This was my 2nd one. i ran slower than last year. No rain, plenty of heat and 3500+ riders. Started at the SBC on staturday. route has been adjusted to stay out of the small cities along the way. either it ran on the access road or the shoulder of 181-281. didn't matter TxDot decide to pave the road surface in bike un-friend chip and seal this past winter. need to go to the dentist now, my back teeth have been shaken loose. at about 20 miles outside of the city it started happening, either exhaustion or high speed (18mph+) crashes. Seemed as if we had one per water stop. at the 40 mile stop one lady saw the ambulance and rode to it, got off the bike and got on the gurnney. somewhere at about mile 65 i got leg cramps. the last 15 was the longest in my life. crossed the line at 4:20pm, we left @ 7:30. day 2 wasn't that bad not as many crashes and the only accident was when one of the volunteers was hit by an on coming vehical. no idea what happened to him after that. no report on the news. made to corpus at about 1:00pm. not to bad of an event. i perfered it when we went into the small towns but i could see how they would not like us, we must of clogged traffic for a couple of hours.

i talked to the photog from my wedding the other day - he said it was against the wind for much of the first day as well as the 2nd (always windy near gulf coast). maybe that's why people were dropping like flies. he said he stopped twice as much as usual.