ASPEN — Many brides would prefer to go to Hawaii or Tuscany for a relaxing, romantic honeymoon.
Not Jennifer McManus.
When her new husband, Bryan, asked where she would like to honeymoon, she chose a week in a tent in the middle of an assortment of high school football fields with hundreds of other Ride the Rockies campers crowded around.
The newlyweds get to shower in gymnasiums, stand in line for pancake breakfasts (her nickname is Pancake because of her fondness for them) and listen to the slam of portable-toilet doors and people cursing in the night as they trip over their tent ropes.
Each frosty morning, they hop on bikes and for the next six hours or so they pedal. And pedal. And pedal. The next day they do it all over again.
“I tell everybody it was her idea so they think I’m not a psycho,” Bryan said. “Other people go on their honeymoons to Bermuda or the Bahamas.”
How romantic is all this?
Bryan said he wouldn’t call it romantic.
But Jennifer said in a way it is.
Now that Bryan is her husband following a traditional wedding June 6 in Brighton, he is acting like a husband, not just a biking buddy, Jennifer attests. He is faster, so he zips over the passes quicker than she does. But then he turns around and comes back to rendezvous with her at each rest stop.
How sweet is that?
And they have had parties every night as each host town throws community dinners with bands, dancing and, well, candlelight would be asking a bit too much.
But Thursday night in Aspen, they planned to ditch the 2,000 other cyclists and go out for a candle-lit dinner where they can do the more traditional honeymoon thing.
Jennifer said it has been a fine honeymoon.
“It works well. You are so tired you can’t argue,” she said.
Thursday was no picnic, and nothing close to a honeymoon for many of the riders.
Grinding up Independence Pass, they encountered a cyclists’ trifecta of pain — a steep mountain, a dearth of oxygen and a cold head wind. To boot, they were pelted with snow coming down the pass.
Today: On to Glenwood, where it all began 380 miles ago, for a ride under the arch and the cheers of family and friends.
