It's now late February. On March 11 I fly to Florida. I'll spend a week visiting family and then hop on my bike and ride home.
I've spent most of the winter preparing my bike, and my mind, if not my body. Winter started our cold and rainy, and then a big ice storm in January kept me off the bike for a week. But since then it's been relatively warm and dry, so I've been getting plenty of rides in from the last week in January through February. Am I in good enough shape? No way! However I anticipate the first few weeks of the tour will be mostly flat, and I won't be in any kind of hurry, so I should be able to work my way up to good riding condition.
The mental part is of course a bit tougher. When I was first envisioning the tour I read a quote "If you think you can't, you can't". Not sure what I'm supposed to do with that. It would be supremely arrogant of me to say that at 76 years old I am completely confident in my ability to ride 4000 miles across the whole country. I have nothing to prove. I'm giving myself a way out (rent a van and drive home). But I have enough touring experience to know I'm capable of riding day after day while sleeping in a tent each night. My longest tour was already 7 years ago in New Zealand, 48 days and 1,115 miles, so this one is a seriously bigger undertaking.
So the trick will be walking the thin line between admitting the limitations of my age and maintaining the determination to keep going.