Originally Posted by valygrl

So to summarize:
Back to back to back days of >100 miles
Boring ugly scenery
Potentially dangerous human interactions
Un-welcoming towns with nothing to do
No services for many miles, sometimes all day
No options to shorten the distances or extend the timeframe in case someone gets sick, hurt or too tired
Midsummer in a hot part of the country
Not carrying camping gear so you *must* make it to the next town
You're going to train for a year and a half for a 5 day trip

I think you're setting yourself up for a disappointment at best, a deathmarch most likely. I think you should carefully reconsider your route, and whether your budget really constrains you to starting from home. You have a year and a half to plan it, you can do a couple of weekend trial runs before (maybe out and back on the first day of your proposed route?), you have a year and a half to save up some money for plane tickets somewhere nicer.