Another year, another ride: kids edition

Plane tickets have been booked for some time now. Motels, Airbnbs, hostels, bed and breakfasts, etc. have all been reserved. The milage is mapped out, our stops are meticulously planned. Friends along the route are being contacted for dinner dates. Clothing is being sorted, packed, put into the "maybe" pile, while I try to rely on internet websites predicting the weather for a 334 mile stretch of land thousands of miles from home in a month from today.

Every ride is different, but there are so many more variables to this ride, there is a different level of planning that hasn't been needed before.

We are riding the C&O towpath and GAP trail in June. "We" has expanded from me and Mike to also include my two children, Eryn, age 8, and Bryan, age 5, and my mom. Bryan's bike is too small for panniers, so we decided no camping on the trail. It's a popular trail, with larger, organized groups booking up places in advance. Mike and I experienced places being fully booked... Maybe 3 times? And it wasn't fun to ride a few more miles at the end of the day to the next place, so we didn't want to chance that with the kids.

I'll probably write shorter, poetic descriptions on Instagram captions instead of longer blog posts- I'd say that's what all the cool kids are doing nowadays, but that was maybe 3 years ago, and now the cool kids are posting on TicTok... Not me.

I'm curious who will read this next adventure post here. I don't have affiliate links, or fancy Pinterest connections, or any other angle to market myself to make money, or seek sponsorship, or even instruct others how-to. I'm just sharing our story, the journey, a bit of our experiences, and where cycling has taken me over the years now.