actually, I had seen her two or three years before," Bob Restor said. "I thought she was pretty cute, but I never talked to her."

Even the preacher who married them was an avid FreeWheeler.

"We have people we don't even know come up to us who say, 'Hey, we were at your wedding,' " Bob Restor said.

Kim Restor said that because they had so many friends and connections from the annual event, a FreeWheel wedding was only appropriate.

"We thought it would be easy for everybody to be there," she said.

Both Bob and Kim Restor said most couples who met on FreeWheel probably connect for the same reason they did: a common interest, namely biking.

Sylvia Brown, 39, of Tulsa said that's one of the reasons she and her husband, Tom Brown, hit it off.

"(Biking) is such a big part of you; it's just your passion," she said. "Then you find someone else who's passionate about it and fall in love with them."

FreeWheel ends Saturday in Baxter Springs, Kan.

Sara Ganus 581-8300
sara.ganus@tulsaworld.com