Ride Ahead

The 50-state ride is about eight months away at this point. A lot of work has been put into all of it, and work continues to get everything lined up and ready for Alice and Chick to hit the road on May 1, 2027. It has not been an easy path thus far, and there are plenty of obstacles that still lie ahead.

Over the course of planning for the bike ride, there have been challenges involving the route, the schedule, farms, stops at other locations, and so on. Each one carries its own challenges, and each has required pivots here and there as ideas come up and new information and feelings come through. It’s required a lot of logistical thinking, as well as an understanding of how large this undertaking truly is. Planning for weather, seasons, travel time, and the best route to take has caused us to spend a lot of time looking at maps and tossing out drafts and ideas as they come about.

Planning the farms has also brought its challenges. The WWOOF organization is very large and has a wide variety of farms to choose from. Filtering through them to better understand which ones we feel offer the best opportunities for us to learn the skills and information we will need in the future has taken quite a bit of time. On top of that, farms come and go from the program, so even if we have narrowed it down to a few candidates in each state, there is still a need to backtrack and verify that the farms have not ended their memberships with WWOOF for any number of reasons. It adds to the list of challenges we face as we move forward.

How much time we need is another big challenge. Making sure we spend as much time as we feel is needed in various places to ensure we gather all the information we can, without spending so long that we drag out the bike ride, has involved a bit of back-and-forth as well. Fluctuations in the schedule are going to be inevitable, and we can’t plan for everything, so ensuring there is enough time built into the trip to help mitigate the unforeseen without adding delays is a balancing act.

There are still a number of things that need to be figured out and accomplished as we continue stepping toward the starting line, but I know that with the team we have and our ability to figure things out as they come, we will definitely hit the ground running once it’s time to cross the starting line and get the bikes rolling. Thank you all for following along and for your support so far. I am excited about the future and what is to come!