What This Blog Is About

Ah, to be young, in love, and recently married.

Here's the backstory:

In 2010, my future-wife Nicole and I embarked on a bicycle sojourn from the mountains of Maine to the sparkling sands of Corava Beach, North Carolina. The following year, we got engaged, settled in New York City, and got married.

Ironically, even though we had moved all the way from the rolling hills of Manchester, Connecticut, all the way to Big Apple, we still live a stone's throw from the East Coast Greenway. Literally. From our apartment window in Machester, we could peer through the trees  and see a cyclist traveling along the Charter Oak Bike Path. We found our current apartment in New York through perhaps fate: The East Coast Greenway is just a block away. A sign of something? Perhaps.

Even before settling in New York, we had gotten engaged on the Farmington Canal portion of the East Coast Greenway. We had our ceremony on the shores of Long Island Sound at Rocky Neck State Park. When we moved to the Bronx, we found ourselves just a city block away from, you guessed, the East Coast Greenway!

It is fitting, perhaps, that we live where we do. I like to think that Nicole and I had a past before we even met each other. Her grandparents, like mine, lived in the Bronx. And my Bronx-born and raised grandfather framed a fine copy of John Donne's "No man is an island" sonnet and mounted it in his dining room wall. So perhaps it is here that we shall put down roots.

After all, no man or woman is an island, entire of itself, but a part of a continent. So true: We live far away from Brooklyn and the hipsters, and a world away from Manhattan and the celebrities. The latest star sighting or artisanal handbag store is not the world of New York that we care about. We like the combination of elegant human structure and harmonious nature, side by side. We like living in a city where we can always explore and find new things, yet always can seek comfort in the familiar when we need to. It is nice to live near friends and family, and also have a place where we can dream and chart our own course. And while we wait and plot for our next exciting adventure by bike, we take the every chance we can to enjoy everyday activities in our own backyard, in what is perhaps the last affordable region in New York City. We get to see the things that are easy to miss if one isn't looking carefully.

And we argue. Sort of. Here's a typical conversation:

"Honey, I think we can relate this neighborhood bike trip to our Atlantic Bike Tour blog!"

"I think you need to start a new blog."

"Maybe I can rename the existing blog."

"I think you need to start a new blog."

And just like that, it's settled. With this simple example of marital bliss, we move on to the next phase our lives. And since I just can't help it, we share some of the musings that, for one reason or another, we just find interesting.

Enjoy!!

~ Kevin & Nicole