The bike-camp thread started with a simple question: are we still doing a full week in April, and should everybody book?
Yes.
A small group of friends settled on April 11 through 17 for a Trek Travel ride camp in South Carolina. One pair booked first and shared their flights. Michelle and I booked the same ones. Another friend joined the thread the next morning with an enthusiastic yes.
The confirmation gave the trip a real shape. Six nights in Greenville. A road bike waiting there. A full week where the main job was to ride, eat, recover, and get ready to ride again.
I chose the rider level marked avid. That sounded right for where I wanted to be, even if winter training in New York did not always make it easy. February was cold, work was busy, and Reonomy had enough going on to fill every open hour. Putting the camp on the calendar meant I could not leave cycling in the vague category of something I planned to do later.
Trips like this worked better with friends. The logistics became shared. Somebody asked the first question. Somebody booked. The rest of us followed with the same dates and flights. It was harder to quietly back out when several people were planning to see you at the airport.
The email archive contains private booking details that do not belong here. The useful facts are the place, the week, the people riding together, and the decision to go. Nothing in the thread proves how fit I would be when April arrived or how every ride went.
For now, the reservation was enough. The camp had moved from an idea in a group email to a trip with flights and a bike attached to my name.
I had seven weeks to make sure my legs were ready for it.