Sunday mornings are made for coffee and easing into ones day and that is just what we did, with the exception of getting an earlier than normal start.

After delicious coffee and the best snickerdoodle cookies, we packed up camp and rolled away from Town Creek Campground.

Soon after the drizzle let up, both Matt and I needed a second breakfast. We stopped at the lock house in Old Town and devoured our delicious adobe burritos leftovers from the previous nights dinner.

When riding with Rosie on my handlebars, she gets excited when we see flowers. So much so that when she sees a special one her tail goes swish swish. Needless to say, she saw alot of them today on our way to Cumberland and I pulled over alot to take pictures of flowers and pick her some to take with along the way.

We stopped to take a break and Rosie found this massive flower (12″ wide) in a mucky lock along the C&O. Eutrochium aka Joe Pie Weed. Perennial wildflower; prefers sun or partial shade; at maturity 4-7′ tall x 3-4′ wide; butterfly and honeybee attractor; rapid growth rate; erect habit; blooms summer to fall; prefers moist soil to wet soil; clay, loam and organic matter; Zones 3b to 8a.

While I was geeking out over the specs of the Joe Pie Weed, Rosie jumped off the bike and found a patch of yellow flowers to frolic in.

I scooped Rosie up and we rode along the canal looking for more wildflowers.

Soon we found the portion of the C&O that is more challenging after a good rain.

It certainly didn’t dampen our spirits, but there was a lot of fish tailing thru mud puddles. Rosie helped me steer clear of the deep ones by looking ahead and swishing her tail left to right. She is such a good unicorn.

We passed alot of B&B riders. It is great that there are companies along the C&O that cater to those who want different experiences than fully loaded bicycle touring. It makes me smile to see people with smiles on their faces as they ride bikes!

Matt makes me smile with his knowledge of the outdoors. He identified a sassafras plant and gave me the a stem to chew on. It was more like a hard stick, so I gave it back and he baby birded it for me. I laughed so hard at this phrase as I had never heard it before.

The sun came out for a bit as we entered into Cumberland.

We stopped at a bike shop to buy fuel for our stoves. Coming out of the bike shop we smelled food. Following our sense of smell and our near empty bellies led us to the Crabby Pig. Rosie approved since she thought she would finally meet a pig and a crab. She was slightly disappointed when she did not find a pig on a bicycle or a live crab. All in all she was in good spirits after she ate.

As we left the Crabby Pig, we walked right into Roman and Cassian. They had finished their Father and Son tour of the C&O and they too were ready to pig out at the Crabby Pig. After some recommendations, we grabbed selfies with them and laughed as Roman said you will be famous someday.

On our way to our hotel, we stopped at the National Parks Service visitors center. Then Rosie spotted some flowers and steered my bike to them.

Soon we found our hotel right on the trail. Complete with a bike washing station! Matt washed the bikes while I checked us in. We had budgeted $150 for a hotel and came in at $155. The amenities outweighed the extra $5.

Our room was nice and our clean bikes fit perfectly in the room. Rosie took the extra bed all to herself. We were able to do laundry on the cheap, work on our blogs, charge all our devices, utilize the ice machine, refill all our hydroflasks and playtpus’ bladders with purified water from the fitness center. In the morning, we had an awesome free breakfast that turned into a super second breakfast and lunch on the GAP the next day.

The Fairfield Inn is right on the C&O towpath. They do a great job catering to cyclist from the bike washing station, towels to dry your bike off with at the front desk to the delicious breakfast spread they get 5 stars from me!