Celebrating Our Long Ride

October 1, 1988, at 8:00 pm, the official start of our great adventure began, our wedding! Raja and I celebrate 20 years of marriage today and 20 years of riding bikes together.

Technically, we've been riding bikes together since 1987. Little did we know what exciting rides and epic adventures our future held as we dashed off as newlyweds.

We never dreamed that our bikes would enable us to experience so many beautiful places. Places like Alberta and British Colombia, Canada.

Seattle and Bellingham, Washington; Portland and Hood River, Oregon; SunValley, Idaho, Marin County, California; and all the spectacular trails of Colorado like Durango's Hermosa Creek, Crested Butte's 401, and Monarch Crest.

Now, Spring Break always means a trip to Fruita or Moab.

Our first big European bike trip was in 1995 to follow the Tour de France. Thinking that would be our last big hooray, we never imagined Europe would become a yearly trek. Italy has been our favorite since 2000.

Of course, Switzerland was our big treat for 2008. In fact, our first trip to Switzerland was 20 years ago for a friend's wedding. So we thought it was appropriate that we celebrate our 20th anniversary with a return visit. It was still as beautiful as we remembered, but much more special this time since we saw everything by bike!

So what will we do today on our actual anniversary date? Ride our bikes, of course. Instead of climbing passes like Susten, Passo Gardena, and Furka, we will take on Georgia's classics like Brasstown Bald and Booger Holler! Then off to enjoy a celebratory dinner with our favorite cycling buddies. Whoohoo!

Things will be a very different for us today than it was October 1, 1988. No celebrating with all the fancy digs, fanfare, 700 of my family's closest friends, and a NBC filmcrew from Good Morning America. These days we like to keep things simple. All we need to celebrate are our cycling friends and some bikes to ride. That's our idea of a celebration.

Janusz laughed when he heard my reply to his question of what we would do for our anniversary. "You aren't going to go eat somewhere fancy," he asked? Raja and I would rather ride our bikes and chow down somewhere casual with our friends. "We want to do something that has special meaning for us. Riding bikes is that special thing," I replied. He thought about this for a minute and replied, "That's a good idea. Perhaps Gina and I will go to the studio and dance a Pas de duex for our anniversary!" See, we all have a special way to live our lives. Our Life just happens to be on a Bike!

Thanks for the ride, honey. This is the most exciting ride ever, and I look forward to the continuing journey ahead. Happy anniversary to my sweetheart, best friend, and #1 cycling companion!

Congratulations to newlyweds, Robb and Jenn, just returning from their Maui honeymoon! And best wishes to Ony and Kristi as they head off to Florida to wed this weekend! We wish you both long, full, happy lives together!