After debating all week where to ride today, I decided to do the the 60 mile route of the FWBA Bicycles Inc club ride. This ride starts at 8:00 am at the Arlington Bicycles Inc, so it’s close to home, and it’s also across the street from where Rose works, so I was going to have lunch with her at 12:30 or so after I finished my ride. Sometimes things don’t go according to plan…

First, Rose told me this morning she was going to be too busy today to have lunch with me. Next, I showed up at the ride start at 7:30 all ready to ride ………………. except I forgot my shoes. It was 8:00 am when I returned with my shoes, and the riders were already massed for the start. When I signed up, I found out they were out of 60 mile cue sheets. I figured no big deal, if I end up by myself, I know the roads in this area well enough to get myself back.

By the time I got on my bike, everyone was already taking off. I was soon passing riders one after another when, as I passed Cheri Brown, she had a flat. Mark (I can’t remember his last name) and I stopped and fixed her flat. We were almost to Venus by the time we caught many riders, and the group we stopped with in Venus were all riding the 100 mile route. They were all saying I should join them. Since I just found out that I won’t be able to ride next weekend, I thought maybe I should be doing a longer ride this weekend, so I said what the heck, and joined them.

While the 60 mile route turns around at Venus, the 100 mile route goes south out of Venus, then turns west and goes to Grandview. It then turns north to Alvarado, then back the Venus, then back north to Arlington. The group of seven bikes I ended up with took long breaks at the stops, and tended to scatter a bit on the road. But it was a lively group, and I enjoyed riding with them. It was almost 4:00 pm when we finally pulled in to the finish.

I ended up with 99.5 miles and a 15.7 mph average. Total climbing was 3140 feet.