O'Gaea and Canyondancer grew up in the Pacific Northwest. Their childhood homes only a mile or two apart, even their parents' mutual acquaintences weren't enough to bring them together until the early '70's. By then, a tour of duty in Viet Nam was interrupting 'dancer's graduate studies in political science at the University of Arizona; he and O'Gaea just before he shipped out. They were married not long after he was discharged and resumed his studies at the UA. O'Gaea was a lit major, and her background in education and English (including Anglo-Saxon) underlies her interests in family dynamics, religious education, history, natural science, art, and music. Before discovering Wicca in the early 1980's, they were active in Unitarian Churches in Tucson and in Springfield, Missouri, where they lived for a semester while 'dancer taught at Southwestern Missouri State University.

Canyondancer's been a house-husband and full-time father since the Explorer's home birth in 1979; O'Gaea was for many years a legal secretary, and still has a soft spot in her heart for victims of on-the-job injuries and others trying to get along on disability benefits in these days of unkinder, less gentle government policy. Retired since 1999, O'Gaea has devoted the last few years to leadership of Campsight Coven and the development of the Adventure Tradition, as well as writing about Wicca. In May of 2002, O' and C took their first cruise -- seven days along Alaska's Inside Passage (check out the photo album for pictures) -- to celebrate 'dancer's 55th birthday and their 28th anniversary, and now "we want to go again. And again, and again," they say.

Canyondancer's triple bypass surgery in November of 2002 hasn't discouraged them. His doctors are impressed with his recovery, and anticipate the bypasses "being good" for another 15-20 years. O' and C plan to travel more, and look forward to attending neo-Pagan gatherings and conferences as presenters. "We give lectures and workshops on a variety of topics," O'Gaea points out, "and we're developing additional subjects."

They currently share their home with an aging, "neurotic and bald but sweet" dog, Barley, and three "very bad and completely wonderful" not-quite-three-year-old cats, Hal, Bette Noire, and Milo. ("Hal's favorite games are 'Mousie' and 'Knock Over Anything With Liquid in It'," O'Gaea says. "Milo's the cuddle-bunny, and lays in my lap every night so I can comb his tummy. Bette has her own angenda, which doesn't always include the rest of us, but when she decides to be sociable, you cannot shut her up. She's more talkative than I am!")