Checked in about 10:15, got number 1900, so I'm guessing that's about how many were there.  Good weather except for noticable east wind.  Ran in to Roy Longcrier from Whichita Falls on his brand new Fujin along with Mark and a couple of other guys, Dave and Mike, from RAT (Recumbents Across Texas), all before the start.  There were WAY too many riders on the course as it seemed to take forever for things to thin out.  Caught up to Corsa Ken several miles into the ride and tried to help him with some bike problem he was having.  We rode together several miles until I turned off on the 65K course and Ken continued on the 100K.  Ken had seen Steve and Peggy, Greg and the sstexex Steve, but I never saw any of them.  I'm sure they were all well in front of me.  Charlie started with some other friends back behind me but I never saw them again either.  There were plenty of hills before the turn-off, but nothing like I encountered from there in - lots of long hills and a few pretty steep ones.  Even had to break out the granny gear once.  Other than some slow uphills things seemed to move pretty fast, but since my computer crashed right at the start I have no idea how fast I averaged, but probably about 15 mph.  Started getting some indications of cramps coming on around mile 27 but managed that OK just being careful how hard I pushed up the hills.
My only gripes were that the rest stops were way overcrowded and definitely not enough porta-potties.  Some of the stops were not well located and all the bikers pretty much blocked the road to traffic.  At one stop a man pulling a trailer behind his pickup tried to pick his way through the crowd, but the gate on the horse trailer swung open and knocked down a girl on her bike.  Hopefully no serious injuries, but a good reminder to get OFF the road when you're stopping.
Hopefully everyone else had a great time.  The course was OK, but way too overcrowded.  Lots of hills as advertised, but in my opinion nowhere near as difficult as Fort Davis Cyclefest in West Texas.  More similar to the Peach Pedal than anything else I've ridden.
 

Robert & Steve(it was nice to see you again) ,I can't address the rest stops ,I made the 60 miles without stopping. As far as the course ,this is one of the more difficult pay rides in N.Texas. I believe Corsa Ken's elevation chart with confirm that(3,000+ feet of ascent).  I overhead a ride organizer mention 2,100+ entries for today's ride.  
 
This course is much harder the Peach Pedal(IMO) I would say in terms of difficulty as pay rides:
-Muenster
-Aledo
-Goatneck.  
 
With that said ,today's ride was nowhere near as difficult as Nelson's Cheeseburger/Cheeseburger route(200K) & I hear Ray Torrey's 220K Spanish Fort is full of climbing as well. I also hear that the Mineral Wells brevet in May is challenging as well.  
 
 
It was crowded ,but not on par with H'NH crowded.  

But the best part of the day was dinner and drinks with everyone, this was a   Yea day.  
Great food and friends                   Peggy

It was a beautiful day and a good ride even with some of the issues mentioned above. I thought the most boneheaded idea was passing out bananas to riders as they passed the rest stop. I saw this lead to a crash as people were trying to peel bananas, dodge bananas on the road and dodge people trying to peel bananas - it was insane. Right up there with the frozen turkeys being dropped from an airplane. Is was the chaos from the bananas that led to me mistakenly going to high-high gear and locking up the bike hard. It was a real struggle to get the drivetrain unjammed. Robert J. stopped to help and was just what I needed to get my head cleared and the bike moving again.  
 
I met a bent rider on a Lightning that had come all the way from Houston to do the ride.
 
The festival after the ride was enjoyable also. Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend much time with the bent gang as my professional drinking team had rode up from Dallas to greet me at the finish. Good food and good beverages.
 
Ken

Twas a great ride.  Steve as we all knew, took off a-flying and blasted from the start.  So did I , thinking I was catching up with Mark on his Baron and Roy from Ratriders on his fujin.  Mark finally caught up with me 25 miles in after I'd already taken a break once.    Poor Ray was done in when he caught up with us after another rest stop.  
 
There were a TON of bents here this year, including most of us here, it seemed.  Got to meet SStex which was nice, and a guy on a trike who was keeping up with me and Mark for a while.  He must have had a near 17mph average.  Mine was somewhere between 17.25 and 17.5 - pretty darned good considering I was taking it easy up the hills - spinning and grinning.  I actually had plenty of gas left in the tank on this one, though I am sore and stiff today.
 
Most hair-raising moment was hitting 48.5 on that long downhill   Best moment was getting to have dinner with everyone afterwards, and the free beer!

It was great to see everyone from a motorcycle perspectivel  Angie and I had a blast.  We caught up to Steve about 8 miles from the finish.  As we pulled along side of him, he talked as if he wasn't even riding.  He looked absolutely awesome.  As we climbed a hill, I looked at my spedo, and we were 18mph.  Way to go Steve!
 
Mark, Greg, Peggy:  It was great to see you all too at the St. Jo rest stop.  Angie and circled back to Muenster, then around again to St. Jo and Muenster.  We never saw you guys at the fair grounds, so we headed home.  
 
Great job everyone.  For those who loves em' hills, we'll be riding my Spanish Fort 200k in a few months, which covers many of the same roads (and lots more hills).