Pat & Cats Heartland Tour 2010

What’s not to love about Dallas? Well maybe the weather? Awe, as they say here, “If you don’t like the weather, stick around, it’s about to change. Hot, hot, hot…over 100 degrees. We walked around, enjoyed and sweated. Even did a couple of workouts at our 24 Hour Fitness. (Spent 2 hours on the phone trying to get them to update Pat’s membership.)

You only get a peak or two of our favorite building, the green spire. When Pat was here in 1988 it was vacant and being reposesed by a bank. Sound familiar, eh?

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Our pal Joel got us to the Ramada Inn, Burbank and deserted us there. It was pretty dismal, adjacent to Freeway 5 in an industrial neighborhood. Don’t even think about going out after dark! The next AM we took the included tram to Bob Hope Airport. We were ready but American Airlines delayed, 2 hours. Suring that time we learned that one bike was in Dallas, UPS had lost the other. YIKES!

An interesting flight, no bumps. We were seated next to Mathew and son Lavonne. They own 4 ReMax Offices and were headed to an REO (Real Estate Owned, Bank Owned) meeting in Dallas.  Kismet, they were staying at our Hotel Lawrence. Didn’t know but had we, we could have shared a taxi, darn.

The hotel is small and boutique, the kind we like. They have an a great restaurant, “The Founder’s Grill”, we loved our waiter, Thomas. He couldn’t help us get in on the free cocktrails and food the REALTORS were enjoying but he was great fun. Sebron, the manager of Hotel Lawrence was way helpful! We kept the bikes in a conference room.   

The lost bike sohowed up on Monday, 3 days late but it did show up!!!

Le Hotel Lawrence

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We’re on the final count down. Leaving Friday June 4, 2010 for Burbank, spend the night there then fly out on American Airlines for Dallas on Saturday. Rather than hassle getting bikes to the airport and aboard, we shipped them via UPS. They’ll actually be in Dallas a day before we arrive. Cat has us well organized, we’ve been clearing closets and packing essentials for our tour. Check out the matched luggage in the clothing shot.
We’ll be in Dallas 3 or 4 days. If you’re close by give us a shout.

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The cottage is right on two of our favorite bike paths. On warm days we ride north along the coast to Carpentaria. When it’s cool we go north to Ojai. Both are beautiful and mostly out of traffic. We have favorite lunch places, The Spot in Carp. and Rainbow Bridge in Ojai.

On New Years Day 2010 we cycled toward Ojai then veered left, up and over Casitas Pass. What a day, what a view. What a way to start the NEW YEAR!

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We moved into The Cottage in August, ’09’. It had been a rental since Pat bought it way back in ’75’. He’s kinda sorry that he was such a slum lord. And, he’s kinda sorry that he borrowed against it but that’s where some of the WorldRiders2 cycling money has come from. We scrubbed, painted, carpeted and gardened. It was an amazing transition. It’s in Ventura, right on the Coastal Bike Trail. Our idea is to do house exchanging. We’ve had two great experiences, one for a 6,000 sq ft Villa in Arizona and another for a lake house at Nacimiento, near Paso Robles and the WINE COUNTRY.
Now we’ve added a new dimension, we offered it as a vacation rental. Marc, Deb and 1 year old Bess will move in as we head out then Bill, Jeanine and their boys will take over in July. The house deserves nice families AND the rent money comes in handy, too.

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70 mile out and back, turn around

Geez, it’s been a whole year since we returned from Southeast Asia. We’ve continued to remain active, cycling and lifting weights, 5 or 6 days a week. Cat’s birthday in September is just a week ahead of mine. We cycled 56 miles then celebrated mine with a 70 mile ride to honor my 70 years. We threw a big birthday bash in the midst of that and 130 friends from our pasts showed up. Great fun!

With that we feel like we’re ready to ride THE HEARTLAND!

                                         RAGBRAI or BUST

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