Prologue....

i'm in the final stages of planning the minutia of the travel and packing details, and things are all falling into place for my trip. getting very excited....

briefly, the itinerary goes like this:
ship my bike to my dad's place in naples, FL.  send  all my gear to my bud Dave's place on the FL east coast.
fly to naples, FL to visit my dad. then, make a one-day dash across florida to ft. pierce (about 130 miles).  ought to be pretty nice, as i'll not be carrying  a full touring load.   visit with friends for a day, load up my gear, ceremoniously dip my wheels in the atlantic,  and depart on 4/4.

my route consists of a combination of 4 of the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) routes in the United States: the Southern Tier (once I reach Tallahassee, FL, to Gulf Shores, AL), the Underground Railroad (to Cave-in-Rock, IL), the TransAmerica (TransAm) (to Missoula, MT), and the Lewis and Clark Trail to Astoria. OR. ACA has detailed cycling-centric maps for each of these routes, complete with elevation profiles, and annotations for services like lodging, groceries, campgrounds, libraries (for internet access), bike shops, etc., along with pertinent contact information for the above in each significant locations along the way. the routes themselves are generally rural roadways thru small towns, intentionally avoiding traffic areas..  roughly 4500 miles. shooting for 80 days or less.

i'm fortunate to live close enough to safely bike-commute to work, so i've been getting many training miles on the bike loaded with 'gear' in my panniers; not 'gear' per se, but bricks to simulate the weight. with weekend longer rides and practicing camp setups, the shakedowns are coming along very well....

i'll post final prep news as i go, so stay tuned.

BUT, before that .........