Your Questions, Answered!

I am so happy that people are curious about the trip! We are really excited, and are now just a few days away from departure (May 16 departure date)! Tomorrow is our last day of work. Aaaagh!

Anyway, I've been getting a lot of questions from a lot of people. Here are the most asked questions, along with their answers!

1) How far are you going?
About 4,800 miles (see post below)

2) Where are you going?
Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon. :)

3) How heavy is your gear?
Umm... heavy. I posted about what we're bringing, but we're not quite sure of the total weight. It definitely makes the bikes hard to control when still (at a stoplight, for example), when going up hills, and when making tight turns.

Ok, I just weighed it (the curiosity got to me) and my gear is about 40 lbs. Exactly 37, but I'm not quite fully packed yet. So let's say 40 lbs. Dean's gear is probably also 40 lbs. Plus we have to propel the bikes and ourselves, and neither of us are pixies.

Meredith with her fully loaded bike

4) What are you going to do for food?
We are going to carry cereal and powdered milk on us at all times, as well as emergency snacks such as granola bars. For other food, we will stop at grocery stores and restaurants along the way during the day.

5) What are you going to do for water? What if you run out?
We are going to each have two water bottles on our bikes and start the day with two full bottles. In addition, I'll have a Camelbak. We will refill water at all of our food stops along the way. We will do our best to make sure that we never run out. In case of emergency, we have iodine to help us purify water from streams, etc.

6) How far are you going every day?
We expect this to vary, but we hope to average at least 50 miles per day over the entire trip, and 60 miles per day if you take rest days out of the average. I think we will probably start with lower mileage days and work our way up as we get into shape and the terrain gets flatter.

7) Are you doing this to lose weight?
No. Don't be ridiculous.

8) How will you find your way? How will you know where you're going?
We have maps from the Adventure Cycling Association, which we think are awesome! ACA has a network of maps that cover the whole country, and we have patched together our route from those. The ACA maps keep cyclists on the roads less traveled (by cars), and provides information on where to find campgrounds, bike shops, grocery stores, etc.

9) What if you get a flat or your bike breaks somehow?
We both know how to change flats, and we have extra tubes and patch kits in case that happens. Both of us are using kevlar-belted tires, however, so I hope flats just won't happen!

For other breakdowns, we took the Revolution Cycles Park Tool School last month, and we are pretty prepared to handle most things that may befall us. We can fix a broken chain, replace and adjust brakes, true tires, etc. But if we have a serious breakdown (crash that breaks crank somehow, for example), I think we'll just rely on our cell phones and the ACA maps to get us to the nearest bike shop.

10) How much will this cost?
A lot. If you count everything (mortgage, health insurance, gear purchases, student loan payments, credit card payments, cell phone payments, etc.), and we do, since we're not earning any money and everything still needs to get paid, it costs about $25,000. If you take out all the stuff we'd have to pay for anyway and just count the trip stuff (food, lodging, bike expenses) it's about $9,000-10,000. In other words, definitely more than our wedding. :)

11) Where will you sleep? Are you camping?
We plan to camp six nights a week and have a hotel/motel one night a week. I'm sure that won't work out exactly right, but that's what we budgeted for.

12) Are you nuts? This is dangerous!
I will refrain from answering this one until we get back from the trip.

13) Aren't you SO excited? Aren't you nervous? Aren't you worried?
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Please post any other questions you may have in comments (along with, of course, any comments), and we'll answer them as soon as we can!