On Failures

Me:  If I ride to a certain point, rather than an out-and-back, you can meet me at the other end with the other dog.  

She:  Maybe.  That would involve driving.

Me:  Oh lord.

On Being Together but Doing Different Things

Me: Looks like you're not working tomorrow night!

She: Right. Cuz I'm working Friday morning.

Me: Tomorrow is our anniversary!

She: It is?

On the Curse of the Oak Creek Trail

Miles ridden: 3.3 (Saturday, Sept. 12)

She: Do you want me to stay here and wait for you?

Me: No, I'm gonna be a coupla hours.  Go be with the dogs so they're not cooped up so long.

Thirty minutes later:

Me (on the phone): I think the plan needs to be that you ride to the trailhead, get the car, and drive to the closest road to where I'm at on the trail.

On Freud and Finding Our Way

Me:    This can't be an ego massage exercise.

She:    Idon'tknowwhatyou'retalkingabout.  I don't have an ego.  I exist solely for my own pleasure.

Me:    Fine.  This can't be in id massage exercise.

We're both trying to figure out this parallel blogs thing, how to get people to read them, how to make them interesting without downshifting into a daily diary of our mundane lives.  Admittedly, we think we're hilarious and brilliant.  You probably don't.  Yet.

As I said last time, our impetus for finally starting these blogs is a trip we're planning for next year.  I want to ride my bicycle 300 miles to Valentine, Neb., and back again with a kayak trip thrown in there somewhere.  Christa will ride her motorbike.  

A little aside here.  I love that word "motorbike."  It brings to mind images of T.E. Lawrence and James Dean and Peter Fonda.  Christa hates the word, thereby providing me with even more incentive to use it. 

We spent a majority of yesterday poring over maps trying to find the best bicycle route from Lincoln to Valentine.  We look for things like avoiding interstates and highways with no shoulder, and keeping to dedicated bike trails as much as possible.  

We're not sure how we'll get there yet. There's lots to consider.  We have new gear to buy.  We have to better train our dog, Tucker, for the trip.  I have to train up to riding 80 miles a day for a week and probably improve my upper body strength for 5 hours of kayaking.  But we'll get there.  

I can't speak for Christa, but I think I'm still searching for a theme for my portion of this blog, for a "through line" as we used to call it in my college theatre days.

I'm unsure of my footing here, and that's both anxiety triggering and exciting at the same time.  I'll get there; I'm just not sure how yet.

Kind of like our bike tour next year.  

On Beginnings

We never wake up together. We irritate each other. We don’t have enough sex. We disagree on housekeeping and organization and spending and washing dishes. She lets things roll off her back; I have anxiety. She has ADHD; I have executive function. She’s late to everything except work; I’m late to nothing but work. She’s from Nebraska; I’m from New York. She rides a motorcycle; I ride a bicycle.

And she’s the most fun I’ve had with anyone, ever.

That’s really the essence of our story. We have fun. We laugh all the time.

Christa and I have wanted to start a blog for a long time; we think we have things to say (especially Christa!). We decided to start now because next year we’re taking a week long combination motorcycle/bicycle/kayak tour with our daughter and one dog. I noticed there’s a dearth of writing out there about the Cowboy Trail in Nebraska, so we decided we should fix that.

So here goes. It’s going to be a trip and a half.