I'm a complete beginner looking to get involved in bike touring.
Hi everybody! My name is Matt and I'm a senior marketing analytics major at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I currently live in Charlotte and work at a Regal movie theatre. I've always enjoyed riding my ($60?) Huffy bike around the area. Recently the chain got all messed up and I decided it's about time to get a new one anyways since I've had it for around 10 years. I absolutely love the idea of exploring and I believe that's why I'm so drawn to bicycling. I had this absurd thought about a week ago, "I'm going to bicycle across the country this summer." As absurd and impossible as this seemed at the time, I discovered this was not the case as I researched online a bit and read a few blog posts detailing cross country trips.
To be honest, I'm completely lost and have no idea where to start. I would like to leave May 11th, the day after Mother's day and the week after my final exams, so that gives me plenty of time to learn, prepare, train, and purchase. Any direction at all for this complete newbie concerning bike touring would be great. I'm currently looking into touring bikes but again, I have absolutely no idea what specifications are desirable or even necessary. I figured a functioning bike would be the first step towards preparing for the trip, but who knows I could be wrong and am open to any advice. I look forward to learning lots here! Thanks.