Soulmates....

Let's meet 'Team Asmi':

Mike: a fun-loving Californian who grew up riding his bike in the hills of Palos Verdes & cycled to college on the East coast....via Canada!

Suzanne: an adventurous Canadian who, as a child, spent more time on a horse than a bicycle.

In 1978, Mike sailed in to the Mexican village of Yelapa & sailed out with his soulmate for life, Suzanne. They settled in Santa Monica, got married & headed off to Europe for their honeymoon. With limited funds, youthful optimism, & much-too-heavy camping gear, they cycled through Holland, England, Ireland, France & Germany, consuming copious amounts of red wine, bread & cheese & searching for warm, dry weather!

Three months later, they returned to Los Angeles & settled into 'real life': work, house, kids, mini-vans. Cycling became a memory for Suzanne but Mike continued to ride on weekends. His dream of biking down the California coast kept resurfacing. Finally, with his 60th birthday looming, he pleaded with Suzanne that it was NOW OR NEVER & she relented. The ride was ON!

If not now, then when?!

I was riding along the Venice bike path this morning when it occurred to me that I should start a blog....a lot of people have blogs: my daughter, Virginia, has one about her culinary creations; my other daughter, Danielle has a blog about her life in NYC; my sister is blogging about her trip across Canada in a motorhome with 2 cats in search of her ancestral roots - why shouldn't I have a blog?!

My blog will be about the bicycle trip Mike & I are planning in September, 2010.

To commemorate our 60th birthdays, we'll be riding along the California coast from San Francisco to Malibu. It's a trip Mike has wanted to do for some time and I always encouraged him to do it....without me! But I finally relented & agreed to go with him - if not now, then when?!

So on September 22, we'll be setting off on our big adventure. And just to make the trip more meaningful (as if turning 60 isn't meaningful enough!), we'll be riding to raise money for Asmi International (www.asmiinternational.org), the nonprofit organization our daughter Danielle & her friend, Prentice, started in 2009. I'll tell you lots more about Asmi in upcoming blogs & share the fun we're having as we plan & prepare for our trip.

Come along for the ride with Team Asmi!!