I found my little commute and the short social club rides just didn't give me an appreciation of what tanks my new tires are. Good and bad really. I feel like I can roll through anything and I also feel like I'm pulling a tank up hill  
 
This really hit me on the tail end of the River Roll 200k I did friday where I had at least 10 bonus miles between missed turns, assumed turns based on the outgoing route that ended up wrong and hunting for a dropped phone where I walked a good mile with the bike backwards down the shoulder. Oh and twice I chased down roadies and blew past turns without even realizing it, oops.
 
It was a real treat seeing an actually bike trail that seemed to go somewhere. Actually besides white rock lake I had never seen a MUP/Trail at all so Trinity Trail with many places where there was a bike path with striping and a separate crushed gravel walking/jogging path was a real treat. One thing I noticed at some points was I was just going slow on the outbound leg because there was nothing around to set a pace from.
 
Before I head out.

First hitting the trail.. the long empty trail

Flowers along the trail

Flowers in the park

A nice cactus in the park

A nice glass A&W at the bait shop

almost time to head out again for another few hours before visiting the store again

 
Traffic wasn't bad at all on the roads I hit. Perhaps it was because I was out on friday. I really like the ride much better then say oh ITALY but I could be biased and I could just have really liked all those big bike paths! The only one around here that is any good is a couple hundred feet to cut between two neighborhoods but that is all I got.
 
It took me exactly 12 hours and I did walk the final hill. Perhaps the A&W did me in or something bad I ate before then but I couldn't drink or eat anything much after I got out of the parks the first time.
The tires and suspension got alot of workout. I did ride on the rough gravel strewn shoulder quite a bit and even rode about half a mile on grass path between two sidewalks till I realized I wasn't actually supposed to go up that hill I came down in the beginning and instead go down to the service road. Oh well bonus climbing is good for you right!