I was in your shoes two years ago and chose to do a transamerica tour with America by Bicycle (ABB). Very comparable in price and services to Cross Roads. It was a trip of a lifetime and not a day goes by without flashing back on some experience. The ABB staff was efficient, highly competent, but a bit standoffish. However, the trains ran on time.

I went as a solo, which meant I had my own room. But most people shared a room and some even went 3/room- I'd have been a headline in a local newspapers had I tried to do that, but the doubled up folks seemed quite content and I think many became very close friends. Lot's of group dinners and breakfasts, lots of buffets, lots of pasta.

We crossed the US in about 50 days. My cost (as a solo) was $10K or about $200/day. Prices appear to be up about 10% or so since then.

The two biggest drawbacks were the size of the group (we started with 70 riders) and the pace of the ride (85 miles/day). Luggage load each morning took place during a 15-30 minute window usually starting at 6-6:30am. The ride itself always felt hurried, partly because of the distance and partly because you wanted to get to the hotel washing machine before your co-riders. Still, it was a fantastic experience.

Most of us rode road bikes, not touring bikes, since we only had to carry what you'd carry on a typical century type ride (spare tube, energy bars, water, etc). Given the lack of loads, the pace was doable. But on loaded touring bikes, this pace would have been a killer-at least for me.

Having done this, I'd do it differently next time. I'd seriously consider doing it credit card style. I think the cost might be cut in half doing it this way compared to a $200/day commercial fully supported tour.

I think the Adventure Cycling maps would be a great tool to use in planning a self supported credit card trip. My guess is that you could probably do it this way for $100-125/day solo and less than that if you had a roommate/partner to split hotel costs.

I have no experience doing self supported camping based trips, but I have to believe that the cost would be a fraction-even if you stayed in commercial or state park campgrounds every night- they're maybe $15-30/night. If you cooked Mountain House type meals (commercially available freeze dried meals) for another$15-20/day and you are at $30-50/day. I'm sure a creative chef could cut that in half. Pick a midpoint on lodging and meals and call it $40/day.

Some friends of mine from the ABB trip just did a credit card trip on loaded touring tandem down the west coast and averaged 45 miles/day or so-a much more relaxed pace. If you did that, a cross country trip would take 70-80 days of riding- add 10% for rest days and you are looking at 80-90 days. Looks like the cost for camping/eating Mountain House would be 85 x $40=$3400 or about 1/3-1/2 of what a fully supported trip would be. I would think that you'd want to budget for occasional hotels (rain) and restaurants (I'm dying for a steak)-but you could probably offset that by finding some free/stealth campsites.

You have plenty of time to get your feet wet by doing some short tours. The AC site has loads of people looking for touring partners. Also, "Crazyguyonabike" has similar "need partner" postings.

Bottom line, if you have a real passion to do this, you'll find a way. Go for it!!!!