Cross-country
 

I didn't know whether to post this in General or in travel, but I'll err on the side of caution and post it here.

School's out for summer and I need something to do, so I've decided to make my way to the west coast to see what I can see. Now, I'm still in the preliminary planning state of everything, so I'm looking for advice.
I'm at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois right now and I have about two months for the two way trip. I plan on taking my bike for the prarie portion of the trip, pretty much taking the reverse of http://www.google.com/chad_bikes_america.html for the most part. Once I reach harder terrian or my bike breaks I plan on ditching it and hitchhiking the rest of the way. I have a good amount of experiance in both cross-country biking and hitchhiking and could come out alright either way. I'm really just looking for suggestions or tips that anyone might have for me, mostly in regard to shelter. In the past, I've been blessed with good weather on my shorter trips and have been able to sleep pretty much anywhere, but for this I'm going to need proper housing. Cost is an issue, I don't plan on carrying much money at all.

I'll put up a website to log the journey once the time comes closer. I'm looking forward to having a good time with this, but any caveats would be welcomed.

ps. If anyone lives between Macomb and California and would be willing to put up a stranger for a night, let me know. I'll be making my route based on where I know I have a place to rest.

If you will be in the area, Register's Annual Bicycle Ride Across Iowa is awesome.

It's not a race, but a gathering of people, and really a week long party.

If you'll be in that area - -check into it.

That looks great, I should be coming through the area right around that time. It'll be great to have some company on the last leg of the journey.

I did it about a decade ago, you need to sign up to actually ride it (they like to keep track of who rode and where they rode it from) I'm a city girl, the Iowa countryside was beautiful. Bloody Mary's before riding 100 miles was an interesting concept. There was food everywhere. Friendliest people you will ever meet anywhere (And I am a certifiable anti-social grouch)