I had been doing some volunteering for Anchor House in Trenton in 2003. Early in the year, I decided I wanted to participate in their annual fundraiser, a 500 mile bike ride. I asked Dan if he wanted to join me. He thought about it a little bit and finally said he would do if we did it on a tandem. Dan is a stronger biker than me and often leaves me when we go out on our single bikes. Riding on a tandem seemed the perfect idea.

In early June, we drove to Montreal for our 4 year anniversary. While there, we rented a tandem. If you’ve ever been to Montreal, you know they’ve got these wonderful bike trails throughout the city. Somehow, Dan and I got lost and our short bike turned into a much longer three hour journey. We didn’t kill each other and walked away thinking we’d like to try tandeming again. We did just a few weeks later when we rented a tandem in Frenchtown NJ.

In July, we went to Quaker Bridge Mall to see the Anchor House riders return home. In late August 2003, we drove to Tandems East in Pittsgrove NJ to purchase our tandem. Pittsgrove is about an 1 ½ hours from Trenton but they’re the only shop that exclusively sells tandems in the area. We decided our first tandem should be purchased from someone who really knows them.

Shortly after buying the tandem, we joined the Doubles of the Garden State (DOGS) , New Jersey's premier tandem club. We love tandeming and have been riding as much as possible.

We're going to be doing several rides this year, but our biggest ride challenge this is going to be the Ride for Runaways in July.