Sometimes ride plans just fall apart. Today was one of those days. I planned to ride what I call the “Kingwood – Crosby – Kingwood” route. This is the route:

The ride started 10:50 under an overcast sky, 77 degrees and a 13 mph southeast breeze. The ride was going good until I got on Fairlake Drive east of Lake Houston. A fine mist started to fall and I was concerned it might turn into a heavier rain. The planned route did not have any shelter to speak of until I reached Crosby. I kept going and when I got FM2100 as I waited for traffic to open for me to cross I decided to stay on Old Atascocita Road to the T intersection with Ramsey Road, about 2.5 miles east of FM2100. My plan was if the mist got heavier I could turn back there. When I reached Ramsey Road the mist was still falling but not any more than before. I turned right onto Ramsey Rd. with the thought if the mist stopped I would take Louis Road and stay on my original route. As I got to Louis Rd. the mist was still there. I stayed on Ramsey Rd. headed to Peters Dr., now converting the route to the ” Stroker Road – Huffman” one. This route takes me back to FM2100 quicker where there are several places I could stop if the rain started. By the time I got to Peters Rd. the mist had stopped and I did not want to turn back to resume the original route.

Normally the Stroker Road route does not have any dogs but today I encountered one small barking dog on Peters Rd who came out into the road to chase me. I easily escaped to reach two more dogs who barked but stayed behind the low fence beside the road. I figured this would be the last dogs but one more was waiting for me near the Peters Rd. intersection with Stroker Road. This dog was bigger and more aggressive. I sped up to get past him and he looked like he stayed on the other side of the deep ditch between him and me. He charged down the ditch as I went by and started to give chase down Peters Rd. I made the right turn onto Stroker and increased my speed. He was barking all of the time but stopped after a hundred feet or so. From there to FM2100 no more dogs. The wind was now at my back and the effort dropped down as I increased my speed. The sky was still overcast but no moisture was falling.

Going north on FM2100 I made it to Huffman and rolled into the Chevron station for a rest, snack and Coke One drink. As I sat under the canopy a black Jeep Wrangler (2 door) pulled up to the pumps. I noticed a HoustonJeep People sticker on the side. Last night my wife, niece and I went to the Northeast HoustonJeep People Meetup in Humble but I did not recognize the jeep. That wasn’t too hard because there were 25 or more Jeeps lined up at the Meetup. I walked over and introduced myself and asked if he went to the Meetup. It turned out that he did and as I got closer I did recognize him. His name is Jim Dalrymple. We talked a few minutes until he finished gassing up.

Up to this point I rode about 26.2 miles. I left the Chevron station going west to home. At the 27.82 mile point I heard a loud POW and my rear tire went flat fast. I quickly stopped and looked at the rear tire. A screw was stuck in the tire. I yanked the screw out and looked around for a place to fix the flat. I was a ways west of E. Lake Houston Parkway and deiced to go west to the Lake Houston Marina. It was about 1/10 of mile further. When I got there I saw a picnic bench behind some bushes, a good spot to work on the flat. The fun was just beginning.

Sitting on the bench I pulled the tube out where the screw did its nasty work. I figured the screw went through both sides of the tube and it did. That makes patching tough but I put a patch on each side, installed the tube in the tire and back on the rim. Using my frame pump I aired the tire up to a good pressure. Unscrewing the pump hose all of a sudden I heard the swoosh of air exiting. I looked at the end of the pump hose and the valve core was sticking out of the hose. No wonder the air escaped. I never had this happen before. I screwed the valve core in and aired up the tire again. The tire stayed firm for a minute or so and then went flat. I decided to replace the tube with my spare tube. Wrong!!! The valve stem was too short to stick out of the high profile carbon rim. I was stopped. Time to call the rescue Jeep Grand Cherokee. I called my wife and then walked across FM1960 to the Cedar Landing restaurant to wait. I leaned against a concrete thing that turned out to be a historical marker. I took this picture: (click on the picture to enlarge it)

My wife arrived and we drove home. At home I removed the tube to see one of the patches failed causing the tube to go flat. The screw made a nasty hole in the Schwalbe Ultremo ZX tire. I need to decide whether to replace the tube and tire. I quickly decided a new tube was necessary, the flat one had 5 patches already and the two opposite each other was a prescription for failure. Replacing the tire was not as easy. I did not have another Schwalbe, only Continental Gatorskin tires and not in the same size; 700 x 25 while the Schwalbe were 700 x 23. I thought the Gatorskin might be more durable since I had 5 patches on the old tube and the screw hole looked bad with a small flap of rubber dangling from the tread. For peace of mind the Gatorskin went on the rim and I left the Schwalbe on the front rim resulting in a visible mismatch. I will figure out what to do about the visual disparity. I was checking my ride history and found another disaster when I rode the Stroker Road – Huffman route about 3 years ago on 4/23/2011. That day was just as bad with 2 flats and calling my wife to get me at the Huffman Chevron.

Check the slides for the ride metrics. I am getting close to April’s mileage goal: 744.03 miles as of today. 34 miles to go. I also reached 2003 miles for the year, 212.55 miles for the week. Link to RideWithGps map and metrics.

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