this is the story of caitlin and tanner meeting, from tanner’s perspective. photos below the story.

in may of 2021, the 24 year old amanda farrow moved into an apartment at 199 hunter st. west, peterborough, ontario, not realizing that a friend from high school (tanner) lived just down the hall. shortly after amanda moved in, they reconnected and made plans to hang out on the evening of saturday, june 5th. amanda had a metal fire escape staircase that descended from a window in her apartment down to a small second floor platform above the bar spanky’s. the plan was to have “fire escape beers” on the saturday evening and amanda mentioned she’s planning to invite her friend caitlin to join them. caitlin was supposed to be away on a trip at this time but unfortunately (fortunately) broke her foot a few days prior.

saturday came around and tanner was working during the day as a bike mechanic at wild rock outfitters. he got a call at work during his shift from a girl named caitlin, when he answered the phone the conversation went something like…

(c) “hi i’m looking to book my bike in to get my bottom bracket replaced, i had it in there recently and they ordered the part in for me.”
(t) “no problem, when are you available to bring it in?”
(c) “i can bring it in whenever, i’m not in a hurry, i broke my foot a few days ago”

tanner didn’t make the connection yet…

at around 7pm that evening, they all met up at the fire escape. they drank some beers and wine, laughed a lot, and watched the evening unfold below at spanky’s, feeling like they were in their own little world up there having a great time. the three of them watched the sun set and stayed out there all night. tanner and caitlin made the connection that they had spoken eariler that day and were both excited to have so many things in common. when the evening came to an end the three of them made plans to make “saturday night fire escape beers” a regular event. a few days later, june 8th, tanner sent caitlin a message on instagram inviting her for a pedal assist (e-bike) ride, being considerate of the fact that she couldn’t ride her normal bike because of her broken foot. caitlin said yes and they made the plan.

the following saturday, june 12th, the three of them had fire escape beers again and had a wonderful time. it was pretty much the same as last time, except they hung up a hammock between the two fire escapes and took turns swinging in it.

the next day, tanner showed up at caitlin’s house with the e-bikes and they went on a 30+ km adventure around town. they cruised around trent university for a bit and sat down at the abandoned rail bridge for over an hour just chatting away, learning a lot about each other. after that, they rode down to beavermead park then back up around trent to get back to caitlin’s house. it was a long and wonderful excursion that they will forever remember as their technical “first date”.

a few days later, june 15th, tanner was out for a road bike ride.  nearing the end, he was coming down river road on an absolute heater when he flew past a girl riding the other direction with a big boot on her leg, it was caitlin!  tanner gave up on the strava segment to turn around and see what she was up to. they ended up cruising back into town together, this is when tanner convinced caitlin to get a road bike. they also then made the plan to meet up a couple days later to work on caitlin’s commuter bike at b!ke after hours.  tanner rode caitlin home then got the 6th best time overall on the strava segment on george st. from hilliard to parkhill because he was so excited to have bumped into caitlin. 

a couple days later came and caitlin arrived at b!ke after hours to do some work on her commuter bike. tanner taught her tons of basic maintenance and they stripped the bike down and deep cleaned everything, some of the bearings were hilariously decrepit. they listened to music for hours and just had a great time.

a few nights later, saturday june 19th, they got together with amanda and some other friends for fire escape beers yet again. tanner met caitlin’s brother bailey for the first time. i’m just learning this as i’m typing, but caitlin just told me that bailey said that night “if you don’t date him, i will”, obviously joking, but apparently i’m a catch though. they all stayed up late that night and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company. this was the night that caitlin knew tanner was the one.

the following week, on wednesday, june 23rd, tanner made plans to go for dinner at st. veronus in peterborough with his good friends lewis and sarah. lewis and sarah had already heard plenty about caitlin by this point and suggested tanner invite her for dinner. caitlin showed up in a beautiful colourful romper still sporting her big ole’ boot because of her broken foot. they all spent a few hours there together eating great food and sharing delicious belgian beers. caitlin and tanner ended the dinner by sharing a banana toffee pie and kept taking smaller and smaller bites near the end because they wanted the other to have the last bite, it was adorable. after dinner, tanner and caitlin went back up to the fire escape at his place and literally just cuddled and talked for hours in the hammock, this was the night that tanner knew caitlin was the one. tanner eventually gave caitlin a ride home and they were both too nervous to make the first move.

the next day, caitlin went with her parents to toronto to drop off bailey at the airport. for the last week or so, tanner had been helping caitlin find a good deal on a used road bike… little did she know, she was signing herself up for multiple spreadsheets annually from tanner explaining why she should get a new bike and what one is the best to get. when caitlin was in toronto, she picked up a second hand scott speedster road bike that tanner found for her on kijiji. when she got back into town, she got her parents to drop her off right at b!ke so she could show tanner. she stayed at b!ke for a bit until they closed then they popped the new bike in the stand and spent a couple hours tinkering around, cleaning, and checking it out. when they were done at b!ke, they both went back to tanner’s place and came up with the wonderful idea to setup the hammock on the fire escape again. then it happened. they finally kissed. for hours. sorry mom.

they fell in love pretty quickly. they moved into a beautiful apartment together shortly after in east city, now occupied by calum (cool guy), and just enjoyed living life together with their blended family (3 cats) oatmeal, marvin, and bratzo.

less than a year later, tanner and caitlin sold most of their belongings, packed up the cats, and moved across the country to north vancouver. they didn’t last very long in north vancouver and pretty quickly made the move over to vancouver island. they now live in the beautiful small village of cumberland, bc, about 3 hours north of victoria, and are living happily ever after in the most love.

pictures and stuff: