January 2nd, after a Christmas holiday around the house with the kids, I rode my bicycle to work. It felt like a part of me was waking up after a long sleep. It got adventuring on my mind.
That day, I heard about "Voyaging with Kids- A Guide to Family Life Afloat," by Behan Gifford and others. Among other things, I read about "...consciously disconnect[ing] your family from everything ashore," and surrounding your children with people who "...are actively living their dream." It had me daydreaming a bit. Then I thought, "Now, Paul, don't while away time wishing for a sailboat. Just enjoy what you have—bikes.

On the way home, I thought about the lack of required work travel this upcoming summer. I will be busy writing, but I realized there was nothing major pinning me down at the office. Thus, the idea of doing a bike tour this summer germinated.

Once the idea took root, I started weeding—eliminating, in my mind, one by one, the things that could prevent the bike trip from happening, or the reasons for not going. Getting home, there was work to do to take care of the kids, but in a quiet moment, I told Clerie I wouldn't be tied down this summer, and I asked her, "Can you think of any reason we couldn't ride our bikes to Utah this summer?"

That got her attention. "You can't just drop that on my like that!" she said, as we got back to work with the evening routine. That night, she couldn't sleep. So we talked—about the heat, about water, about the route, about the dog, about transportation home, about school, etc. And we talked about postponing such a trip a couple of years. But kids grow up, they get busy, and life throws curve balls at you. We might not get another chance at this.

So, over the next few days, the bike trip went from something we were "thinking about," to something we "wanted to do," to something we were "planning on" (to the shock of Clerie's siblings, and the jealousy of my own). The kids reacted as follows:
-J: Awesome! I've been wanting to do that ever since we moved out here.
-A: Is this going to take away the after-school trip we usually do?
-L: I'm 90% sure you're not joking, but I can't tell. Are you sure you're not joking?
-E: I want to bike and eat cake!
-O: Can I ride bikes now?