Saturday, after the race, I got cleaned up all quick and drove over to Sue’s best friend’s house from childhood. She lives over in Highland Park, a pretty nice area of Dallas. And she happens to be married to a oil and gas guy that struck it big a few years back and is a 4 billionaire.

It was a great afternoon. Sue’s friend is still down to earth. It was refreshing. I’m not so sure I could be so real if I had all the opportunities presented by so much wealth.

And it is an incredible amount of wealth. It is 80 chunks of 50 million dollars. It is almost incomprehensible. But it’s not like they don’t spread it around. Sue’s friend built the new SPCA animal shelter here. And they give tons of money to lots of other charities, which they should.

After doing a tour of her home, we scooted over to downtown Dallas to have a snack on the penthouse of the Ritz Carlton. They bought the penthouse to house her husband’s western art collection. It is truly amazing.

I must of told her at least 3 times that I would never have an opportunity to be in a place so unbelievably nice. Everything was beyond top end. I’ve never seen door handles, or touched door handles, that were so perfect. I didn’t know they built door handles like that. And the art collection was unreal too, not that I know anything about western art. But it was everywhere.

Anyway, the penthouse has balconies on three sides. We went out on the side that faces Love Field and ate some leftovers and drank Shiner Bock, watching the Southwest Airlines planes land. It was great.

Sue is flying back to San Diego on Friday with them on their private jet. Bromont and I could tag along, flying back here on Monday. But since Peter enlightened in my last posts comment section, “I don’t have anything to do but ride my bike.” I guess I need to just skip this private jet trip to the West coast and go to Joe Martin to race my bike. It’s all I know how to do it seems.

Anyway, I have to pack up and drive back up to Kansas today, only to drive back to Arkansas tomorrow. Here are a few photos of the house and penthouse.

Driving up to the gates at the house.

Sue and Bromont leaving.

One of the 3 balconies at the penthouse.

One of the gazillion rooms there.

I have a tile fetish, so the bathroom were really interesting to me.

Of all the pieces there, I liked the original letters the best.

I guess this is a famous Remington bronze.

A famous painting I'm sure.

Sue's friend sweeping the lunch crumbs from the balcony.

Tools and bikes in the van heading back to Kansas.

I left Dallas a little bit later than I would have liked yesterday. By the time I got back to Topeka and unloaded all the tools and such it was already late. I only have today here before Joe Martin Stage Race starts tomorrow, so it is going to be a little rushed obviously.

I like driving across the country. Especially South to North, or vise versa, during the spring. I like the different vegetation blooming at different temperatures. I remember one year eating Mulberries in Austin, then again a couple weeks later in Arkansas. When I got back to Topeka, I was eating them again here, then the next week again in Iowa and finally up in Minneapolis a month and a half after starting in Texas. I love that. It applies to the trees, flowers, everything growing. Anyway, I was so surprised how much has changed here in Topeka in two short weeks.

I have a ton of stuff to do today. Clean the van out, wash clothes, get my bike in order, ride some, etc. It is strange how time seems to get away from you when originally you thought you had a bunch to spare. It seems that way often now. I remember when I was so surprised that it was April and now it is almost May. I seem really rushed but, I need to start getting back into racing form and a stage race is a good, yet painful, way to do that.

Okay, I’d better get cracking or the day is going to disappear.

I fixed up this gas lamp by the alley when I was down in Dallas.

Not counting getting the glass, it only took about a 1/2 hour to clean it up, paint it to make it look nearly new.

This was a shocker, again. I had super tailwind up from the South and got 22 mpg, which is great considering how fast I was driving.

My van is going to turn over to 300,000 miles on this trip probably. It is diesel, so that's not all that many really.

There wasn't a bloom on the roses in front when left and now they are all out.

I planted a bunch of lettuce, chard, spinach, etc. right before I left and it is up now.

And the strawberries have fruit already.