Sweep day into Wichita Falls, TX! I was originally scheduled to sweep with Corina, but since she has sweep day tomorrow too (randomly assigned, of course), Hannah volunteered to take her place as my sweep partner. We took off from Atmos Energy this morning with Jamie on board (yay Jamie for being back on the bike!).
Our day was rather long today and hot, but having an awesome partner for sweep made it pass a lot quicker! Although I was disappointed that we didn't ride all day with Jamie, Hannah and I did have a fun ride together! By second lunch at a local park, we didn't think that we would make it into town by the required time and expected to get vanned at that point, but after a stop for some ice and ice cream, we got a second wind (and a tailwind) and were a able to make it in with plenty of time to shower before dinner.
As you may know, on a sweep day we get to make a sweep challenge, which is a competition for a prize of some sort amongst the other riders. These are always lots of fun and a good way to keep sweep entertained during their long day. Today, Hannah and I challenged others to take the best picture as a Texan. Hopefully we get some good pictures!
As we rode into Wichita Falls, you couldn't help but notice that many of the buildings on the area were boarded up, almost like some quasi-ghost town. As most of these were places for out of town guests (hotels, restaurants, bars), you quickly got the feeling that people have stopped coming to the town. We found out later that Wichita Falls is victim to a large outfox of people and money, due to a huge tornado in the 70s wiping out a bunch of businesses and then, more recently, the drying up of the local oilfields that brought in a lot of money to the area. As I understand it, the town is much nicer in some of the suburbs and near the college, but right in downtown you get the feeling that this is akin to what a post apocalyptic town might be like.
Dinner tonight was sponsored by the Hotter 'N Hell ride organization, which is a once yearly 100-mile bicycle ride that brings in around 20k people to the city and uses proceeds to support bicycling in the city and city rejuvenation. Our contact, Caden, took us out to Pat's diner in town where I enjoyed a fantastic milkshake and burger. Boy am I stuffed! We have the opportunity to go swimming at the Y after dinner, but I think that I'll fall into a good coma now...
Our day was rather long today and hot, but having an awesome partner for sweep made it pass a lot quicker! Although I was disappointed that we didn't ride all day with Jamie, Hannah and I did have a fun ride together! By second lunch at a local park, we didn't think that we would make it into town by the required time and expected to get vanned at that point, but after a stop for some ice and ice cream, we got a second wind (and a tailwind) and were a able to make it in with plenty of time to shower before dinner.
As you may know, on a sweep day we get to make a sweep challenge, which is a competition for a prize of some sort amongst the other riders. These are always lots of fun and a good way to keep sweep entertained during their long day. Today, Hannah and I challenged others to take the best picture as a Texan. Hopefully we get some good pictures!
As we rode into Wichita Falls, you couldn't help but notice that many of the buildings on the area were boarded up, almost like some quasi-ghost town. As most of these were places for out of town guests (hotels, restaurants, bars), you quickly got the feeling that people have stopped coming to the town. We found out later that Wichita Falls is victim to a large outfox of people and money, due to a huge tornado in the 70s wiping out a bunch of businesses and then, more recently, the drying up of the local oilfields that brought in a lot of money to the area. As I understand it, the town is much nicer in some of the suburbs and near the college, but right in downtown you get the feeling that this is akin to what a post apocalyptic town might be like.
Dinner tonight was sponsored by the Hotter 'N Hell ride organization, which is a once yearly 100-mile bicycle ride that brings in around 20k people to the city and uses proceeds to support bicycling in the city and city rejuvenation. Our contact, Caden, took us out to Pat's diner in town where I enjoyed a fantastic milkshake and burger. Boy am I stuffed! We have the opportunity to go swimming at the Y after dinner, but I think that I'll fall into a good coma now...
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