We became natural and fast friends as coworkers at a clothing store in The Grove in Los Angeles where we both worked for about a year. We lost touch until July 2017 when we reconnected at a birthday party for our mutual friend, Chris Serafica. We talked all night about our mutual love for adventure and immediately started dreaming up our first hundred or so road trip destinations together. Syd picked me up for our first late night adventure, introduced me to some of her favorite local food and lots of her favorite music while she led the way through Topanga Canyon then down the PCH to a “secret beach” where we took an unexpected night swim. I think we tried to play it cool at first, but we both admitted later on that we knew we wanted to be in each other’s lives forever, whether we were best friends or something more. Syd got in a habit of picking me up several nights a week around midnight for long drives to all of her favorite adventure spots. Most nights, I didn’t have any idea where we were going until we got there but I knew I wanted to be wherever she was going. Since then, I’ve gotten to show her some of my favorite places in Arkansas and then in Nashville, Tennessee, where we’ve lived since 2021.