I seldom take actual rest days. I figure that if I need a full day with no cycling at all that I must have overdone it the preceding days. Also I figure that some easy miles are a better recovery than a day off. The very few times I might take days off it is to do something fun, the last thing I want to do on tour is veg out in a motel room in front of a TV.

On the Trans America we took "half days" with some regularity. We did take a day to go white water rafting but even on that day we rode a few miles down the road and camped so we actually never stayed the same place twice the whole tour. Another day we actually lost ground when we had to go back for Lauren to have injuries treated after an accident, but the three of us all rode that day, in fact I went out for a ride around the area so I totaled something like 40 miles that day.

On my Santa Fe tour I did take a full day when I was sick, but that was not optional, I could not have ridden if I had tried.

In the Sierras we did take 6 days off to see the Yosemite Valley, but I wouldn't call them rest days. We still rode something like 15 miles per day getting to trail heads for hikes and generally sight seeing. We hiked quite a few miles on those days off.

As far as what we did with our bikes and gear... In Yosemite our tent and sleeping stuff stayed set up in camp and our other gear stayed in the panniers on our bikes which we used for transportation. When we went rafting the rafting company locked up our stuff. When we were in town on partial rest days if we had a motel room or were with hosts our stuff stayed there and we rode our bikes sans gear. In all other cases the gear just stayed on the bikes. For quick hikes along the way we just left the panniers on the bikes and parked them at the trail head. We did take our handlebar bags with us.