After about six months of online dating, I had decided to give it up, not that I wasn't meeting nice men, but I wasn't meeting men that I really had a lot in common with. About a month later, my cousin, who'd been having great luck with Yahoo! Personals, sent me to Yahoo! to view the profile of a woman he was interested in so I could offer him some input.

When I got to the home page, the current format welcomed me with "Hello, Nicole! Here are your top four matches for the day!" and showed four profiles with pictures. "Ha!" I thought. "My top four matches based on what? My age and address?"

Giggling, I took a look -- and number three looked pretty darn cute. "Why not," I thought, "nothing else to do tonight and my cousin's match can wait." When I read number three's profile I was intrigued in spite of myself; he sounded a lot like me. He made it clear he wasn't expecting instant true love, but he did want to meet some people who shared his interests, and he had a wry sense of humor about his "high standards." He wanted an outdoorsy girl, and it seemed like he just couldn't find one. He didn't expect to fall in love but he did want to go backpacking.

That sounded just fine to me! I wrote him right then and there, throwing a profile together with nothing but the unvarnished truth (I was tired of the sales pitch approach!) and a few (good) pictures. (Okay, I was still trying a little.)

He answered the next morning with just a phone number, which normally would have turned me off right away. But, jaded me, I thought, "Fine! Cut to the chase!" and called him immediately, catching him at work and startling him considerably.

Our schedules were such that the best day to meet was in just 24 hours -- another violation of my earlier Internet dating rules, but again I thought, why not? Why risk wasting my time? I had no intention of making the two-hour drive to his location. After all, I didn't want him to think I was desperate, but I really didn't want to meet a stranger in my small town, so I chose a meeting spot that took a little effort for both of us and he very graciously agreed.

It was truly amazing. I am 42, he is 49 -- we were both divorced, both disillusioned, both courteous by nature and far too intelligent to get swept away. That first "just for drinks" meeting turned into drinks, dinner, dancing on the restaurant's patio and a breathless, ridiculous, completely exhilarating kissing session by my car that had the two of us panting like teenagers and laughing at ourselves.

The next day he drove straight up to where I live with two kayaks strapped onto his SUV and we hit an alpine lake about an hour from my house with lunch in the fanny packs and our hiking boots in the dry bags. Now that is a date!

By the time we returned from kayaking across the lake, hiking to another lake at 9,500 feet and kayaking back, we were sunburned and exhausted and enchanted with each other. Twins separated at birth, and both of us wondering why it took so long and so much grief to find such an ideal companion.It's been six months and then some and, at our age, that's enough time. You know who you are and you know what you want.

He tells me every day how amazed he is and how I am 'like no other.' I tell him every day how perfectly he suits me and how wonderful he is. We both marvel that something like the Internet can serve to connect such kindred souls, who would never, ever have met each other in the course of everyday life. Our friends call us the " Internet Dating Poster Kids," since invariably the conversation moves to "How did you meet?" At our age most of our friends are long married, and the Internet dating scene seems bizarre to them, but we are living proof that sometimes, some magical times, it's the only way two people who need each other can find the way.

Meet Nicole and Dale up close and personal: See their video

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