Best Road Trip Ever

My bride to be and I had been together, on and off, for the better part of seven years. It was getting to be about that time when two people either have to commit to one another for the remainder or go their separate ways. Fortunately, those seven years had also given us both enough time to burn off our youthful “adventurousness” and prepare to be completely devoted to one another.

We had planned a road trip from Chicago to Denver to visit a mutual friend and I suggested we drive through Rocky Mountain National Park on the way. The day we got there was pleasant, if a bit cold. At that altitude, there’s really no predicting the weather, but for the two hour drive over the Continental Divide, there were only a few puffy white clouds in the sky.

We stopped at the top to admire the views and, while I had been jittery about the whole thing, I felt that this was the best chance I would get. We followed a small trail over the crest of the hill so we could be mostly out of sight of the rest of the tourists. I think my girlfriend probably had some idea what was going on, but she played along very gamely.

We stood there silently for a while, then I told her how much I loved her and got down on one knee. She just kept grinning. I don’t really remember the next few seconds, but I guess she said yes!

An older couple had just come over the rise and they were the first to congratulate us. They also were the only ones with cameras, so they got our names and address and made us reenact the whole thing. Then we got off the mountain, because, as I said, it was cold.

Our families were thrilled when we got home and the preparations for the wedding got under way. With all of our attention focused on future events, it was a nice surprise one spring day to find in our mailbox a single photo of my proposal, on a mountaintop, sent to us by people we never really knew.