What an amazing adventure. I encourage anyone to consider taking such a journey. There is no better way to experience this country than at the deliberate pace of a bike. It is less difficult and daunting than you might think. My son and I took 72 days to travel from Portland Maine to Portland Oregon. We were in shape, but not "avid" bikers. I hadn't ridden my bike for 6 months and my son, for a year and a half. So we started slowly, but within a week we were already able to do over 50 miles a day. We began April 1st in Portland Maine. If you remember the Spring of 2014 was a cool one and as we traveled across New England we saw lots of snow and a number of open ski areas. We knew we had much tougher terrain in our future, but the rolling hills of New England and the Green Mountains were a nice first test. See the first spike early in the ride, that was the Green Mountains. On the 5th day we entered NY and rode through the Mohawk Valley along the Erie Canal. It was cold, but beautiful. We weren't able to take advantage of the 350 mile Erie Canal bike trail as it was primarily dirt and there was still snow in places. We arrived at Niagara and saw the amazing falls. It was cold and there was still 50 ft of ice rising from the floor of the valley to the top of the falls. We left NY through Buffalo on a very nice paved bike trail along Lake Erie. We spent a day in PA and moved into Ohio. It was quite cold with snow flurries a few days. We were warned to avoid Cleveland due to gang activity, but found a great bike trail that took us along the Lake by many nice homes to downtown and a really nice maritime museum and the Rock N'Roll Hall of Fame. Cleveland was quite nice. We left Ohio passing through Toledo, also a nice city with a lot of impressive interpretive signage. We began a 13 day tour of Michigan riding north through the lower peninsula. Our ride through the lower peninsula was tough. It was cold and windy. It was tough to find paved roads other than interstates that traveled south to north. Eventually we made it to Mackinaw. Our goal was to go to Mackinaw Island, but the lakes were still frozen at the end of April. We spent the next 5 days traveling through the upper peninsula which was gorgeous. Other than the huge lake that seemed like an ocean, it reminded us very much of New England all the way down to the Maple sugaring that was going on. It was early May and still cold with snow in the sand dunes along the lake and icebergs in the lake. Wisconsin was when the landscape, trees, and animals started to change, to this point they had been remarkably similar to what we were used to in the east. There were some amazing bike trails in Eau Claire and further south. Temps started to moderate. We crossed the Mississippi at Red Wing, MN. Coming out of Red Wing we took an excellent rail trail to Cannon Falls by the Anderson Center at Tower View an outdoor sculpture center. Both Wisconsin and Minnesota were relatively flat and the farms became bigger and bigger as we traveled west, to the point that many were bigger than our home town and that was as far as the eye could see. They were relatively flat, but anytime there was a river or creek it carved a 500 ft deep valley we had to traverse. Moving into South Dakota the terrain and landscape transitioned to the Great Plains. As we moved west towns became smaller and farther apart. Pierre is the capital of SD and only has 13,000 residents, about double the size of my home town!! Lots of farms and more and more ranch land. The natural history museum in Pierre was fantastic, great description of the Indian culture and history, geology, archaeology, and settlement culture and history. We arrived in Rapid City SD on our 47 day of riding (2500 miles). Mt Rushmore was one of our original destinations. I'd never been to SD before this trip and knew very little of the Mt Rushmore area. It is unbelievable, there is so much to see and do in the Black Hills region of SD. I encourage all to visit at some point, there are mountains, unique landscapes (the Badlands), rivers, western landscapes, wild west towns (Deadwood & Leadville), and lots of wildlife. Hiking is excellent and one of the best rail trails in the country runs through the Black Hills. We traveled into Wyoming through Sturgis SD, the home of one of the largest biker rally's in the country. Over 500,000 folks descend on this region for one week. That is roughly the population of Wyoming!! In my opinion, Wyoming was the most beautiful state we rode through. It has the iconic western redrock landscapes with bluffs and buttes galore, high desert ranch lands, beautiful mountains and National Forests and the unique landscape of Yellowstone. It is sparsely populated and we actually rode side by side in the breakdown lane of I-90 for 250 miles!! It was here that we reached our highest elevation, roughly 9700 ft in the Big Horn Mountain range east of Yellowstone. This range is east of the main range of the Rockies, but is considered the Rockies. We started that day at 4700 ft and climbed 5000 ft over 35 miles (see the big spike in the elevation profile). It wasn't as bad as it sounds and the views were just spectacular. What was even more impressive was the massive Tensleep Canyon on the west side of the range, it was like a small Grand Canyon!! Eventually we made it to Cody Wyoming, the east gateway to Yellowstone. We visited the Cody Wild West center. There are 5 different museums in the center, none should be missed, although we found the Wild Bill museum to be over done, the other museums, the natural history, Indian culture, gun, and art museums were all very impressive. Take a day or two to see this museum. We left Cody Wyoming for the east entrance of Yellowstone. The climb into Yellowstone was amazing. The views were fantastic. Shoshone National Forest on the east side of Yellowstone should not be missed. Great hiking, excellent views and much less crowded than Yellowstone. Yellowstone was everything I thought it would be. Unique landscapes, geology, hydrology, and wildlife. It isn't designed for biking however, it is a little scary riding on their roads, they are narrow with no accommodation for bikes and there is a lot of traffic. We were there just after Memorial Day and there was still a lot of snow on the ground. We took a dirt bike trail to the west of the Grand Prismatic Spring that was great. It got us off the beaten path, gave us a great view of the spring, a nice hike to Fairy Falls, and views of lots of wildlife. On the way out of Yellowstone, on our way to West Yellowstone MT, Chris was cornered by Bison. It was touch and go, but he made it while I laughed for a good three miles!! We only spent one day in MT at West Yellowstone a real cute tourist town. We made it to Idaho after passing over the continental divide at the border of MT and Idaho. We had passed over it in Yellowstone as well, twice. But none of these passes were close to the elevation of Big Horn. Idaho was another change. we traveled the northern part of the Snake River valley. It was quite desolate and dry, but has it's own beauty. At the start, we were in the Targhee National Forest which was on the west side of Yellowstone and was very beautiful. We stayed right on the Snake Rive at an owner built motel that was nicest we stayed in during the whole ride, see the photos. We headed towards Craters of the Moon National Monument and the terrain became drier and drier, even the sage brush couldn't handle it. However, as in the other western states, we saw lots of cattle and wildlife including pronghorn antelope. We rode over 115 miles one day in the Idaho desert. We rode 72 days carrying a tent, sleeping bags, and air mattresses in our trailers, to camp out just one evening at Craters of the Moon. It was well worth it, camping among the lava fields under a cool clear sky with amazing stars. Craters of the Moon is a unique and interesting place to visit. It is worth the side trip for sure. We continued on through Boise stopping at a great military museum just outside the airport. Finally we made it to Eastern Oregon on day 65 (3500 miles). As you can see by the elevation profile Eastern Oregon was quite hilly. The last 7 days of the ride we had an average of 3500 ft of elevation per day. Eastern Oregon was beautiful, it is high desert peppered with a few national forests and mountain ranges. There were great views and wildlife. It wasn't until we got close to Mt Hood, which is only 70 miles from Portland did we see any clouds or any precipitation. But, once we entered the Mt Hood National forest, we were in clouds with drizzle to start although it was pouring by the time we got to Government Camp just south of Mt Hood. Given the clouds we never saw the forest or the mountain. On the 72nd day as we rode to Portland, it was 40 degrees, pouring with large snowflakes mixed in. It was miserable, but we wanted to make it to Portland. We dropped down a 6 to 7% grade for 20 miles in the pouring rain, it was scary. But we made it cold and wet to Portland. We spent our last day riding around downtown Portland. The bike trails and paths in the Portland area are extraordinary. Everyone is out on bikes in any weather. Portland is a great city. After packing our bikes for the trip home, we visited the Columbia River Gorge by car. This is another don't miss destination. The gorge, the waterfalls, and the hiking are exceptional. We carried a lot of spare parts including tires, tubes, brakes, spokes, and chain links, but although we had our share of flats and other mechanical issues during our ride, nothing delayed us very much (one day due to a failed shifter). Surprisingly, saddle sores were also not an issue and riding with trailers vs panniers made our standard bikes more maneuverable and allowed us to carry all kinds of things. This was one of the best decisions of the whole trip.