We were married in the early springtime 40 years ago. It is hard to believe how quickly the time has gone.  We are living our great love story, my wife and me. A great love story is sweeping and dramatic. This is a simple travel blog. We decided it would be delightful to travel to celebrate our 40 years of marriage in Florida so we could bike ride together. We are happy to celebrate, and we feel excitement in reaching this milestone. Together, we are also looking forward to other milestones to celebrate.  

It was enjoyable planning this trip so that our 40^th anniversary would be special for the two of us. My thought was to look through some old pictures, write a little about each year from our 40 years together and put it in a book for a gift for my wife. I ended up giving her a page a day, with each page representing a specific year, leading to our leaving for our trip. On each page I wrote what was going on in the world that year, in our lives that year and one thing we could look forward to doing on our trip. I started just before Valentine’s Day, and my wife looked forward to opening a letter each day. The letters ended one day prior to our driving to Florida.

So, every day, for 40 days, my wife received a letter and pictures about each year of our marriage. It was gratifying to put together and even better to share. I enjoyed the daily rhythm of the look back at each year of our time together.

We drove on this trip, bringing our bikes. Our first stop, just south of Atlanta, was to McDonough, GA. We could not drive all the way to the Orlando area from our house, and this was a good stopping point. Also, I wanted to be mostly through Atlanta traffic starting off on our drive to Florida.

In my letters I spoke about the nice weather we anticipated in Florida. It was very nice. For the first few days it was almost exactly twice as warm in Florida as it was back home. That was a great change for us.

One of the first anniversary activities was to go into Orlando to see a show. We had a good dinner and appreciated the Sleuth’s Mystery Dinner Show “The Show Must Go On.” The action was entertaining, and it was an amusing evening out and something we talked about for a while.

My wife really enjoys kayaking. We had never been kayaking at night; we had a blast kayaking on Lake Ivanhoe, right near downtown Orlando, in clear kayaks.  It was highly entertaining to be on the water at night. Although we were right near downtown, it felt as if we were miles away. I did not take out my phone to take pictures on the lake; I wanted to have a phone the next day. Thank you Epic Paddle Adventures for an epic encounter with nighttime paddling.  

We took the idea of biking on this trip from our last tour in the Winter Garden area. It was near Christmas, and we thought Winter Garden was dressed up nicely for the occasion. We re-did several of the bike rides that we had done in and around the Winter Garden area at the end of 2023. Our last trip to the area is outlined in the blog: Biking the Central Florida Rail Trails. We were partial to peddling on the West Orange trail and biking in and around Winter Garden. We went for a bike ride every day. The weather was great, and the roads were good for our road bikes.

In our prior travels, we noted several pickleball courts in the area. We decided to learn so we could play in Florida. We had a blast playing together and will look to repeat the experience.

One of the things we cherish is to walk while holding hands. We took several walks. We found several places to go walking in the area.

Other Fun:

One of the benefits to the Orlando area for me was seeing my best man from the wedding. It was good to catch up with my brother and learn how he is getting ready to retire.

In one of the letters to my wife, I talked about looking forward to seeing sunrises and sunsets together. It did rain some, so, it was not always possible. However, we did have some good views from our balcony.

Once we arrived in Florida, we felt as if we were in a different world. Signs that warn about alligators and snakes are not common where I am from. Also, no snow was seen in Florida in the early springtime.

We stopped in the Charlotte area to visit our daughter and son-in-law on the way home from Florida. It was good to go for a few runs with my daughter and to see our daughter and son-in-law happy in their home. They only have about 37 years to go to catch up with us.

While in Cherryville, we took a tour of the Beam Truck Museum. Carolina Freight was one of the largest employers in Cherryville; its headquarters leaving town after it was purchased crippled the local economy for a while. The museum was very well done and the stories told by the guide made you think you were part of the company.

After we arrived back home, we went to see the trees start to blossom at the Boone County Arboretum. The heat in Florida felt to similar summer, so, we again changed seasons coming back to spring when we got home.

See you on the road.