We were home from California all of three days before hitting the road for a ten-day car trip. Last spring we spent 19 days riding our bike across the state of Texas. This year we attended the Southwest Tandem Rally (SWTR) in Brenham, Texas. Our drive to Texas was designed to welcome the 2018 Coast 2 Coast tour to Pensacola, and their final state in the journey.

We rode west from Pensacola (on a cold and windy morning) to the state line to meet and photograph the riders.

Unfortunately, the riders didn’t show up because our calculations were based on the ferry we took on our trip, and this year they crossed from Dauphin Island, Alabama on a later ferry!
We struggled against 15-20 mph headwinds for the first half of our ride, then got to turn around and enjoy the strong push back.

We joined the tour for a spaghetti dinner at the church that was hosting them, and had a nice visit with Bubba and the gang.

We hopped on Interstate 10 west. Next stop, Texas.

Two days of sightseeing in, and riding near the capital city of Austin are on the agenda.

Brenham was the site for SWTR 2018.


Marcia Becker and The Hotts (Houstonians on Tandems Together) organized and hosted the weekend event.

The weather was cold-ish and threatening, but held off and all rides happened.

The routes were beautiful, and the wild flowers were in abundant bloom – even the famous bluebonnets were everywhere!

What else could you ask for? Ice Cream, of course…Brenham is where Blue Bell Ice Cream was born in the early 1900’s.

It was a perfect weekend of riding, fun, and ice cream and we thank our good friends at SWTR for making us feel so welcome!

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