674 riders took to the start line (about the average number). I met a couple of brothers (Dickson was their last name) from Huntsville who are frequent visitors to the Texbiker.net website. We talked about various rides. I had brought my Flip camera with the intention to shoot some video but the batteries died while I was taking some shots in the parking lot before the start. I was thinking about buying some batteries on the ride but we never went by a store that looked like they sold them. Next time I will have spares like I normally do.

This is the hardest ride of the year for me. While the hills are not mountains they almost are. Several times (more than I can count) the hill ran out just before I ran out of oxygen. The hills on the 70 mile route just keep on coming. Weather today was nice with the temperature at the start around 62 degrees. By the time I finished the temperature was in the upper 70’s. A brisk wind from the southeast was trouble at time especially when it gusted to 18 mph. The multitude of jerseys and bikes is always interesting. I was unique though with my Texbiker.net jersey.

I enjoy this ride because of the challenging route but the fajitas at the finish are worth the sore muscles. While I was eating my 3 fajitas at the end I visited with two riders from the Houston area. One rider was from Bay City (all right this is not really the Houston area). Today was his second ride and he rode the 50 mile route. I told him he picked a tough ride for number 2.

Rest stops were well manned. One had homemade brownies and another was fixing ham or turkey croissant sandwiches. I had a brownie but skipped the sandwich so I could save room for the fajitas at the end. The t-shirt was different in that it listed all of the sponsors and the rest stop sponsors. The graphic design is always unique and this year was no exception.

The drive home was time to recover and be glad the rain I was driving in had not made it to Lufkin yet. Next year’s ride is already on my calendar.