Labor Day used to be the final send off to summer but today I think summer plans on staying around awhile. As I write this at 3:43 my home weather station shows 100.4 degrees. When I rode earlier the temperature range was 91 to 96 degrees with 44% humidity. The sky is what I call a Texas sky with a few clouds scattered around and plenty of sunshine. The shade felt good when I could find it and the light 6.9 mph WSW breeze sometimes helped cool me off. The WSW direction is what is driving the temperature up. The next several days could be 100 degrees and the heat index could go past 110 degrees.

After riding my mountain yesterday I moved back to my road bike today. My late start of 11:38 came about from watching stage 16 of the Vuelta a Espana. The finish included some 24% climbs and the riders moved so slow. I don’t know if I could turn the pedals on a 24% climb. The commentators mentioned the riders might be able to run up the route faster than riding except for their cleats. My route today did not include any climb near that percentage. The steepest climb today went over US59 on Community Drive and I did get out of the saddle to pedal up over it but because I am flat land bike rider. Tomorrow is a rest day at the Vuelta so I should get an earlier start.

My route went north to Community Drive before turning west and back home. The Love Bugs are becoming more numerous but spread out more along the road. I did see a SUV in Oakhurst with bugs splattered over the windshield and grill. My first thought was the Love Bug population has been reduced so they won’t bother me so much. The most problem some thing about them is getting them in your mouth. If you get in a swarm you almost need to stop to brush them off. Be careful though, brushing too hard will smash them. Today’s ride went 28.02 miles at 15.1 mph average speed, 21.3 mph max speed and 77.5 RPM average cadence. Moving time totaled 1:51:19 and stopped time totaled 7:54. My longest stop came at 24.6 miles to wring out my gloves and wrist bands. September miles now total 44.34 and YTD shows 4761.60 miles. Link to Garmin Connect metrics and map.

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