Just a quick note to say that Opus and I safely completed our trip from Plano to Sherman and back today, encountering the edge of the storm that went northeast of McKinney, and only suffering the slings and arrows of one automotive knuckleheaded pair, who passed us while yelling out the passenger window with a bullhorn...  (Yes, I said "a bullhorn"... )  I'm not sure if it was in English or Spanish, actually...
 
Anyway, Plano to Sherman and back is essentially 90 miles round trip, although Opus topped a century with his additional riding from home.  Lunch was good, our visit was appreciated, and those hills coming back out of Sherman are TOUGH...  Due to various circumstances, we got back to Plano around 7:30 PM.
 
I'll have my pics posted tomorrow, along with a more detailed ride report -- we had some... interesting... events...
 
PB

Except for one railroad underpass that had two narrow lanes with big curbs, TX 5 between Allen and McKinney was not a problem, except for the chip seal vibrating bits and pices off my bike. The new tail box has not been totally debugged yet, and rattled like it was falling apart, and every once in a while knocking me in the back (lots flex in the mount I have to get rid of).  
 
Oh yes, Colin County Chip Seal, Texas answer to the cobbles of northern France! We hit the chip seal in the northern part of Allen and pretty much were stuck on it (sometime literally), until the Grayson county line. I usually get abused in Anna during the week, but between the car washes and bake sales lining TX 5 we actually had a pretty good ride, both ways. I think I will make more rides on Saturday.
 
Now those hills! I directed the ride away from the worst hill, the one Bike Route Toaster said was 300 feet of climbing in under 1/2 mile, to a route that had about 20 feet of climb in 3 miles. I only have my middle ring since the front derailler departed this world on Thursday. I can shift to a bigger ring on the fly, but I have to stop and move the chain to a smaller ring by hand, so I tried to avoid anything that would require a granny ring assault.
 
Another thing I have discovered about the tailbox is it makes my bike try to breakdance in cross winds, when the t-storm came through even though we didn't get much rain I got pushed from one side of the lane to the other and just a bit beyond. That's when we looked for a place to sit out the worst of the winds. After the storm passed we were blessed with about an hour of cool tailwinds.
 
When we got back to Plano I stopped at Performance to check for cheap tires for the 700c front wheel that's going on sometime this summer. They have a nice selection of that size tire (700 X 23c) there with flat protection and everything.
 
Then I loaded the bike on the train to avoid the worst of downtown Plano traffic, and another 9.5 miles home, for as total of 112.3 this time.
 
Opus