I OWE A DEBT OF GRATITUDE to a number of people, whose input, contributions, feedback, and wisdom-born-of-experience helped me shape and improve my plan.

First and foremost, to my wife Linda, without whose support this journey would never have happened.  She patiently picked up the slack of running the household, created by the time I spent preparing, and of course while I am actually on the road.

Flavia Chen and Vijay Malvadkar kindly spent a couple of hours on a Zoom conference with me early on.  Flavia did the Northern Tier several years ago and shared a number of insights.  She and Vijay also reviewed my gear list and pointed out a couple deficiencies.

Henry Dalton and John Egan each provided tips and suggestions, as well as information about potentially problematic road conditions, in South Dakota.  John in particular helped me solve the problem of how to survive in the Black Hills during the same period of time that the annual motorcycle rally is taking place.  (The solution?  Avoid the Black Hills altogether by bypassing them to the west and going through the Sand Hills of Nebraska instead.)

Mark Boyd chimed in with information about riding the Sand Hills, and some advice.  He also provided a link to his own journal about touring in the Sand Hills, which was a wealth of information and valuable insight.

Wayne Estes helped pull me hack from the brink of overplanning-induced hysteria and reasserted some life wisdom and reality.

Jeff Lee made me aware that he is a Warm Showers host in Hendersonville KY.  I hope / plan to be able to darken his sheets and towels when I pass through Hendersonville.  He also kindly reviewed my plan for traversing Kentucky and southern Indiana, and made some experience-based improvements in that section.

Many of you (too many to call out individually) contributed to my Forum thread about the advisability / necessity of carrying a spare tire for a bike with unusually sized wheels.

Mike Ayling provided a key tip that helped me solve the problem of getting photos from my camera to my tablet, easing the burden of getting them posted in the journal. 

Tom Wells pointed me in the direction of a how-to-renew-the-waterproofing-on-your-tent web article, after I posted about my Tyvek tarp.

Many of you have commented in this journal and its related subsidiary journals.  You provided tips, information, suggestions, but most importantly of all, support and encouragement.  Without those vital bits of feedback I might well have quit before ever starting out.

To those who have gone before, and who have chosen to share their collective wisdom-born-of-experience in online journals and blogs, my deepest thanks.  From them I've learned a bit about what to expect, coping with adversity, the value of flexible planning and limiting one's expectations to the immediate future, and numerous other tidbits.  In particular I'd like to thank those whose journals I have read for their contributions to my education.  Your journals and in some cases our private communiques have been very illuminating and entertaining as well.