I was feeling poorly this morning from a stomach bug, but by noon I was mostly back up to speed, and itching to try to spend some time on the bike during the afternoon... So I put the SXP on the car, and went down to the 2PM GDB Mesquite ride. The wind was kicking up pretty well outta the south, and the sky was mostly cloudy, but didn't really look like rain. The first half of this ride is southbound, going from Poteet HS down to the south past I-30, then back. The SXP seating isn't as reclined as the XS, but it's still reasonable for headwinds.
Well, at 5 minutes till departure time, there was NOBODY
else in the parking lot... the security guard walked over to me to strike up a conversation, and he said that the 11:30 AM "beginner" ride folks had finished and departed about 30 minutes before, with several riders. I called a couple other regular potential 2PM participants, but they had both ridden earlier in the day already -- and had actually gotten rained on!
So, 2PM arrived, and I was still alone in the parking lot
-- I guess the wind was too much for the DF rider gang!!! I went ahead and did the 20-mile version of the ride, with my only company a couple of pleasant dogs that were having fun pacing me down the road, tail wagging... Even on the SXP, I was still holding 13-15 mph into the headwinds, and around 30 with tailwind...
I wouldn't have wanted to do a 200K into today's winds, but an hour or so was very tolerable, and it's always nice when the 2nd half of a ride is wind-aided...