Off we go tomorrow

 Hello everyone,

It seems almost unbelievable, but we're headed to the airport tomorrow. The plan is to spend 3+ weeks biking in France and then take the train to Italy for 10 days of relaxing and exploring without the bikes. I keep pinching myself to make sure this is all actually happening, and obsessively checking for sore throats and other weird issues that might derail the plan. 

A couple things are different from last time we boxed our bikes and boarded a plane: The kids are four years older (but not Dave and me), we've been through a nasty pandemic, and we're all pretty rusty on adventure travel. We're only taking one tandem this time, as Lyle has graduated to his own bike. He's pretty stoked about that!

A few things feel the same: Everybody is incredibly excited, even the kids. The massive pile of gear in our dining room looks eerily similar. The process of organizing ourselves to leave home for multiple weeks still involves a billion minute details. And we're firing up the blog again, mostly as a means of communicating with family and recording our daily experiences.

For days we've been extra aware of how cozy our beds are, how soft our pillows are, and how clean (relatively) our bathroom is... or at least, the grunge is our own. When we land in Paris on Wednesday, we'll have two nights in an Airbnb before setting out for a 600-mile loop, mostly along rivers and entirely along established bike routes (or so we think, mwahahaha!). 

So many questions... like, what will the weather do? Right now it looks like we will be strolling Paris in the pouring rain next Thursday, but then the forecast calls for days and days of mid-eighties sunshine. Yeehaw!

Dave is busy fine-tuning the bike boxes and our list of tasks is still pretty extensive, so I'll keep this short. Can't wait to be on the road again!

Much love and hope you'll follow along,

Liv

P.S. Here are some photos from our recent shakedown cruise.