Somewhat to my surprise and with little warning, I'm leaving on Feb. 15 to ride the Southern Tier bike route from San Diego to St. Augustine, with the goal of finishing by mid-April. My friend Phil, who'd been planning the trip for a long time, asked me last spring if I wanted to go, and I declined with the excuse having too much to do at that time of year.

But when he asked me again a few days ago--not having found anyone else--I realized there was no compelling reason why I couldn't go. So I am.

I've done a lot of multi-week canoe trips and mountaineering trips, but have never gone on a bike tour of longer than two or three nights. Not sure whether to ride the Raleigh Gran Sport or the Miyata 1000.

What's the best way to travel with a 63-cm frame, does anyone know? I'm considering the counterintuitive put-the-bike-in-a-plastic-bag-and-hand-it-over-to-the-airline-baggage-handlers approach (How to fly with a bike: The cheap and easy method -), but I'd be interested to hear what others have done.