cyrnel

I peak at ~450mi/day. Longer just isn't fun for the shoulders. If you want to smell the roses it'll be more like 200-300 miles/day.

Take a few day trips on the style of bike you plan to use. Work up to it. They're very different once you sit & grip for a couple hours.

Can't give advice on touring companies other than to make sure you get references. I've ridden since I was five so can't see paying someone to carry the groceries. Might make sense for trying a different bike.

Plan your clothing layers. Leave options open for unplanned stops. What seems blazing hot in the day rapidly changes to freezing legs once the sun hits the horizon.

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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195