I drove the van and planned the route for today. When I was planning the day's route, I noticed that we could either make it a 90-mile day over some potentially gravel roads, or a 100-mile day on bigger roads. I chose the former option. I thought I had warned someone of the potential for gravel, but apparently not. Riders rode 10 miles over a bad gravel road today in the rain, which resulted in about half of the ride being the van for some part of the day.


People were walking on the gravel; some people walked about five miles. Sweep was late, and I ended up having to get them using the van.


After the ride, we had a discussion about gravel roads. We talked about how to find them, why they are dangerous, and how to route around them. Hopefulle, gravel roads will not be an issue again.


We had an excellent time with our hosts in Houston. There is an active affordable housing effort. There was good food, a good number of community members, and a few youngsters. We gave a presentation, which was well received. This host had formerly hosted HBC rides, so they knew just what we needed.

Jose Soltren