Hi everyone! Just ran a search and saw that there are several of my fellow Arkansans here on bikeforums. Glad to join you guys!

I'm a 36 year old biology teacher at a moderately large high school. Several of my colleagues at this school ride and rekindled my interest in the hobby/sport. I actually used to ride my Trek Dual Sport pretty regularly until about 5 years ago when an accident - rounded a corner on a local trail, woman with three huge dogs occupying the entirety of the space, I layed it over rather than crashing into her or the pooches - resulted in a pretty bad injury and kind of scared me away from it for a while. I finally decided it's time, and I'm getting back into it. I started riding my DS again and, wanting something lighter, made the 'mistake' of visiting some local bike shops to check out their road bike inventories. You know how it goes...one thing leads to another, and before I know it, I'm placing an order for a 2018 Trek Domane SL8. It was a huge investment, but I justify it by assuring myself that I'm starting high, so less temptation to fall victim to bike lust, and to borrow the motto from my colleagues, it's for the health of it.

The bike should arrival tomorrow and I can't wait to see what a 16 lb carbon frame feels like compared to my 36 lb metal DS! Road biking will be very different from what I'm used to so I imagine there will be a big of an adjustment period. I feel fortunate that I live in a place that is pretty friendly to bikes, and has moderate to low amounts of traffic. I'm looking forward to taking it around the state and visiting more bike routes.

I'm looking forward to learning from you all!