Day 1 - Farmersville TX

We are on the road at last!

Our daughter Katie drove us to the RV park in Denton a little before 8:00. Shortly after we arrived Tom and Ann, friends and business partners showed up to see us off. By about 9:00 my father and I were dressed, the bikes were loaded, and we were on our way.

Of course not everything ever goes according to plan;) The carefully created day 1 route was not on my GPS and the Denton RV park didn't have internet access so we set out without maps or directions.

I packed what my parents thought was everything except the kitchen sink, but forgot to pack my water bottles for the bike.

And did I mention that it is really hot.

Despite the less than perfect start we managed to find a set of roads through Denton that put us on route 380 near the original plan. Route 380 proved to be a fairly flat road with mostly wide shoulders ideal for riding. We quickly found a pace that worked for both of us and also learned to take advantage of every shady spot we could find.

Today's trip ended up being about 56.5 miles with 1607 feet of climbing and 1724 feet of coasting. Total riding time was just under 4.5 hours but with lunch and breaks we took the better part of 7 hours.

As dad pointed out when we finally arrived, we found a couple of really nice shady spots that were hard to leave.

Lunch today was at a Chik-fil-a where dad had never eaten before. Of course the air conditioning was great, but so was the service. When dad asked for ice for his Camelbak the cashier filed it for him. While we were eating the manager brought us new drinks and each table got samples of a new desert. Like the shady spots, it was hard to leave and we joked as we entered the double doors we were in the decompression chamber.

One big change since dad did this 25 years ago are cell phones. We called several times to see how my wife Vicki and mom were doing with the motorhome (great as it turns out), and they were able to determine we were still alive amd making progress.

The RV campsite we are staying at is really small and many of the campers seem to live here year-round. The owner is great and when she learned of our ride brought pictures of when she and her son biked from Plano to the Gulf of Mexico.

Turns out she also has a pet camel that we all enjoyed feeding and who was only to happy to pose for pictures.

Hopefully tomorrow goes as well!

Bike Trip Pictures