| Our marriage was anything but smooth. Miimii had to run
away from home against her parents' wishes, and they wouldn't talk to her (she was 23 years old). On January 16, just two weeks after
the marriage, the Gulf War started. As a result, our planned trip to
Indiana for a small family wedding was postponed three times and eventually
never happened. My workplace had pulled my security clearance because I'd
married a foreign national, and a major security incident occured at work
(January 8) of which I was a suspect in...made even more suspicious as I
had recently bought a brand new car with cash.
Miimii spoke broken English. She was harrassed by a student(the
guy's name was Abu Hadi) at the "English as a Second Language" class she
was attending to improve her English. She almost quit but I had a talk with the teacher about the situation and he assured us they would watch her and she would be safe.
My unit was up to deploy for the war, but we were not allowed to tell our families (it was classified at the time). It never happened, but all the stress, including the stress of being married took its toll at work. I was in trouble for about four months for declining job performance. I had stopped
riding and went to running because it was cheaper, less dangerous, I was
better at it than cycling, and I could do it anywhere. It also took less
time...which made it ideal for married life. But I didn't enjoy it like I enjoyed bicycling.
Bored out of our minds, we sneaked off to Canada on January 21, 1991,
which was technically illegal. Miimii had never been there, so we drove
across the border down a very rural, icy road, I peed in the snow (I called
it "marking my territory"), took these pictures, and headed back.
The End | 
