OK, it's been decided. I'm gonna do it.

I've been wanting to ride my bike across the US since 1976 when Bike Centennial rode through my home town. I'm (ahem) fully adult now and my girls are grown and on their own.

I've had some pretty awful, horrible, no good, very bad, terrible, life-threatening diagnoses - a constellation of pulmonary emboli and breast cancer have a way of getting a girl's attention.

I've been hearing myself say recently that "One more bad diagnosis, and I'll be taking my retirement and my bike and I are hitting the road!" Then yesterday that little voice in my head asked, "Um, why wait for that?" I had no answer.

So, I'm going on a figure-8 tour of the US. The route is kind of a dashed line, but the general idea is to leave from my front door in the middle of the country, head generally eastward to Washington DC, south to Key West, west to New Orleans, up the Mississippi to its source, west to Seattle, then diagonally home past both Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore.

DH pointed out that I am allowed to do this over the course of several legs/years (my own private Vuelta). I'm considering it. If I do it two weeks at a time, I won't even have to quit my job. Hmmm. . .

I need to get over the cancer treatment (duh), but I'm planning on getting my poop in a group this winter and be ready to take off this coming late spring/summer.

Does anyone have any good ideas on places I must not miss on the general route? Any routing suggestions? Any financing suggestions? I'm in the planning stage, so any input will be considered.