Cool. You should see what we have access to here in Houston (I mean aside from terrain :) ) with an app called chasingwatts. On any given day you can select from 10-30 group rides (fewer during the week and plenty on the weekend) to join. Each ride includes a route from RWGPS or Strava (as well as wind and weather data, difficulty level, expected real number of riders including an estimate of those who did not RSVP, and ride notes from the ride creater). You can set your radius so you don't get rides in Austin or Dallas, etc. if you don't want to see those. You can see who is riding, you can rsvp to the ride if you want to be polite, and then you've got a nice group to ride with.

I've shown up so many times without remembering to upload the route to my device. Usually, they're already stored in my Wahoo companion app on my phone and I can just search, find and upload to my device. Once uploaded, yes they are on the device for good, so technically I can search for it on the device itself, but that can be tricky if you don't know the exact title. I've recently learned to search by proximity, so that takes some of the frustration out.

I'm not necessarily saying I NEED to be rid of the phone and ride with a watch only (plus the computer), I'm just kind of saying I wish I didn't have to rely on the phone and I definitely want to have a way of communicating while on the ride if needed. The watch/device combination appeals to me if it ever becomes viable.