I left Linden Friday about 3pm headed for Waxahachie, TX, about a 3 to 3 1/2 hr drive, I'm not sure because it was raining so hard and I was keeping my eyes on the Big Rigs and overshot Waxahachie by about 15 miles.
That same storm on the Interstate pounded Waxahachie but after arriving at the High School I did manage to find me a good spot to camp and then I got registered for the ride.
I slept pretty good, because I was still asleep at 5:30am when Teresa phoned to wake me.
I got me some coffee at the Gym and then broke camp, had breakfast and was ready to ride.
I headed for the start line and got a few photos when a guy asked if I wanted him to take a pic of me, I said, "Sure". I returned the favor and got a pic of him also, as we talked I found that he was covering the Tour de France for some publication and that he was off to France on Tuesday, some folks got all the luck.
Also at the start I got a photo of a couple from Ft Worth, I enjoyed talking with them and it turns out that the Guy lives two blocks from the street where I grew up, it's a small world.
The Ride finally gets under way, I'm guessing over a thousand people, and the start is always the most dangerous.
I never clip in at first, wait a bit till things start thinning a bit. We leave the school grounds and then take a turn and shortly after the turn I go to pass a lady on the left and we're near the edge of the road.
Then suddenly a water bottle hits the road, someone hollers "water bottle", the girl I'm about to pass looks down and around and at the same time starts a quick drift into me, I have no option, I hit the grass on the side of the road.
I'm glad I've been riding my Centurion off road some lately, I think it helped me to control my bike and get back on the road without going down, as soon as I hit the grass I told myself, "don't panic, no quick moves, just pedal along in this grass for a bit and slowly work my way back to the road, it worked fine, to my great relief.
So I'm back on the road and ready to go, still a lot of folks together so I kind of work my way around and find me a nice spot, at one point I'm having such a good time I start my famous singing, a guy beside me says, "You know, one good thing about your Bad Singing is it does keep my mind off pedaling," alright, it's working. I think folks really like my singing but you know how people are, jealous, and they just have to make a comment, it's alright I know they really like it, even the Hank Williams.
About fifteen miles into the ride a group comes by, a little Mexican girl pulling about five big macho guys, I say, "hey guys, what the hell, that little gal pulling all you macho guys, and one guy replies, "we're just trying to hang on, get on if you can keep up, I get on. We ride a bit and finally this little gal drops off the front but only to second place, I'm thinking come on guys lets work, but then I notice the lead man drops off then our little gal is on front again, I don't think so, I pull out and move to the front, as I pull by the girl I compliment her on her good pull.
After a pretty good pull I drop off and that's when one of the guys comes up beside me and says, "hey man, you pulled to long", I replied, "well it's better than not pulling at all."
Then after a bit this group dissolves and as always happens another forms, I get in a group with two guys, don't remember their names, I call them the Amarillo Kid and the Caracas Kid. As we ride and make reststops I find myself alternately behind and then in front of the Kids.
At about thirty five miles into the ride I'm cruising along visiting with a fellow from Mansfield and here comes the Amarillo Kid and the Caracas Kid, they pass and the Amarillo Kid hollers, get on, at this point I think it will be a stretch for me to stay with them so I let them go.
Then I'm cruising along about 3 miles from the finish and who comes up beside me, the Caracas Kid, he smiles and waves, we say a few words and he moves on ahead of me.
Lately I've been trying to finish my rides going all out and finishing with nothing left so I'm looking up ahead and I determine the time is right, I hunker down and start pedaling, I'm moving up on the Caracas Kid, I finally catch him, I holler, "Come on man, lets go, leave it all on the line, don't take nothing home," he grins and I keep moving forward.
I'm not looking back just down and forward and giving it all I've got, about a half mile from the finish the Caracas Kid pulls up beside me, I look over, we both start laughing and I tell him, "I knew you had it, you just needed some inspiration," and he says, "Hey Man, you pushed me," it was a fun finish to good ride.
As we pulled into the finish area there was the Amarillo Kid, we had a good time talking about the ride.
I started to feel my age a little when I found out that I rode my first 100 mile ride 2 yrs before the Amarillo Kid was born, but it made me feel good when he wanted to shake my hand and told me what a good job I had done.
Another funny thing happened about 30 miles into the ride, I'm riding along with the guy from Mansfield and this Gal who is in real good form passes us, I ask her if shes got a motor on that bike, she just laughs and move on. Yeah, your right, we definitely would have latched on to her if we could but she had us.
As she's moving ahead and we're discussing how good a rider she is a guy comes up along side us and he also has noticed this lady, after a short discussion of her riding ability and other assets he starts slowly moving forward, we wish him good luck, hope you catch her.
All in all the ride was a really good one, real well organized, the only drawbacks were, no scwagg, used to get all kinds of goodies but now it's just a T-shirt and a bunch of flyers, I guess the young riders will never see the old scwagg bags, water bottels, hats, gloves, sweat bands, pens, nutrition treats and more, becoming a thing of the past.
Another small complaint of mine was lack of ice at the start, I stopped at the first rest stop for ice and they didn't have any, a wasted stop and lost a good group but they did have ice futher on.
Injuries, the worst I saw was a guy at the finish, me and the Caracas Kid were at the finish line showers and up walks this guy, walking with a very pronounced limp, it seems he crashed out a mile 17, a couple went down in front of him and he had no where to go, man it happens fast, no way out, he flipped in the air and landed on his hip, he had been to the medical tent and they informed him that it wasn't broken but I'm sure he had an extremely rough Sunday morning, I really felt bad for the guy.
So thank the poweres that be for a good ride and a good trip, I was back home by four pm.
I would definitely recommend this ride to anyone, well organized, nice country and plenty of folks to visit with, and mrbill likes to visit. I find it hard to believe that some folks can come to a ride like this and go home w/o meeting anyone, that's half the fun for me, meeting and visiting with folks, I'm sure there's always a few folks who remember "mrbill", and that's as it should be.