Touring - seeking advice

I love to ride; i have just graduated from college, and i have decided to bike from southern california to southern florida (the shortest trans am route i could find).
I was wondering if you could provide some general and/or specific advice for this venture.
I have 45 days to cross 3100 miles. I have a 3000$ budget: including buying the bike.
And i was considering buying a Bianchi Volpe (799$) with a
Yakima Bib Tow bike cargo trailer(275$) instead of panniers. I am going to be camping every night due to my budget.
Other than my route i have no plan at all.
I would welcome any and all advice you could provide, including: "You are crazy!"
Thank You,

You are crazy!

;)

Just kidding.

Check out some of the travelogues here in the Touring part of the forum. Some people are currently doing or have done what you want to do, so you may be able to pick up some good tips that way.

I do my riding abroad, so I have no idea about the USA, but you can try and get into this program called SERVAS (means "to serve"). It is an organization of good-willed people who sign up to host travellers. You need to go to servas.org and you can read about it and get an application. You fill out the application and send it in, then they'll send over a list of interviewers and you will need to pass the interview. It's not that hard to do, but it is not a short process either, so make sure you do this no more than a month before you leave. I didn't have much luck with it in Italy, probably because it was the high season for travel, but others from the forum have had great luck with it, and I believe you probably would to, if you were travelling in the USA.

Carry mace.

That's about all I can recommend. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

Koffee

I would say you are perfectly sane and that seeking information is a good indicator of that.

Your set-up sounds good just make sure your bike fits.
Test out all of your gear before you go.
Have you bike tuned-up after you have had a chance to ride it for a few hundred kilometres, so that every thing is correctly adjusted.
Get a good tent, stove, sleeping bag, a compass and maps.
Bring spare tubes, pump, chain links, patch kit, lube, screws, tools, first aid kit, traveler cheques and some books to read along the way. And maybe some extra parts for the trailer.

That is all I can think of at this moment in time.
Regards and welcome to the forum.

Also check out crazyguyonabike.com and Ken Kifers bike pages at kenkifer.com. Both are good sources for information and inspiration.

Oh-

There's a book called "The Touring Cyclist". It takes you through travelling by bike step by step, and it's very thorough. It also has other webpages to refer you to for information too.

Give it a read. Get it as soon as possible.

Koff

I would suggest to change a route a little.
Ride up to Canada first, across it, and roll down between the great lakes, through beautiful Ozark forests of Arkansas... Mississippi River valley... to Florida :D

Do a 1/2 day shakedown tour to make sure you rig works, before you hit the road.

I hear that parts of Florida and Texas are horrible to drive through....