Hi Bruce - you'll have a great trip I'm sure...

A few things based on your comments - first of all, try and leave it until the end of May if you can, as there can still be snow at the higher elevations in Colorado as late as mid-June and beyond, and it would be a shame for you to come all this way and miss out on those sections - they are the literal and metaphorical high-light of the route.

Also, with that in mind, it is almost inevitable that you will have to adjust your planned route along the way - due to weather, closed roads/landslides/snow etc. so just keep that in mind - and I would also strongly recommend you consider purchasing the 'official' TAT route from Sam Correro (it's not expensive for the GPS track downloads, and you don't really need to buy his paper maps too if you know how to translate a GPS track onto a map yourself), since not only is that more up to date than the 'crowd sourced' GPS Kevin route, but it also incorporates a more diverse route with additional points of interest (northern Utah, Idaho etc) than the GPS Kevin route/s, which were based on the original East-West route Sam developed, but has subsequently got a number of dead-ends/private property etc. particularly in Nevada if you are ultimately heading to the Oregon coast rather than Kevins southern LA option.

In either case, you really ought to consider the prescribed routes as a guide - You still have over a year to plan you own trip, and having both sets of tracks will allow you to incorporate all the things YOU might want to see en route - plus it will offer you some alternatives if you want an easier or harder time of it at a particular juncture.

As for meeting people en route - as you might imagine, most people tend to travel from East to West, and are all going to be riding at a similar pace - so you may or may not meet other riders... If you do it's typically at a restaurant or campsite at the end of each day, otherwise in my experience you tend to be very much on your own - although you'll meet plenty of friendly restaurant owners and hoteliers etc. (many of whom welcome 'TAT travellers') if you choose to frequent such establishments.

Hope that gives you something to go on... if you want a taster of what you might expect, there is my 2015 Trans-Am 500 ride report here on the HUBB... plus the second half of this trip here which loosely follows GPS Kevin's southern route west of Colorado, while this trip from 2018 here, features the more recent updates to Sam's route on the east side of the country.

Have fun!

Jenny x