This is one of my favorite quotes ever and is reported to have been said by Dwight D. Eisenhower about the D-day invasion. Ultimately, the minute you write down a plan, the real world will interfere and it will be obsolete. This places a premium on being able to shift gears, replan and begin the cycle over again.

So why the quote here and now? My plans for the cross county cycling trip about which I asked “Am I Kidding Myself?” have changed. I spent the last six months planning out the route and the logistics based on what I have learned bikepacking over the last several years, especially the long trip last summer to Vermont. I still firmly believe I am not kidding myself. While I want to, and can have, that experience, there are a variety of issues – some within my control and some outside of my control – that have caused me to rethink how I do it.

Part of the “curse” of being a utility ball player is having way more interests than time for, even retired! In the final analysis I really didn’t want to be away from my bestie Lisa and my other interests (sailing, Planning Commission) for three months. There are a number of Snipe events I would have missed (Newport Regatta, DickC Cup, North Americans) and I was having a lot of FOMO about that, especially since this is what Lisa and I do together. We were both feeling like “boo, you [from both of our perspectives] will be gone for 3 months and we won’t get to sail together.” That was just wholly unsatisfying. Perhaps if Lisa was interested in sitting on a bike seat for 6 hours a day for 3 months with me, it would be different. But she thinks this is nuts, so not really a possibility.

Speaking of sailing, the month of June is typically our most busy sailing season ending with the Snipe Nationals in Beverly MA the last week in June. Couple that with the serious disruptions of some home renovations, the idea of getting on a plane to go to Seattle and ride for 3 months, especially through some very remote areas of the western US just a few days after getting home seemed a little out there and I was just not feeling mentally ready. And lastly, the remoteness of various parts of the trip (eastern Washington and Montana) was producing a lot of anxiety about whether I should (or want to) do it alone.

What Lisa suggested – and has been suggesting, which finally sunk into my head – is to do it in pieces. Of course it won’t have the “epicness” of a single trip, but that’s OK because I’m doing it for the experience, not as any kind of bucket list goal. So I decided to do the last third from Lincoln NE home in August. Logistically that is going to work well because we are driving out there for the Snipe Women’s Nationals and I’ll just ride home. And, be home in time for Snipe North Americans is New Jersey. It’s about 1400 miles and I should be able to do that in about 3-4 weeks.

I hope at some time to return to the west. I think the Olympic National Park/Palouse To Cascades Trail/Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes would be fun in and of itself, then perhaps the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) through Montana would be fun. Lots of other possibilities for another day, especially if I could enlist a buddy and perhaps do it on a slightly more rugged bike.

Update July 27: Wow, the prior paragraph of what was coming up in June turned out to be quite the understatement. I very much underestimated the required mental and physical bandwidth the Snipe sailing (Colonial Cup in Annapolis, Atlantic Coast Championships in Surf City NJ and the Nationals in MA) would take. By the time we got home from New England at the end of June I was exhausted and the idea of starting a cross county trip the week later was hard to even think about. Furthermore, the evening before heading to the Newport regatta the second week of July- had I started the cross country trip, I would have been unreachable in the middle of Washington state – I got the call that my mother was in the hospital in Los Angeles and that I needed to get there ASAP. In the end, had I been on the bike trip I would not have been there for her at her passing a day later, something I know was very important to her.

After driving up to New England to get the Snipe two days after coming back from California, staying with my Father in New Bedford and earlier in June doing my annual New Bedford/Dartmouth/Westport nostalgia bike tour I started thinking about the ride back from Nebraska. Frankly, I love New England in the summer and pine for the sights and smells, so the thought of riding through corn fields in Iowa in 100 degree heat just didn’t seem very appealing. And to pile it on, for more than a month I’ve had this nagging shoulder issue (not the joint, a pinched nerve I believe) which has me worried about weeks on the bike.

This brings me to yet another iteration of this trip: scratch the ride home from Nebraska (meaning I drive home solo from the Women’s Nationals which helps Lisa tremendously because she can fly back to run the Hinman) and take the train to Providence and ride up through New England someplace, not dissimilar from the trip I did last year. Still thinking about what this will be, perhaps up to Acadia National Park or into New Hampshire or even Vermont again. Acadia would be great as I’ve never been there and I have my old guy lifetime National Park pass, but it’s such a popular spot, finding campsites might be difficult. So I still am really uncertain about what I am going to do. In the spirit of this post, I will no doubt update it again.

Update August 22: More water under the bridge! We did travel to Nebraska for the Snipe Women’s Nationals (which Lisa won convincingly!) and fortunately, the hot weather broke, yielding a week of 50s-70s. She was able to fly in and out, and then ran a really successful US Team Racing Championship. In my 5 days of solo driving there and back I had a bunch of time to think about what I wanted to do bikepacking-wise. Ultimately, at this point I really didn’t have a lot of time because I have to be back in Annapolis by September 5th for a Planning Commission meeting. This gave me essentially a little less than two weeks. What I eventually came up was going to the Fall Quassapaug Snipe regatta in Waterbury CT (one of the aforementioned things that I was going to miss that was giving me FOMO), sailing with Lisa, and riding from there while Lisa drives home. Definitely lighter duty driving for her than to/from Nebraska!

The route I came up with is a mix of new and old ground, but one of the nice things about that is it’s not particularly stressful with so much familiarity. Two years ago, I rode up to Quassy, so I have some appreciation for riding in Connecticut, and essentially continues that ride and recreates some of what I did last summer that I really loved. The route is nine riding days of about 60 miles (or less) each with 2 stops at CT state parks, 2 stops at MA state parks on the Cape, 4 stops with family, a ferry ride and a train ride home, in total about 400 pedaling miles.

Everything is booked, I’m packed and ready to go. I’ll have a full writeup after the trip.

Also, after riding some Nebraska gravel and talking to a few people about the local conditions, I am actually more excited about riding through there in the future. As long as it is not 100 degrees!