I spent a year and a half with this woman named Amy Joy. She has my heart to this day. We went to Paris many times and for that matter all over France, from the Pyrenees to the Apes and back. Her family and some of our friends never really understood us but we understood each other. Others got it. If you travel abroad, do not take a subway or cab in in a foreign land, take or rent a bike. Become one with your lover as you travel the world or just your own backyard. And always venture into new areas in your mind pleasantly challenging the status quo like a good independent movie.
Like the same foods when a couple, it saves money and makes life simple. When in Paris, do as the Parisians. And when you are a vegetarian in France suffer a bit.
Remember to have fun. But don't have too much fun because you could get tired and potentially not have as much fun as you could later...when the sun gets dim. Then you might not kiss.
What the hell! I just said not to much fun. Save some for later. Louvre police!
Be an ambassador of the sport. Spread the word no matter where you are about www.1world2wheels.org/ and if the on-lookers half way around the globe are interested in your superior engineered and manufactured bike talk to them about that too. But never lose sight of your significant other through work or play. Never forget to kiss.
Skin contact is good. Lip contact is better.
What does it take to ride a bicycle built for two through the streets of Paris for weeks on end when the other party is not peddling? This not peddling was fine for the bike but when applied to life was tough for me to deal with.
You know it is love when she sleeps in the car. Hey there is a bed...sort of. All hotels sold out, Tour de France. You can kiss in the make shift bed. It has been tested.
Always forgive the non-peddling on the tandem bike and even encourage it in a playful manner. Never forget to kiss.
And then kiss some more.
Gross as it sounds even kiss or try to when you eat.
One way kisses are allowed and count for double.
Kiss on bridges.
Kissing with bike gear is worth 10 points. If it results with taking off the bike gear it becomes 20.
Occasionally you fall off the bike. The bike is a metaphor as well when used here. Ouch!
When you fall off the bike on turn 14 of the Alpe d’ Huez. Going down and around at 36 MPH, 2 days before the tour stops there with 250,000 people on the mountain already. Oil based road paint was likely to answer your question of "How?"
You need to get back on. But sometimes you need a rest. Never take your lover for granted. For they, and in this case her…Amy Joy fed me, washed me, loved me and in short order (90 days) put me on track for good finish at a race called the Iceman to salvage what I could of my season racing bikes and hopes of doing it again the next year on the 29ercrew.com team. Never forget to kiss.
From that pictures of the injured body above, to this one in the said 90 days could only be done with a team. It was Amy & Dan on that bike built for one that day. Other days you may see us on a tandem. Like all good things and that little girl...
There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad, she was horrid.
She is all grown up now, no longer horrid. Or maybe she never was. It takes two to ride the tandem. Maybe it was me that was horrid? It doesn't really matter now.
Despite the smile in the photo in the Amsterdam Schiphol airport, it is hard to smile when you come home in the middle of the work day on Tuesday, 12-16-2008, just nine days before Christmas and find out your lover packed up all her things, is not home and half moved out. You begin to ask a lot of questions about yourself, her and about life. But you have to get back on the bike packing all those photos with her somehow in your tiny back pocket. But what do you do with the ones you painted in your mind of all the places you wanted to go and the things you wanted to do? When you feel you still had steps to take as you walk through life? You asked for months for a plan from them and never got one, but in two days Amy Joy has a new plan for a new life moving out of state. Do you answer the phone when she calls? How do you not text her questions you have? How do you turn the love switch off like she has? What do you do when in the middle of the day you just start to cry? I never once referenced Amy, my significant other, my then girlfreind, my lover in all my blog posts. She told me this. I knew it. This is a my nod to her. I owe much of my recent life to her. Like my kisses which came too little too late, I realize this now. Then she was gone.
Dank U (from Dan k) for coming Amy. Thank-you for coming into my life and speading so much life. Your zest and joy, like you middle name reads, was second to none. I carry you in my back pocket. You have my heart. However, my tears are not yours anymore so please stop stealing them and rubbing them in your eyes when we meet. You have opted out leaving me to ride the tandem alone. Like all kids in love we vowed we would not leave that way.
I spent a year and a half with this woman Amy Joy. She has my heart to this day. We went to Paris many times and for that matter all over France, from the Pyrenees to the Alpes and back. All over. Everywhere. Her family and some of our friends never really understood us but we understood each other. Others got it. Then one day she was gone and thus the death of the tandem known as Amy & Dan. Never forget to kiss. I love you Amy Joy. I love you. 2009 awaits you and me apart. I had hoped for more time with you, for more steps. You have taught me things about me I did not know. Where is your hand? I love you.
danny (dan k)
