We used three resources to plan our trip: Adventure Cycling Atlantic Coast Route (ACR), the East Coast Greenway (ECG), and Ride with GPS (RWGPS). We mapped out our entire route, from Ft Lauderdale to Key West, Ft Myers back to Ft Lauderdale, and the route north along the coast using RWGPS. We did this by bringing in those pieces of the ACR we wanted to follow into RWGPS, converted the waypoints to an actual route with cues, and then refining the route using RWGPS's various reference maps which primarily uses a Google Maps base with options to switch to Open Street Maps (OSM).

We varied off of ACR at points of interest to us. After completing the Key West Loop, we definitely wanted to stay on the coast as much as possible and experience St Augustine, Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, the Outer Banks, and the Eastern Shore as far as Lewes, DE where my brother lives. At that point, we wanted to take a two-week break and return home to take care of personal matters before resuming the trip north.

The second leg then starts in Lewes, DE with a ferry trip to Cape May, on to Sandy Hook State Park, ferry to Manhattan where we plan to stay several days, before heading north and reconnecting with the ACR in Putnam County, NY. The ACR does not go as far north as Halifax, so that was routed using RWGPS and ECG. The only drawback was that we were constantly directed to "bicycle" routes that are more suitable for mountain biking than loaded touring. So a lot of time was spent in the northern reaches of the trip selecting proper roads to ride on that would still get us to lodging or food when needed.