For the 17th time in the past 20 years, I rode my bike to Dallas's West End on Super Bowl Sunday. Riders converge on the West End from all over the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. It's quite a scene, with groups coming in from every direction. I was the first person to the Spaghetti Warehouse, where many of us eat. I averaged 18.0 miles per hour for 25.7 miles, despite not having been on the bike in 10 weeks. (Yes, I've been running a lot, but that just means I'm aerobically fit; I have no cycling legs.) I didn't realize it at the time, but I had a slight tailwind. I paid for it on the way back, when my average speed was 14.1 miles per hour. Overall, I averaged 15.86 miles per hour for 50.1 miles (not counting stops at red lights, of which there were many).
Lunch was excellent, as usual. My friends Joe and Mike joined me, having ridden in from a different direction. I ate too much, which made the return trip even slower. (In case you're wondering, I ate spaghetti with tomato sauce, salad with thousand-island dressing, deep-fried zucchini, and several small loaves of sourdough bread, topped off with lemonade.) The weather was gorgeous, maybe the best ever. It was 50.2º Fahrenheit when I left my house at 9:10 and 70.9º when I returned five hours later. It's gloriously sunny. On the way back, I fell in with a group of riders from Fort Worth. One man was wearing a vintage wool jersey, like this. Once I got him talking about it, he wouldn't stop. I'm not sure I would want wool next to my skin.
After leaving Spaghetti Warehouse, I followed the route traversed by John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated 45 years ago. I have never not seen tourists standing on the "grassy knoll" as I pass. Sometimes there are dozens of people wandering around, looking upward, pointing, and talking. Local entrepreneurs serve as tour guides, explaining what happened that fateful day. I always zigzag on my bike when I reach the point where Kennedy was shot, in case someone shoots at me from the Book Depository. Why this site attracts tourists, I don't know.
Prediction: Pittsburgh 27, Arizona 0.
Addendum: Pittsburgh won, 27-23.
