Retrospective: Our First Date

[Becka writing in 2007] Tom and I met through a group interested in the Danish concept of co-housing in Central Vermont. The group stopped meeting (although it later resurrected and 3 years later has a housing project in the works).

Tom and I kept in touch very occasionally via email, and Tom invited me sailing once or twice on his brother's sailboat. About a year after we met, we determined that we were both game to go "bicycle-canoeing" -- that is hauling the canoe on a trailer using our bicycles for transportation. In July 2005, we were "just" friends. But in retrospect, we have decided that this was our "first date."


We put in at the Montpelier High School, and paddled the Winooski River into Middlesex. Paddling with the canoe full of bicycles was challenging -- very heavy -- and there were some easy rapids. With Becka setting the course from the stern, Tom backferried like a champ.