Pardon me while I give another little pitch for going the other direction... We found a lot of advantages to that direction of travel.
Maybe not for the OP, but by starting in the west we found that family and friends were more happy about picking us up in Yorktown than they would have been about dropping us off. The last day they met us on the road and fed us lunch, visited with us in Williamsburg, threw us a picnic at the end in Yorktown, and transported us home. It was a great end to the tour.
Also as I mentioned before It was nice to shop for a cheap fare ahead of time knowing the exact date we would start. Doing that at the end would not work for me since I refuse to ride on a timetable for a long tour.
We found the Appalachians and Ozarks to be the toughest part of the trip and were glad to do them when well road hardened.
We found it motivating starting thousands of miles away from home, and much harder to bail on the trip. We were in interesting (to us) country right away and the familiar country in the east was exciting on the return because we were returning to our home coast after 11 weeks away. There was no temptation to bail in the east because by the time we were there we could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I valued those advantages enough that I chose to go W-E on the ST as well so I could finish at my daughter's house. And would W-E again if doing the TA unless I wanted an early season start.
Since the OP is from PA, this seems like it would have the same advantaged for them. If going this year, they are getting into the time of year where the weather advantage of riding E-W (avoiding heat/humidity in the east and snow in the Rockies) are starting to turn the other way as well. If starting in the East, I'd have gone a month or more ago. If going next year, then that might still be an option.
Last edited by staehpj1; 06-16-14 at 04:58 AM.