It was the craziest thing that I had ever done. Kathy seemed like a great woman. We had common interests. We had similar families. We believed in the same things. But she did live 415 miles away. Still, our instant message chats and phone conversations during the past three weeks had been amazing. And I had always been one to believe that there are times that a person has to throw caution to the wind.

Why she had ever sent an email is beyond me. I had just joined a website called catholicsingles.com and I hadn’t even posted a picture yet. The chance that she would even notice my online biography was practically nonexistant. But the message had come.

Our odds were further diminished by Kathy’s location. She lived in Appleton, WI. I lived in Onsted, MI. That is a distance of 415 miles. And I had just ended a relationship because I didn’t want to drive an hour to Southfield every weekend. The chances that I would even consider dating a woman from Wisconsin were remote.

But, there I was, passing the beautiful refineries of Gary, IN on my way to Wisconsin. About half way through the drive, I began to laugh at how preposterous it all was. What if we hated each other? That was going to be one long drive home. But, I decided to push on.

After about seven hours, I reached the outskirts of Appleton. “This place looks nice,” I thought to myself. I stopped at a Kwik Trip and gave Kathy a call from a pay phone and soon, I was breaking every internet dating rule as I walked up her apartment steps with a dozen roses in my hand.

What can I say? Love at first sight is ridiculous. But this had to be pretty darn close. During the next two years, Kathy and I would make innumerable trips across that 415 mile distance. We got to know the freeways of Chicago by heart and learned the Badger ferry schedule to the minute. We even started to make friends with the other regulars on Northwest’s Detroit to Appleton puddle jumps.

It was and is a fairy tale. On Saturday, June 25, 2005, we were married. And when I think about it, 415 miles doesn’t seem like that far at all.

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