Hi Sarah, welcome to the fun, both my wife and daughters ride dual sport and love it. Tarrant County is a large area, we are located in McKinney, so if you would like to join us for a DS ride, you would be welcome. My Daughter is 16 and has a lot of school work so we only go for 1 or 2 rides a month maximum, but would be happy to show you around. There is also a great ride scheduled which caters for all skill levels and runs over a weekend, it's called the redneck ramble and occurs on May 6th & 7th, the Saturday is mainly presentations and discussions about techniques and equipment (so you can skip it if you want) and the Sunday is a ~150 mile DS ride, they sort people into different skill levels and you then ride in small groups of 5/6 riders of similar levels, it is a lot of fun. If you want more info you can look at the WEB site dualsportuniverse.com there were several female riders last year and my wife has signed up for it again this year, my daughter has many exams on the 8, 9 & 10th March so will not ride as she wants to revise that weekend!!
Regards Gary