Tour de Agua

Tour de Agua

Dublin, Texas\

June 12, 2021

Start/finish was at the Dublin High School this year; also, it was a new route. Not sure of the number of riders (100+), but the parking lot was full.

A feature was that one could start anytime one wanted, so people got ready and pedaled off. 

Hills were plentiful but were the long rolling type rather than the long or short steep ones.

As one could discern, the Tour de Agua was not a race this year; thus, I could stop and smell the flowers every time I saw a patch.

Note the road. Dublin had one of the better stretches of smooth roads of organized tours.

Rest stop 1. The rest stops were spaced out about 9 miles apart so we didn't need to rest. There was just no hurry to finish the ride. (Plus they all had good cookies).

Hard to tell in the above pictures but it was a beautiful overcast day, cool, and no wind to speak of.

Rest stop 2. Again not tired, but Christine wanted to sit on something softer than the saddle. While visiting with the gentleman beside her, she almost had him convinced to buy his wife an electric bike after she went on and on about how she enjoyed her bike.

Finger over lense. Not an excuse, just a new camera and not holding it correctly.

At first I tried cropping out the finger; however, there were so many that I just gave up.

My old camera was taking blurred pictures, so I got a new camera. The blur wasn't the camera's fault. It was the photographer's fault so now I have blurred pictures with a finger in them.

Rest stop 3 and the last one for our 40 mile route. They still had plenty of good cookies left. Again no rush, so this time Christine got into a long discussion with one of the nice volunteer ladies. 

One of the steeper hills. 

Some nice flowers just to the left of the finger.

Nicer picture of flowers with the finger cropped out.

If one squints, behind the clearing is a large dairy farm.

If one enlarges the above, it is an old barn with some horses off the right corner of the barn. I guess if I had stopped and zoomed in it would be more picturesque but I am still practicing my point and shoot from a moving bike (without getting my finger in the way).

Left this mistake in to show the smooth road.

Edge of town.

Coming up on the greeters near the finish line.

FInish line and staging area. Ride over. Outstanding weather and roads. Shortly after we finished the sun burst through the clouds with a vengence. 

We thank the organizers, volunteers, and sponsors for putting on the great ride. We hope they continue the ride for many more years and continue to provide needy people with clean water. 

P.S. Got the results back from my PET scan and I am currently cancer free. Fingers crossed to stay that way.

Beat the Streets

 

Beat the Street

Sweetwater, Texas

 May 6, 2021

At last. We got in a ride. Tours looked a little iffy earlier this year, but more and more rides are opening up as controls ease.

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Good turn out. 

I kept looking for someone from San Angelo, but never spotted one. Too bad.

Christine had told me no photos of her this time, so I had to sneak up while she wasn't looking.

Beat the Streets is a timed race, so all of the hopefuls were bunched up front while we recreational riders hung back and spaced out.

Routes were 71, 49, and 33 miles. 

We chose the 33 mile route and were glad as we hadn't ridden since last November.

And it seemed that more hills had grown since our last time here.

What was a welcome growth were the roadside wildflowers.

Another hill. Yep. The route was full of them. However, I will have to admit that they were short rollers and none that I recall were over 6 degrees.

The lake out in the middle of nowhere reminded me of the Andrews ride years ago.

Even the dam crossing looked familar.

Contrast of energy sources. Hard to tell, but the oil pump was bracketed by wind turbines. 

Speaking of wind turbines, I forgot to mention that on three of the four legs of the ride, we had a 20 mph wind in our faces or on our shoulders.

There were a few level stretches so I had to document one. 

Not sure what the structure was, but a nice mural on the side. This was at one of the water stops.

On the outskirts of town was the W A S P muesuem (Women Airforce Service Pilots). They were having their grand reopening this day, and there was a big crowd joining the celebration.

Lined up in fromation were planes that the W A S P flew during WW II. Look up the history of the W A S P for some good, interesting reading.

Soon after the Muesuem, we were entering town. Ride about over.

Most of the awards had been announced but some volunteers were ready to answer any questions.

Food truck in the parking lot. We had a yummy lunch of hamburgers and fries. Good recovery food even though we had not exerted ourselves. One can rationalize, "Well, I burned this many calories, so I need them back."

Speaking of back, we are looking forward to next year's ride to see if the wind flattened any of the hills. 

Thanks to the event organizers, the volunteers, and their sponsors. Appreciate you.

Forgot to mention: In April I had a first biopsy of my cancer site. Results: "NO EVIDENCE OF RESIDUAL CANCER'    . !!!

    Mid-Jume I will have my first PET scan since treatment. Have my fingers crosses as to verifying no spreading of the cancer in any other part of my body. Will wait and see.