Cycling is an Adventure

Gary and I were off to Paris, TX this weekend for the Tour de Paris bike rally and we ended up having quite an adventure.

Our adventure began Friday afternoon with trying to find a place to stay in or near Paris. (It’s a 2-hour drive from Dallas). Gary was nice enough to call around. All the hotels in Paris were full, so we decided to check out campsites. Gary talked to the nice owner of an RV Park Campsite… asking her if she had any spaces for tents. She was nice enough to offer to “mow a spot” for us or to let us stay in the office which “has a futon and a refrigerator”. Gary very politely told her we’d keep looking. :-)

We ended up booking a spot at Cooper State Park. They said that they were only a quarter full so there was no need for a reservation. They also warned him that it was raining “like cats and dogs”. Once we finally found the road to the campsite and started down the extremely wet, muddy road (it had stopped raining by then), we quickly figured out why they were only a quarter full. No one could get there!! The road was getting worse and worse, so we decided to turn back. Of course, we got a little stuck trying to turn around and Gary got to push us out while I drove. Thankfully we made it back to pavement without too much trouble. (I think Gary was disappointed to find out the Jeep he was driving did not actually have 4 wheel drive to help us out of the situation). :-)

Unfortunately, with no way to get to the campsite, we decided to drive back to the closest town – Commerce. We were lucky enough to find a hotel there, although it was considerably more expensive than the campsite would have been.

The Tour de Paris was a good rally. We managed to start on time and not get any flat tires. Yay! There were lots of rest stops, which I really enjoyed. It’s nice to stop every 4-5 miles instead of every 10 miles. This one was 24 miles. The fire department was nice enough to open up their showers to the public after the rally, so that was a bit of an adventure too. Overall, it was a fun rally. I know I saw a photographer take our picture this time, so I’ll look for that and post if I find it. (Yes, I was actually riding my bike this time).