Justin caseyoure feeling hardcore...
 

Today I ran into a guy and his wife, 50ish, who decided in May to ride their bikes across the country. They were fit, but only casual cyclists, 10 miles a few times a week on mid-'80s mountain bikes. They had the bikes checked, put on road tires and racks, loaded up some of their old backpacking gear and headed out five days after they made the decision to go. Route was Reno-Salt Lake City-Cheyenne; after that I forget, winding up in Baltimore, where they have relatives. Took them two months. They alternated camping and cheap motels, and took two rides, about 100 miles total, because of heavy rains. The guy says "Anybody could do it. When we got tired, we stopped. Some days we only did 20 miles." I was skeptical, but they had pictures on their phones.
Bonus: two flat tires on the whole trip.

Yep. Bike touring is a lot of fun. And stopping when you feel like it, instead of having to push on to a fixed destination, is the smart way to do it.

I just read "Life Is A Wheel" a couple of months ago. Basically, about a NYer who flies out to the west coast and then chronicles his cross county bike journey back to NY. It got me itchin' to try something like that. However, there are probably too many obstacles (work, family, health) that keep me from attempting.