The trip to Long Island my daughter and I had been planning for a couple of months was postponed several times by the other end until it would be impinging on later scheduled activities, we finally decided to cancel it for now. Since we have everything ready to go and the schedule is open for a couple more weeks we decided to just do a Tour about Texas. At least part of it. We expect to head east from S.A. until we decide to head north, then west, then back south, visiting places and friends as somewhat whim dictates.
 
We would appreciate suggestions for places to visit and we would like to try to hook up with some of you rbent riders when we are in N. Texas if you would be interested.
 
Also, a group from our local club is planning on doing the HHH this year and I'd like to talk about maybe hooking up with some of you (during the trip) for that as well as maybe the TTT this fall, which I think I'd like to try.
 
BTW, my daughter has taken a shine to my Corsa. She's laid claim to what's left after I strip parts to build my new CA2 when the frame arrives. She even made it up my hill the second time she tried climbing it! She almost made it the first time but did a heelstrike on that sharp right-hander I've mentioned before and had to bail.

Ken - let us know when you plan on being in this area.  I'm sure many of us would enjoy hanging with you and hopefully riding as well.  I still regret not formally meeting you at the HC600, but we were so focus on getting JS ready for the race, we didn't socialize much.  
 
There have been threads on this forum regarding both HHH as well as TTTT.  I assume you've read them both.  There will be a strong contingent of rbent riders at both events.  Many of us have ridden TTTT for the past 3 plus years, so if you have any questions, respond to those threads so everyone has an opportunity to express their opinions  
 
Hope to see you, and ride with you soon.  Best of luck on your epic adventure.

Quote from bikerteam on Jun 4^th, 2009, 6:02am:

I'll certainly let you know as we get closer. We have several relatives near White Rock Lake and along the N Central Expressway and in Plano we can stay with when we are up there, to give you an idea of where we will more likely be when up that way. When we figure out how we'll be coming towards Dallas, I sure would appreciate some suggestions on what routes to follow to get there.
 
I've read the HHH&TTTT threads. I've never been to either and don't know enough to even ask any questions. Figured I'd wait to see what you have to say when we get up that way. We'll have a small group of riders coming to HHH and a few of them have done it but not most of us. I haven't done a big group ride on the stickbike yet so the HHH should be interesting :^(
 
Looking forward to riding with you. Take care.
 
Thanks!

Quote from slowpoke on Jun 7^th, 2009, 6:20pm:
Thanks! We're leaving early tomorrow morning but will look for it along the way.

Quote from goatstick on Jun 13^th, 2009, 11:14am:

Ok. We're in Plano this evening. Time to start winding our way back towards home. I have no idea of how I want to get there. :^)  Does anyone have any suggestions for great routes somewhat headed south with smooth roads (ha) and great people to meet and talk with. I figure with the south wind we
ought to plot a tack against it, but we're not sure if headed SW or SE would be better.  
 
If you have any suggestions, we sure would appreciate them.
(BTW, I had the url wrong earlier - corrected it above)
 
slowpoke, I had left a message earlier thanking you for the book suggestion but the post appears to have disappeared. We picked up the book and did visit several of the areas it recommended.
 
Thanks!
 

Kent - you might want to give Dan Driscoll a call.  Dan is our local RBA (Randonneuring Administrator).  His phone number is 817-925-0158.  Dan is a great ambassador for long distance cycling, and is familiar with many roads/routes, as he has designed quite a few Randonneuring routes in a ~150 mile radius of the DFW area.  
 
Dan is also the race director for TTTT, so this would be a chance to get to know him.  He loves to talk cycling, so be forwarned!  He'll get you to commit to a 1200k before you even know what you've agreed to  

Quote from bikerteam on Jun 17^th, 2009, 11:18am:

Thanks. We rode from Plano through downtown Dallas to visit some more friends on the sw side of dallas then rode on down to Corsicana. Didn't get settled down (cleanup, a short swim and dinner) to check things here until 10pm and I think that's a little too late to call. I think we'll make it a short day to Waco tomorrow and I might call tomorrow afternoon. There's no RUSA chapter in the SA area that I know of and I was somewhat thinking of maybe trying to help get something started but figured there would be some history that I should know about first. That might be the thing to talk about with Dan. (and maybe the TTTT :^)
Thanks to all for the great suggestions!
 
BTW, my daughter and i are thinking of posting pdfs of the mapped routes we've ridden at her blog. I'd need to blank the private addresses where we stayed first but do you think that would be useful or interesting? We don't want to overload if it's already too much info.
 
I'm up to 25 centuries in 24 weeks for this year now! gotta rack up a few extras this week as I'll be off a couple of weeks in july.

Quote from Opus the Poet on Jun 18^th, 2009, 12:12am:

Ok. I took the bike lane because I was trying to be nice. It didn't say anything about pedestrians or I likely wouldn't have taken it. With the panniers, etc, and walkers two abreast, there's not much room. Even when we stopped for them, some wouldn't move over to allow us to pass so I had to gently squeeze by. I've generally found that the times I try to be nice are when bad things usually happen, so I've become a little jaded about being nice, but sounds like it was in my own interest, though seemingly inconvenient, to be so that time.  
 
We didn't mention this in the blog because certainly family members don't need to know about it, but just before the bridge at Rockwall, a guy in a pickup pulled out of a side street and ran me off the highway. He sat there with no traffic, obviously waiting for the right moment, then pulled into the left-turn lane and then sped up and pulled on over onto the shoulder, forcing me off the road. Luckily it was a grass embankment and I almost came to a stop before the rear tire slid out and pulled me downhill. The guy pulled over and I thought he was stopping to make sure I was ok or something but no, he worked there and as I walked up to him, he said 'I just had heart surgery'. I thought "So that gives you license to try to kill someone?" but didn't say it. Should have. He first said he didn't see me and didn't run me off the road but then admitted that he did see me and said he was sorry. I've accepted people's apologies before when it was clear they were honestly sorry but this guy pretty clearly wasn't. It was just words to him and he even complained that I didn't accept his apology. I told him I wouldn't because I didn't believe him. Later I checked the gps track and it showed where I ran off the road. Got a chuckle out of that.
 
Corsicana to Waco today... Head, Meet Wind.   60 miles. 40 of direct, *hard* headwinds that finally swung about 10 deg towards the south, allowing us to pick up a little speed the last 20 miles. Was a harder day than the 115 mile day last week.  A little outside of Waco a pickup chased us down with a couple of bikes in the back. It was the Fudge Lady from Salado! We keep running across her... She was headed east for a ride and had seen us. She said she had a new flavor of fudge made just for us. She said she would tell the shop to have some ready for us tomorrow when we pass through. :^) She's doing HHH this year so we'll try to meet up with her.