Becoming a legitimate cyclist

This summer marks the five year anniversary of Kellen and I getting married and the start of my journey to establish myself as a legitimate cyclist.  This journey has had it's ups and downs but I can confidently say that I am much better today than I was five years ago.  Today's ride was a monumental one in this journey.  Until this point if I wanted to go for a ride I would choose a route that I had previously ridden or Kellen had ridden and told me that I would be able to complete.  Also, if I was planning on doing a new route I would have Kellen come along to give me moral support should I need it.  Well today's ride was a route I had never done before and I did it solo.  I knew I wanted to ride about 30 miles so I went on MapMyRide.com and mapped out a route that went to an area I was somewhat familiar with.  With Kellen gone for the summer I knew it had to be a solo ride.  I set out this morning with my cue card in hand and the determination to finish this route and thus progress toward becoming a more legitimate cyclist.  Thirty miles later I rolled back into my apartment complex tired, dehydrated, and completely thrilled with myself.  It was a challenging ride with lots of hills and only one water stop (thank heavens for the Lower Milford municipal building!!)  Now, this may not seem like a great accomplishment to some of you but to me this signifies an important step in becoming the cyclist I want to become; the cyclist who can ride any route.  Hopefully, I get there before my 10th anniversary.