Live every day to its max!

1. Skating the streets of Paris: under the Eiffel Tower, up and down Champs Elysee, along the Seine, breezing by Notre Dame, rolling across Pont des Arts... and 'threading the needle' between buses with Allan and Mike after being left behind at Notre Dame

2. Bombing down Blackwood Canyon above Lake Tahoe on a sweet Trek mountain bike, just missing crossing the path of a black bear (spotted by a hiker I zipped by).

3. A personal best skate in Quebec on P'tit Train du Nord: 72 miles with fellow “les patineurs fou” Mike, Ignacio and Karen. Pure bliss!

4. Sharing a cold ruby red grapefruit juice with Devon in Givry near the end of a 76 kilometer bike ride through the vineyards and villages surrounding Burgundy. (After a kind, non-English speaking French woman went out of her way to lead two lost cyclists to the road to Buxy.)

5. On a drippy, nasty, windy day in the Netherlands, stopping to sip hot coffee with Eddie, Andrea and Mike outside a c. 1719 church-turned-fine restaurant along the dike between Medemblik and Enkhuizen. Still can’t believe our band of sorry-looking, rain-soaked skaters were served coffee in delicate cups and saucers - with a cookie!

Favorite Tour Hotels
1. l'Hotel Fontaine de Baranges, Buxy, France (2003 Burgundy, 2006 Burgundy/Paris Multisports)

2. Plumpjack Inn, Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe (2006 Lake Tahoe Multisport)

3. Columbia Gorge Hotel, Hood Valley, OR…even though it was rumored to be haunted! (2008 Oregon Wine Tour)

4. l'Hotel de Bourgogne, Cluny, France (stayed in same room during both 2003 Burgundy, 2006 Burgundy/Paris!)

5. Colonial Inn, Martha’s Vineyard (2002 Nantucket/Martha’s Vineyard Skate Tour)

Most Memorable Culinary Moments
1. A multi-course dinner at Le Saint Georges, Chalon-sur-Saone (2006 Burgundy/Paris Multisport). Delectable course after course kept arriving! Fantastic!

2. Rustic local fare at Aux Annees Vins. Incredible cheeses and brandied cherries. (2003 Burgundy, 2006 Burgundy/Paris Multisports)

3. A Balkan smorgasbord in Enkhuizen (2004 Netherlands Skating) followed by pitchers of Belgium beer at the local bowling alley.

4. An amazing dinner in Truckee (2005 Lake Tour tour) that started out with a fingers-only Caesar salad served family-styled and ending with too many drinks at the bar waiting for a locksmith (oops, stranded because Gary locked the keys in the van).

5. Oregon 2008: Sipping Oregon chardonnay while munching on the best picnic ever — sandwiches and salad Reno prepared himself in his room at The Phoenix Hotel in Salem. The Oregon adventure consistently had some of the best dinners of all of adventures, and yes, Reno’s picnic is the most memorable! That Reno: he’s simply amazing!