It is hard to put words to how much I enjoyed last year's ride. I was fortunate enough to ride two segments, the Chicago portion of the MO/IL/IN/OH route and then completely around Lake Michigan with the Michigan crew (about 1,500 combined miles). Everyone I met was incredibly generous (we only had to pay to stay somewhere 1 of the 5 nights we were on the road), I made a slew of new friends and I got to see parts of my area of the country that I had been meaning to see, but just hadn't gotten to.
If you are on the fence about doing this ride, get off, get on your bike, and go. Even if you can only do a local section in the pouring rain at 45 degrees (like the Chicago section last year) it's STILL worth it.