Texarkana, TX

I have a special little treat today. You get to join me for our 94 mile ride. I documented every 10 miles of it just for you.

Quick meeting to go over the route. Everyone was still a little testy from the windy day before. Brian just after saying "Andy, no jokes today, just go through the route."

First 10 miles completed. Tail wind keeping our speed up.

I was near the front so I shot this one behind me.

Still speeding along after 20 miles.

Now at the back of the line after my pull.

Rest stop ahead at mile 29.

water stop.

quick pic when we saw one of the wind mill pieces being transported by a truck. The thing was huge.

Back on the road now 40 miles in.

I was towards the front of the line again.

still speeding along.

Sarah leading the line.

another 10 miles down the road.

Sarah still pulling.

and the people behind me, including a sweet thumbs up from Jen!

Are we there yet? ...no.

Hello New Boston.

I was up front, same people behind me, but my photography skills appear to be getting worse.

Almost there...mile 80!

At the back of the line again.

so close!!!!

Good old Walmart as we get to Texarkana.

We're here!

Hello host!

Paris, TX

The road to Paris was rough, you can't tell from our smiling faces, but we were awefully grumpy that day riding right into the wind. 55 miles couldn't be over soon enough!

Finally the end was in sight and we had made it to Paris! The obvious pose being an Eiffel tower like the one would see soon enough. Jody got squished, but I think it still looks pretty good.

We finished the ride at the pride of Paris, TX, a 60 ft replica of the Eiffel tower with a giant red cowboy hat atop it. We had some lunch and then the media came for some shots of us on our bikes and quick interviews with Katie and Jody.

Paris turned out to be quite a cute little town and we found a fantastic restaurant bar with internet to entertain ourselves that afternoon. But as it turned out all we needed was photo booth on my computer to keep us busy.

Everyone took advantage of the internet, delicious food and outstanding beer selection.

On the way back to the church Jen and I made a pit stop for frozen yogurt. It was serve yourself and pay by the weight. What an amazing idea. Why doesn't this exist in Columbus!?!?!?

The historic downtown had lots of cool little shops and buildings as well as a very pretty fountain.

Greenville, TX

Since I'm so far behind and I can't seem to find any pictures from this day this will be short and sweet and finally I'll be all caught up...at least for one day.

We headed out of Fort Worth to Greenville. We opted to rack the bikes out of the city so we could ride more safely around Dallas. We were on our bikes around 9 and heading out of town. The wind was cruel in our faces until lunch. We met the owner of a little restaurant who was very excited about us and gave Jody lots of free goodies. He even offered to let all of us stay at his house! Too bad we needed to get another 20 miles east that day.

From lunch we had a nice little tail wind to our temporary final destination. We would rack our bikes again to avoid some construction and get to our actual destination. We were treated to a delicious dinner and then trekked over to a bowling alley slash sports bar where we watched a little basketball and I played my first game of shuffleboard. It was close, but beginner's luck just didn't get me the win. Next time.

a little headwind a little tail wind

Fort Worth, TX off day

I started this trip with a mission. I would find myself a fantastic pair of cowboy boots.

Our day off in Fort Worth started way to early for me and Jen. We went to pick up bagels at 7:30am since we had been on support the day before. After getting the bagels we knew there was no sense in going back to the camp right away because everyone else would be sleeping. We figured it was a good time to go scope out the stockyards again and look into some fun things to do that day.

Fortunately a couple of the stores opened early and I was able to do some preliminary shopping. We looked in two places. I found a good pair and even better salesman in one of the stores, but wasn't ready to commit without a little more searching. I put two pairs on hold and we went to scope out another store.

We went to the place where custom boots are made. I did find some incredible boots there, but lets just say they were WAY out of my price range. Here is one glorious pair I would love to have, but could never afford:

After killing enough time we returned to camp. People started waking up and we all enjoyed our typical breakfast plus some donuts supplied by Justin's family. It was such a nice day and we were all still worn out, so we decided to take naps in the grass:

Once we were all refreshed it was time to return to the city for some shopping and fun:

I made my boot purchase and Jen got herself a nice belt and buckle. We walked around a bit and then caught up with the guys to listen to some music before finding somewhere for dinner:

We also did some browsing in several other stores. I probably should have purchased this sign, but I had my credit card held so I wouldn't spend anymore money after the boot purchase.

I also thought this was a pretty good sign as well. Mom, is there anything on it's way to the next mail drop?

Since going to jail the day before wasn't enough, we went again in Fort Worth.

And then this awkward moment occurred. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but as soon as Jody joined me on the horse we were both very uncomfortable.

We finished the night with one of the best dinners of the trip. Texas does food right with corn on the cob and an awesome baked potato on the side. Yum!

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!

Ranger, tx

Rollin to Ranger one hill after another. The actual ride wasn't too eventful. Support did take some excellent photos on the road.

We had planned to take showers at a truck stop for a bargain price, but as we were getting close to town Katie and I noticed Ranger College and both thought it would be an excellent idea to ride over and ask if we could have some free showers there. We met a very friendly guy - Mr. Lopez - who was very helpful and called the Dean of students and told him he was gonna bring a couple interesting girls to "hollar at him" in his office. After a couple minutes of chatting about our group and what we were doing, we had ourselves some free showers!

Things definitely picked up in the evening at the church where we found the Karaoke room upstairs, black lights including. Very entertaining for much longer than it probably should have been.