In Lakewood Ranch, there's a nice ring to this story

River Club’s Jim Eicken found the love of his life, his wife Susan, more than 40 years ago.

For the past month, though, he hasn’t had anything to prove it.

He lost his wedding band along the side of the road.

Jim cycles at least four days a week, and Susan typically goes with him half those times. When Susan comes along, they ride a tandem bicycle.

On July 10, Jim rode alone on his usual route. He started his 40-mile ride from his home in River Club, headed east on State

Road 70, then south on Lorraine Road to Fruitville Road before turning around. He stopped at the Lakewood Ranch Athletic Center and took back roads through neighborhoods the rest of the way home.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Jim was driving the following day.

He looked at his hands on the steering wheel. His wedding ring was missing.

He called Susan and asked her to look in the garage, where he had taken off his cycling gloves. No luck.

“(Susan) was understanding, but she also wanted me to find it,” Jim said.

He retraced his steps and “tore the house apart.” Susan did the same.

It wasn’t at the fitness center. It wasn’t in the garage. It wasn’t anywhere.

“I’m pretty good at finding things — rings, loose diamonds. I was disappointed,” Susan added. “We’re going to be celebrating our 40th next year.”

Susan never takes her ring off. Jim would only take it off when required to do so for work during manufacturing plant site visits. 

There was that time in August 2014 when he traveled for business to Uzbekistan, where he fell and severely cut his finger. Doctors there cut his wedding band off with a bolt cutter for fear his finger would swell around it and loose circulation. When he returned to the states, he had his ring soldered together and upsized to better accommodate his now chronically swollen knuckle.

Since May, he and Susan have been eating healthier, and he lost 20 pounds. Susan noticed his ring was loose — mentioning it on multiple occasions — but Jim hadn’t had it resized yet.

“I was disappointed in myself for losing it,” he said. “It’s part of our life together. I’ve had that ring longer than anything else.”

As the days passed, they became resigned to the fact it wouldn’t be found. Jim planned to get a replacement after the couple returned Aug. 9 from their trip to the West Coast.

“I don’t know how I lost it,” he said. “The only thing I can think of is every once in a while I’ll take my hands off the bar and shake them to loosen them up. It must have fallen off.”

On July 13, Country Club East resident Lou Deeter was cycling just south of the Sarasota Polo Club when he spotted a flash of gold. He signaled to his riding buddy, Warren Straus, and circled back around.

“As you ride, you’re looking down for debris,” Deeter said. “If it’s an abnormality, you’ll see it. Sometimes I stop. Sometimes, I don’t. As soon as I went past it, I knew it was gold and it was round and it was probably a ring.”

He took a closer look when he returned home. Pulling out a 16-power jewelers loop he used during years of coin collecting, Deeter read the inscription on the inside of the band — “SLA and JHE 2-29-1979.”

The ring wasn’t worth much in metal, but he knew it was special.

“I was determined to find the owner,” he said.

He posted his find on the Village Idiots bicycle club Facebook page and contacted Tom Dietrich with the Sarasota Manatee Bicycle Club, of which he is a member. Dietrich sent out an e-blast about the find to club members.

Anyone claiming the ring just needed to provide the inscription.

The Eickens, members of the Sarasota Manatee Bicycle Club, were cruising Aug. 2 on the Columbia River to Great Falls, Mont., when Susan checked their email. She saw the blast about her husband’s ring.

At 1:30 p.m., Aug. 10, the Eickens arrived at Deeters’ Country Club East home with smiles on their faces.

After a quick introduction, Jim Eicken slipped the ring back on his finger. It’s still loose, but he planned to get it resized right away.

“If you lose it again, give me a call,” Deeter said.