2023 Thursday — Flying High

The photo is hang gliders high above our backyard today. They have almost nothing to do with today’s story (sorry).

— 58 Years Slipped Away
— Anniversary Month Celebrating
— May 25, 2023 Thursday (late)
— Day 26 (we are almost to confetti)

We purchased our tandem in the summer of 1984 after Mr. Fun had been doing quite a bit of bicycling without me. The tandem provided us with amazing exercise; fabulous recreation; and a healthy outlet to burn off life's anxiety and frustration while raising two teenagers and raising each other.

Early Saturday mornings we'd roll the bicycle out of our front door in Corona, California and pedal the roads and bicycle paths to a coffee shop in Huntington Beach (37 miles one way) for breakfast and back to Corona by mid-afternoon.

We eventually completed three summer bicycling vacations, each for two weeks, riding the tandem for 500+ miles to our destination, which usually was home in Corona.

In May of 1986 while casually riding our bike to Mt. Rubidoux in Riverside one Sunday afternoon with our friend Mitch, I mentioned that we were thinking about riding our bike from San Francisco to SoCal with a group of others. Mitch was all over that idea; his wife Trudy, who didn’t ride bicycles with us (yet), gave her approval and within days the three of us were signed-up for a two-week summer adventure.

In August we put our tandem and Mitch's mountain bike on an airplane with us to San Francisco and then spent 2-weeks pedaling to home in Corona. I was on a boyhood adventure with two grown men.

Halfway through the two weeks, Trudy met us in San Simeon and brought our daughter Dede and their son Mitchell and they stayed Saturday night and then back to SoCal; then we had another week of pedaling to get to Corona.

Words are inadequate to capture what we experienced in the vast geography of that landscape and in the array of emotions that surfaced. Some days were 75 miles of pedaling and every night was sleeping in a tent on the dirt floor of a campground.

Our friends Larry & Vicki met us in Huntington Beach to get our “luggage” from the sag wagon so we could head to Corona as the rest of the group headed to San Diego. A sign greeted us in the Santa Ana River Canyon bicycle trail made by our friends Peggy & Scott. Arriving home was delightful but short-lived as we exited with a group of church friends for Family Camp on Catalina Island two days later. Life was never boring, dull, or slow.

In the summer of 1988 we put the tandem on the Amtrak train with us to Eugene, Oregon. Then we cycled 60 miles west to the coastal city of Florence, Oregon to meet a group of Christian bicycle riders who had come from all over America. We spent 2-weeks pedaling along side of the chip trucks and huge logging vehicles to reach San Francisco.

The summer of ‘92 we traveled by van with our tandem to San Francisco and again with a group we had not known previously, we bicycled south 500+ miles to our home in the Circle City.

Decades later when we stopped tandem bicycling, we had pedaled 10,000-plus miles. We had shared the road with many friends. Occasionally Mr. Fun asks me if I would to do another bicycle road trip with him again; I always assure him that I’ve already proved how much of a man I am! I was so out of my comfort zone on the highway miles from home, but I wanted to be with my man; he’s my best friend.

The miles produced memories that have entertained us for hours and those miles brought maturity to our relationship as we pedaled together through traffic, weather, and strenuous terrain to a destination somewhere out there.

We’ve enjoyed warm summer breezes and lots of anniversary celebrations, and it's been a good ride all the way.

Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol
and Chloe & Mitzi too!