Riding a bike in USA

This is the best Vehicular Cycling site in the US:

http://cyclingsavvy.org/

It's useful in the sense that Vehicular Cycling, which is often misunderstood as some kind of anti-cycle specific infrastructure position, means operating your bike in accordance with laws for drivers of vehicles (where these laws do not differ for riders (VC advocates often speak of 'bicycle driving')), and you have to remember that traffic legislation tends to be different from state to state.

There are local classes in several states:

http://cyclingsavvy.org/regions/

This often does not concern very important aspects of it, but it can be important for cycling; for instance, some states require you to ride 'as far to the right as practicable' (FRAP) or specifically prohibit you from being in certain kinds of traffic lane. I think that there can also be local bylaws.

The other important difference is that traffic legislation is actually enforced in the US, unlike here. As a cyclist, you should study which laws apply to you, both to avoid getting stopped by police and to know what they're talking about if they do stop you.

There should be plenty of other web-sites summarising different states' laws for cyclists. I haven't looked for them yet, though.

Hope you manage to get the trip sorted, I'm sure you can have a fantastically good time.

Put it this way. I spent a bit of time in russia, mid and far eastern reachs of it, and many ex-soviet states and the balkans.
I'd rather go back to any of those places in an instant with no second thought. However, I've also been to many amazing and beautiful places in the states (and canada), but I wouldn't go back without a second thought (or a good reason)
Go Figure. Which ironically you'll hear on a daily basis.

Lastly, you know how the french get shirty if you don't speak their language perfectly (and with regional dialects dialed in), in the states they take it to a new level, I mean, you can speak the queens, but you might as well be speaking Swahili