love1

My wife, Sally Meyer, and I met as graduate students in chemistry at the University of Kansas. Sally was from Minnesota and was one year ahead of me in the graduate program, which was to have serious consequences on our futures as you shall see.

Our love commute was initiated immediately because I was from New Mexico and I drove home to go backpacking as often as possible. Sally started joining these commutes and never let on that she gets car sick or that she had never been backpacking, especially above timberline. After two years I finished my master of science degree and took a job with the E.P.A. in Kansas City while Sally continued to work on her Ph.D. Therefore, I commuted from Lawrence, Kansas to Kansas City every day while she made the walk up to Mallott Hall to do research. After a year of this I decided to regain my sanity and resigned my position to return to KU and obtain my Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry. We were happy to walk up the hill together once again!

The walks to work together only lasted a year, at which time Sally finished her Ph.D. in physical chemistry and obtained a faculty position at the Colorado College, in Colorado Springs. We moved to Colorado and I began commuting the 596 miles from Colorado Springs to Lawrence, Kan., to finish my Ph.D. while Sally started her career at Colorado College. I became very familiar with Interstate 70 across Kansas and my 1976 Subaru Wagon was amazingly reliable. One day, exhausted, I fell asleep at the wheel and went off the road at 65 mph. I survived, as did my trusty Subaru, but I had wished the car would have burned with my thesis and research work inside so that I could just stop the insanity and stay home. This accident changed our game plan.

I looked for alternatives to driving from Colorado Springs to Lawrence and found one. The Amtrak rail service left La Junta, Colo. every evening at 7:30 p.m. and arrived at Lawrence at 6:30 a.m. the next morning. Therefore, I started my week by driving 90 miles from Colorado Springs to La Junta and getting on the evening Eastbound Amtrak Southwest Chief. After hopping off the train at 6:30 a.m. in Lawrence, I would walk up the hill to my lab and begin work for three days. I would just sleep in the lab and eat out as needed. My return was just the reverse of this process on the Westbound train. We could handle this knowing that it was short-term and would end some day. So, I plugged along in my research at KU and Sally rolled with the punches of a junior faculty member while dealing with the demands of two small children.

Eventually things had to change as I saw an end to my research. We rented an apartment in Lawrence and we would live there for three weeks while Sally had a break in her teaching duties. I was able to collect data during these three-week stints and then we would go back to Colorado Springs, where Sally would teach and I could analyze data for four weeks while playing with the kids. This pattern continued until my Ph.D. work ended with the offering of a postdoctoral position at the National Renewable Energy Lab, in Golden, Colo. At least Golden was 500 miles closer to Sally's position at Colorado College.

We decided that I had been on the road the most so now it was Sally's turn to commute. We moved to Golden and I rode my bicycle to the lab while Sally drove the 85 miles to Colorado Springs every day. I would do my research from 1 a.m. to 11 a.m. and then go home so that Sally could leave and make her 1 p.m. class. In this way the children would never go to day care or be neglected. Needless to say, we were exhausted after a year of this routine and a bit frustrated at what two professional chemists have to go through to work. After a year we couldn't take it anymore and I resigned my position while Sally kept her position at Colorado College in what was a very difficult decision.

Frustrated and feeling professionally inadequate, I took our two children to a remote mountain town and spent two years building a cabin and training for triathlon competition while Sally rented a faculty apartment at Colorado College and we would see each other on the weekends. Finally, we capitulated and we consolidated into a house in Colorado Springs and committed to the college, where Sally has successfully made the rank of full professor. I taught part-time until I was offered my current position as a faculty support staff member. Our commutes are now only six miles each day and we look forward to the bike ride as the highlight of each day.