I desire to ride a bike from here in birmingham to northern california. I'm new to touring but want to some day give it a shot. I believe it would be a great experience but i want to know how feasable you all think it would be. i want to do it with a small amount of gear and supplies. besides the bike and my will to do it, what would you think i would need?
Ken Kifer's camp touring recommendations
Ken Kifer, another Alabamian, wrote about camp touring in some detail back in 2000.
http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/touring/campgear.htm
Touring
We'd love to do this too, we're getting geared up! There is lots of info. out there you can find on bike touring....and gear also. We used panniers made by Panpack.com that conveniently turn into backpacks that you can use for hiking/camping. Racks are essential for panniers but not that expensive. You can have front and back racks with front and back panniers. Essentials to bring: tent, sleeping bag, extra tubes, extra tire, bike tool, good bike shorts, jacket, wools, dry bags/ziplocs/garbage bags for the rain. We bought great drybags that are lightweight at Dick's sporting goods. Keep all your electronics in a drybag or ziploc bags. Always keep your clothes in a drybag or garbage bag--the rain comes usually when you don't expect it. Cameras don't fare to well either in the rain--I doused mine when it was brand new and it wasn't the same ever since.
Camera, sunscreen, shelter, food, water...a bike lighting system and batteries are also essential. A friend to come with you makes things a lot easier and more fun. Group ride might also be a possibility..but the tour group kind is pricy. Hope that gives you some inspiration! Maybe we'll see you one the road sometime, we'd love to do this sometime next year?
On food: we had a campstove type of deal and put everything in ziplocs and took out packaging. Wherever you can save weight, helps. Water is also heavy, but easy to get along the way. I like using a camelpak since I drink more water with it on the road than with the bottles, I find it easier to use than bottles and dehydration is an issue. You need water water and more water, the essential of life on the road.
Also, you could plot out your course hitting a lot of state and national parks to camp and explore along the way. On the way out west there are so many. Especially Utah, Arizona, New mexico, Colorado...
Touring Gear
When Jillyfish and I toured Hawaii, we used pan-packs on our bikes. We used their world tour on the back and their day pack up front. These packs turn into backpacks and are very versatile. We first used the World Tour on our hikes, but with experience shrunk our gear down and ended up using the day pack when we hiked to Kalalau Valley on Kauai (which is considered one of the top five most challenging hikes in the world.)
The other piece of gear we used was the Niterider HID headlights. They are as bright as a car's headlight and make it very easy to comfortably travel at night with speed. The only limitation is that they will need to be recharged (proprietary battery), but that never got in our way as laundramats, locally-owned restaurants and the various places we stayed (including those on solar) never left us without a charge opportunity.
The night visibility glowwear that we swear by now is the Down Low Glow. It is really cool and seems to get the attention of drivers better than anything I have ever seen before.
Finding a route
You should check out the Adventure Cycling Association website. They research touring routes and produce maps that emphasize scenic and rural back roads to get you there....
http://www.adv-cycling.org/