A few of you have suggested that we attach a map of our proposed route.  So here it is.

We begin in St. Augustine and travel through Gainesville and Tallahasee FL,  Mobile AL, Austin and El Paso TX, and Tempe AZ before arriving in San Diego.  The listed mileage is about 3100 miles and we expect it to take us about 2 months to complete.  Of course the larger part of the trip is the open road and so many unnamed small towns and people we will meet.

Mostly we hope to be camping, but I'm sure there will be some motel stops as well, and we've been actively using a site called warmshowers.org for a few of our shorter tours.  It's a site that helps connect touring cyclists and hikers with people willing to provide some level of accommodations.  Outside major cities, there are probably a dozen or so potential hosts we'll be contacting as we progress, seeking shelter and company.

Barb and Ron have hosted several riders in the past year or so, perhaps the most memorable a gentleman who was riding with all of his worldly possessions from Montreal to Costa Rica.  I only mention it, because we were in the small town of Kingsley, IA on our recent tour, when we stopped at a local diner to grab our second  breakfast of the morning.  Outside we were approached by an ex-rodeo bull rider who had just moved to Kingsley, just checking to see how we were doing.  The conversation progressed to a point when he mentioned that he'd had another rider who'd stopped to work with him for a few days trimming trees for cash.  The rider was from Montreal, riding with all his possessions and heading for Costa Rica.  Small world.

I mentioned that we had a few bike adjustments to make.  Shortly after I wrote those words, the bike shop called.  My rear wheel, that I thought just needed to be trued after a surprise encounter with  a nasty speed bump, actually has a cracked rim.  So I'm hoping to pick up my bike with a new rear wheel later this afternoon.  $200 well spent now, rather than on the road.  I can hardly complain.  I've been riding the same rear wheel without a broken spoken and nary an adjustment for about 30,000 miles.  I guess I'm due.