So, my buddy and I are planning our first long trip this summer. We've done a couple of one and two night rides, but we are setting aside about eight days for this trip. We have two ideas right now:

1. Do the Adventure Cycling Adirondack Park Loop trip. I bought the map, and it looks like a ton of fun. I've been studying the trip and looking over journals on crazyguyonabike.com.

2. Ride from Brooklyn, NY to Cooperstown to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I feel like this would be a fun trip, but I can find ZERO on the internet to help me plan such a trip. I looked over the maps contained in the earlier thread "Port Jervis, NY to Ithaca, any tips?" (Thanks thehugoball), and I am a little concerned by the lack of camping sites on the NY maps, and we would have to go off them anyway to get to Cooperstown.

Both trips are 400-450 miles (we would go off-route at one point on the Great Adventure option).

So my questions are: Are there any web resources to try and plan your own bike tour (finding safer roads, campsites, etc.)? How much easier is it to follow the Great Adventures route than your own? Are there any odd or different things that need to be planned for if we take the Cooperstown trip?

More broadly, which do you prefer - - a trip with a destination (Cooperstown) or a trip for the trip's sake?