At the beginning of this journal 2 questions were posed:

1. Will a couple chained together for six to eight hours almost every day still like each other after 3 ½ months and will they ever want to repeat the experience?
2. How much Diet Coke will two cyclists seriously addicted to the stuff require in order to pedal 4500 miles and how big of a hit will their retirement savings take supplying their Diet Coke need?

I'll answer the second question 1st because it is by far the easiest.

After travelling 5,018 miles in 102 days, our addiction to Diet Coke has been confirmed. As the table below shows, we spent $502.26 on Diet Coke. That figure equates to almost $5.00 a day ($4.93 if you want to be precise) and 10¢ a mile.

Fountain - 128 - $176.92
7.5 oz can - 4 - $ 0.00
12 oz can - 90 - $ 70.19
16 oz can - 28 - $ 30.60
16 oz bottle - 1 - $ 1.00
.5 liter bottle - 12 - $ 13.05
20 oz bottle - 43 - $ 72.58
24 oz bottle - 4 - $ 6.90
1-liter - 10 -$ 15.41
1.25 Liter - 8 - $ 6.67
2-liter - 59 - $109.24

TOTAL - 387 - $502.56

Side bar: Our car averages 30 MPG and with gas around $2.10 a gallon, it only cost 7¢ a mile to drive. Who would have thought that cycling cost us more than driving??!! Not to mention at 300 miles per day, the trip would have only taken about 17 days, thus saving us 85 days in meals and hotel bills.

Having said that, driving would not have been nearly as fun or memorable.

Which brings me back to the answer to the 1st question posed above:

a) At the end of the trip, yes, we still like (and even love) each other

and

b) at least half of Team S would like to repeat the experience. I would love to cycle from FL to Seattle, WA next year, but I think it is going to be a VERY TOUGH SELL.

We both agree that we'll do more cycling trips in the future, but not necessarily epic trips as long as this year's was.

What would we do different?

After every trip it's nice to review and determine what could be done to make the next trip better, so here is my list of things I'd change.

1. Pack fewer clothes. Team S each brought 3 cycling outfits and 3 "street" outfits. Team A only brought 2 of each and they nailed it. We could have comfortably travelled all summer with only 2 changes of clothing
2. Pack fewer toiletries. We brought along every thing we thought we MIGHT need. Lots of aspirin, bandages, soap etc. In reality, we should have carried a bare minimum of first aid and personal care items. Hotels always have extra shampoo and soap. Everything else can just be purchased when you need it.
3. Plan shorter days. Team S was gone for 102 days and travelled 5,024 miles for an overall average of 49.25 miles per day. However, we had 18 scheduled "Rest" days. Counting only the "Travel" days we covered 4919 miles in 84 days for a daily average of 58.5 miles.

Team S is retired - we should take life easier - especially on a tandem. I'd like to cut the scheduled mileage on our next trip down to about 40 miles per day. That way, if we see something that's 2 or 3 miles off our route, we would be more likely to go see it. Fewer miles would also mean that we could spend more time at attractions and not think about how much further we have to go for the day.

It was a great experience and I'd pack up tomorrow and do it again!