Upon returning from his Caribbean Cruise with his silver anniversary bride, Tonto decided to celebrate his birthday by riding a century with Dash and Batman. Since Tonto doesn't have the flexibility with his schedule of the other two, he was unaware of some of the subtleties associated with Friday rides. While riding on Friday affords us lighter traffic, one reality that can't be overlooked is that the morning commuters congest the freeways. However, Batman was not eager to start when the temperatures were still quite chilly and with only three riders, the start time was extremely lax. Breakfast was consumed at the Baytown IHOP, including "Pops" who brought his own food straight from the local McDonald's.

The winds were predominantly from the north between 10 and 15 miles per hour, but the sun was shining brightly and the temperature was nearly 50 by the time we started at 9:00. We opted to head into the wind for the first 40 plus miles in order to take advantage of a tail wind for the majority of the second half. In fact, we utilized a modified tacking procedure to avoid direct head winds for much of the route into Dayton. In Dayton, one of the locals was very inquisitive about Batman's 'Bent. We joked that the instructions were lost and the bike hadn't turned out quite right, but the joke was lost on the young man. He seemed quite impressed that the jumbled parts turned out so well. But, one must accept that his view of the cycling world was limited to Wal-mart…

Pops decided he was pooped and ventured off on his own, while the other three headed to meet Rusty at a Texaco station. Dash estimated the distance to be just down the road, which roughly meant anywhere from 4 to 40 miles. It was quite enjoyable to cruise at 30 mph with such limited effort. Rusty was waiting for us, just as she promised. Not only was she willing to take our discarded layers of clothing, she brought us cold drinks, chips, fruit, and bean dip. Plus, we found out that it was her birthday, too. Tonto was jubilant regarding the bean dip, but Dash and Batman were fully aware that they did not want to be following Tonto too closely. We made a spectacle of ourselves by singing and dancing "Happy Birthday" in the parking lot.

The trio made their way to the Lynchburg Ferry Crossing, past the San Jacinto monument, and on towards the Fred Hartman bridge. Normally, the route takes us over the bridge early in the ride. However, to make it more interesting, we were now going to attack the bridge at mile 90. While the climb posed no real problem, the speeding traffic was noisy and unnerving. The shoulder was littered with debris and gravel. To heighten the excitement on the descent, there were tree branches and random 2-by-4's to dodge, as well as metal grates at the bottom of the bridge.

After a peaceful tour around the country club, we were only five miles from our finish. So far, Dash had only led us on one gravel road and through one muddy road under construction. Apparently, Tonto and Batman had passed with flying colors, so Dash decided to finish the ride by taking us through the heart of Baytown. Main Street was loaded with traffic, the roads were rough, and the stoplights were plentiful. Gratefully, most of the commuters were reasonably cordial, including the one who allowed us to make a left turn in front of her before she blasted her horn at us. Shortly thereafter, Batman suddenly discovered that he could barely remain clipped in his pedals during the down stroke. He managed to dismount immediately prior to the seat falling completely off. The seat was re-attached and the adventure continued. Thinking that we had finally escaped all of the danger, Dash led us on one more escapade. We waited at the light, which seemed quite safe, but when the light turned green, Dash crossed over to the wrong side of the street and headed into the traffic. This afforded us the opportunity to make one more left turn, across two lanes and against oncoming traffic.

We have ridden the Dayton Century in the past, but this had to be one of the ugliest final miles of all times. Rusty met us again at the finish to return our garments and reward us with some guacamole and chips. Dash graciously allowed us to shower before heading back to the opposite side of Houston. Fourth century of the year completed. Happy Birthday to both Tonto and Rusty!

-Batman