Thanks for all the responses everyone! I had a meeting with the community I'm fundraising for and I've gathered some more information. They were very supportive about speaking to Mec & other groups to support me, so there's some potential for financial salvation through them.

Clasher - I haven't. I've seen them and been wary of them. I was originally going to do drop bars with aerobars, but I had a couple mechanics who scoffed at the idea of using aero bars. to be honest I find drops & aeros more appealing. I'm going to use 26" wheels for the just in case factor: if I get a busted wheel way out in the boonies and there's nothing but an old mountain bike for parts.

Building the bike - I thought about trying to build this myself, for about 30 seconds. I talked to MEC and they said their turn-around time for dropping the frame off & having them build it up was 6 days. In a crazy coincidental moment, one of the woman's husbands I spoke to who is organizing fundraisers and the like for the housing co-op is a bike mechanic! How perfect is that? He said he would help me build it. I had a meeting with two of the community organizers to talk about a game plan, and I spoke to her husband for a half hour about components. Really, really nice to have someone with experience who can help me build this badboy. Also, I got the frame for a steal at $140 on craigslist.

Timdow - Yes, I'll be camping and cooking most of my own meals. There have been talks of having service clubs host me along the way, but this is a speculated plan at this point. I said I would use 18 speeds because I looked up what the deal with all the different speed options were and the author of an article I read said even the 18's were excessive. My current bike is an 18 and I like it - I can get up hills without dying. Mine's a 3x6. This is something I can talk to my mechanic about and suss out a plan of attack.

Shortlegcyclist -thanks for the pitch idea. Giving a follow up and some presentations is a good idea. Also thanks for the tire input (and everyone for mentioning the marathon tires radness) - the sites I read this on said countries outside north america don't stock tires.

For the build I'm looking to do a touch above average - I got such a smokin' deal on the frame that I don't mind spending a bit more for some components. I might just look at the specs of the LHT right out of the box and replicate it (aside from tires/wheels). If I go this route, are there any changes those familiar with LHT builds would recommend doing?