Today’s route went to the north. Taking the Adams St. exit from Kingwood I circled back to Kroger to see if they sell Eco85 at their fuel center. No Eco85. From there I went north on the US59 service road to Porter then over to Loop 494 via FM1314. I wanted to go east on FM1485 a short distance to Roberts Road to check out the road construction sign at the railroad tracks. Between Loop 494 and Roberts Road the only construction was over the rail tracks. I guess the serious construction must be further east. I turned left onto Roberts Road. I cannot remember the last time I have been on this street and it will probably be awhile before I return. Around half way back to Loop 494 I attracted a large dog and had to go into dog sprint mode to outrun the dog. Fortunately I had a good head start and the dog gave up before he got near me.

Once I was back on Loop 494 I continued to Roman Forest Blvd. Lately I have not biked into Roman Forest using this street but today I wanted to see how the construction is going on the new Tavola community. A couple of new streets go south of Roman Forest Blvd. and they were digging a big hole between the railroad tracks and these new streets. This might be a water feature when they finish.

So far the wind had not been an issue and moving over to the south bound US59 service road I started to get some headwind but not near the wind on yesterday. Staying on the service road I rode to Valley Ranch. Taking Valley Ranch Parkway to FM1314 I stopped at the Stripes station with the Garmin showing 23.99 miles. The sky was clear and the sun felt warm as I sat on the concrete eating my snacks and a Diet Pepsi. The temperature was 78 when I started the ride at 1:16 and by the time I got home at 4:19 the home weather station showed 83 degrees.

This slightly modified route totaled 35.42 miles and I averaged 15.6 mph. My miles now total:

• 257.82 miles for April
• 103.71 miles this week
• 1518 miles year to date
• 520.18 miles to reach the April goal

Yesterday I forgot to report on the flat I had at 26.95 miles. I was riding north on W. Lake Houston Parkway when I ran over a jagged piece of concrete. I knew as soon as I hit it would be a pinch flat. I pulled into the stores at Kings Crossing and over to Berry Bar Yogurt. They have some outside tables and chairs. Looking at the rear tire there was a white/gray spot on the tire and I wondered if this was the impact spot. Getting the tube out it didn’t take long to find the snake bite. Putting the tube back in after patching it (first try was successful) the patch lined up with the white/gray spot on the tire. I pumped the tire up and headed home. The tire stayed aired up and I topped off the pressure before today’s ride. The rear tire now has two patches, front tire none.

Tomorrow I will probably not ride. The weather for the next several days look perfect with 80 degrees and clear skies.

Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS maps and metrics. I see Garmin announced the Garmin 1000 today. The price is almost as big as the model number. It has a long list of features but I will be staying with the Edge 510. This could be a good time to find Edge 500 units on sale.

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