Fort Worth, TX

Team Tango on support! Justin and honorary Tango member for the day Katie took off right on time (as usual) in the lead van marking the way to Fort Worth. There departure was followed by multiple complaints about how quickly we put the breakfast away, but Team Tango means business, so we just told everyone to eat fast so they could get on the road for the 100 mile ride they had ahead of them.

Eventually everyone was on their way and Jen, Pete and I stalled before hitting the road ourselves. We sported our new team uniforms for the day and got in a quick game of 3 square:

Pete hit the road next as lunch van for the day. Jen and I knew we had some time to kill in Ranger, so we came up with a super secret surprise for the team and took care of that. Details to follow soon, but since I think a few riders occasionally check out my blog I can't reveal anything just yet.

With phase one of the surprise complete we figured it was safe to hit the road. We met Jess at the first water stop, jammed with her for a bit and then saw her off, back on the road. After giving her a head start we were back on the road again.

We came across a little town of Palo Pinto. And in that town was a very cool little prison museum. This was clearly a place we needed to visit.

We checked in first. No one was there...

When we went back outside we ran into a couple ladies who worked there. They were very nice and told us all about the buildings. This room they made up to look like the infirmary with lots of old medical equipment:

After getting a good look around inside I was anxious to find the cells. They happened to be outside. The helpful lady was happy to take a picture of us in the cell, which is a good thing because I don't think the automatic timer really would have done this one justice:

Here we did use the automatic timer to pose with this happy statue...

From Palo Pinto we headed to lunch. We sat outside a Subway until everyone had eaten and we cleaned up so Pete could go on ahead to rescue some riders with bike malfunctions. Before leaving her recommended a little restaurant just up the street for lunch. He was adamant about the great burgers. This wasn't particularly exciting for me or Jen since neither of us eat burgers. We figured we could still check it out and grab something other than peanut butter and jelly.

We went inside and it was clear this was a place that didn't often see a couple girls in tie dye very often. The chalk board had the menu posted. Hamburger, cheeseburger, and grilled cheese. The option was clear. We quickly received one delicious grilled cheese a piece on hamburger buns turned inside out. Just as we were finishing up we had a call from Jess about a tire problem so we paid and were off to check things out.

She had a pretty bad gash in her tire so we picked her up and headed toward Fort Worth. We had been warned by Katie of a western wear resale shop in a town called Weatherford on the way. This was obviously something we could not pass up. We needed something to wear for the weekend, and when we reached the shop it was as great as anticipated. We both left with new shirts to sport.

Finally we arrived at Camp Carter in Fort Worth (thanks to Dr. McIlory who hooked us up with this place)! The camp was beautiful and everyone was happy to have completed the ride and be in a city. We hung out for a while and then had a fantastic dinner provided by Jess's family before heading into town.

The guys enjoyed some cold beverages and tried to look tough while drinking Mike's. Not too successful....

I showed off my new attire with Bryce before hitting the town.

We all headed out to the stockyards and after checking out a few bars to hang we came across a place called Lola's. It turned out to be a very good choice because a bluegrass band that Jen knew was playing that evening AND we arrived early enough that we didn't have to pay the cover.

We all gathered back together and headed to the van before it was too late. Everyone was hungry so we stopped at a little taco shop on our way. Pete danced on the table while we waited for everyone inside. It was the slowest taco shop ever and Pete and Tim had their minds set on cheeseburgers anyway. They headed off toward McDonalds while everyone was waiting on food.

After about 15 minutes and the beginning of a downpour I received a frantic call that they needed picked up because the inside of McDonald's was closed and they weren't allowed to walk through the drive-thru. It was White Lightening (the passenger van) to the rescue. With McDonald's successfully ordered we went to get everyone else from the taco shop and head back to camp for a good nights sleep!