I'm lucky that I can get on a bike path within a mile of my house and ride 40+ with only a few stops to cross a street. But, it's not the same as being on the road and it gets boring to see the same scenery, so I like to venture out on the roads, but I generally look for a group or organized ride and I will drive to one if I need to. Fortunately, here, you can find them year round.

I have to say that I will reconsider one of the organized rides (100k) that I did this year, due to the heavy traffic on the rural roads northwest of Ft. Worth. No shade, brutal sun (July) and farm to market roads with big pickups (ranchers) and big trucks (oil/gas equipment being hauled). There were several times I was really scared at how fast AND CLOSE traffic came whizzing by.