Rowan and I "met" here on Bikeforums, in early 2003. I'm a Canadian and he is Australian. I had posted a question about the Paris-Brest-Paris, a 1200 km bicycle ride coming up later that year, in August, and he replied indicating he was going. That was that. We made no plans to meet or anything.
In late August, on the Paris-Brest-Paris, I was walking through the last rest stop when someone called, "Machka". I wondered who would know that name, and it was him. We chatted for a little while then went our separate ways. But over the next year we got to know each other on a couple cycling forums, one of which was this one.
In October 2004, I went to Australia with a friend and spent 3 months cycling around Australia. Rowan and I met again at the Great Southern Randonnee, another 1200 km cycling event, and then my friend and I stayed with Rowan in Hobart for a few days. My friend and I went our separate ways after that trip, and Rowan and I got to know each other better online, and through emails and phone calls.
He came to North America in 2005 and 2006, and of course we did cycling events and tours together. We spent a month in Europe in 2007. I went to Australia in early 2008 for a couple weeks. And then he came to Canada in late 2008 ... and we were married on a lake just outside Jasper.
But first, on that day, we cycled a century (100 miles) to celebrate the development of our relationship ... then we were married.
Rowan returned to Australia 10 days later, and 9 months later, I moved to Australia. During that time, I finished my Bachelor of Education ... and the area where he lived was destroyed by Australia's most devastating bushfire. Rowan lost his home and narrowly escaped with his life. For a while, he was living in a tent trailer on the property where he worked, and I thought that might be where I would be living too ... but his employer offered us a very rustic cabin on the back of the property about 2 km from "the grid". It had, somehow, survived the bushfire. And that's where I spent my first year in Australia ... living off the grid in a remote and rustic cabin!
We've been back to "our" lake in Jasper where we got married a couple times, most recently June 2017. Of course we take photos which are in the album below. And we do try to cycle on or about our anniversary each year.
So, we're celebrating 16 years of knowing each other, 11 years of marriage, and 10 years of living together.
The whole album:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/machka...57607097344648