Inspiration for a 2 week mid-February tour

[reed523]

Hi all,
My bike travel imagination is in need of a boost.  I would welcome some brainstorming for a two week tour location in mid to late February.  It would probably need to be an out and back, or a point to point with Amtrak support. I suppose I could do a hub and spoke thing if there was plenty of great riding in a particular area.   In order of importance, I'd say I'm looking for:
-Limited to Continental US or maybe Baja Mexico
-Plenty of warm sunshine  8
-Reasonable traffic conditions.  (I consider a 4+ foot shoulder plenty adequate if not overwhelmed with high speed traffic).  -Shoulderless pavement in spots would be ok if traffic is very light.
-Dirt/gravel options would also be fine.  Maybe even preferable if the service options were reasonable.
-Plenty of access to available camping/public space with motels available along at least part of the route.

I've got some ideas but I'm curious to see what all you come up with.  Thanks in advance!

[Pat Lamb]

I got hung up on the combination of two week tour and four foot plus shoulder or very light traffic.  I suppose you could do an out-and-back, or a point to point on I-10 between Texas and California, but would you really want to spend two weeks on an interstate shoulder??

If you could relax that restriction to "mostly light traffic," you might be interested in something like AC's Southern Tier from Phoenix (Tempe) to El Paso, or east of El Paso (not sure where Amtrak stops in Texas.  Or you might make a loop from Phoenix on the ST to Lordsburg, NM, then loop back to the south through Douglas, Sierra Vista, and Tucson on the return trip.

If your plans can be flexible, you might be able to catch a week of warm weather on the northern end of the Natchez Trace; start in Nashville, ride to Natchez, then double back to the airport at Jackson.  Some years that might work, but you'd have to watch the weather forecast and be able to pull the trigger on vacation and flights on Wednesday for the following Saturday to start.

I'd tend to avoid southern California, and Florida to east Texas, to avoid the snowbirds.  On the flip side, that's when many of the businesses are open in smaller towns to catch the snowbirds!

[reed523]

If you could relax that restriction to "mostly light traffic," you might be interested in something like AC's Southern Tier from Phoenix (Tempe) to El Paso, or east of El Paso (not sure where Amtrak stops in Texas.  Or you might make a loop from Phoenix on the ST to Lordsburg, NM, then loop back to the south through Douglas, Sierra Vista, and Tucson on the return trip.

Thanks Pat.  This kind of centers on the area that I had in mind.  I'll take a closer look.