I rode to the north today and as I passed the entrance into Oakhurst on the US59 south service route I reached my 885 mile goal for June. The wind was battling me as I pedaled into it and when I got home I found out why it seemed so hard: 20 mph from the south with 25 mph gusts. The New Caney – Gene Campbell Rd. route was 36.03 miles long today and the average speed was 15.6 mph. The last 11 miles was fighting the wind and slowed me down whenever I rode into it.

The ride started at 9:21 with a mostly cloudy sky, 82 degrees and 77% humidity. I delayed the ride about 10 minutes to give some rain clouds over Porter to move out. I figured by the time I got there the roads would have time to dry. When I did get there the roads were so dry I doubt that it even rained there.

This is a picture of the new asphalt on Adams Street looking to the west (Click on the image to enlarge it). I am not sure if they will put a center stripe on. The dog that has chased me a couple of times has not been around since the new asphalt went down. He may be on vacation.

From Adams Street I went to the north US59 service road to get to Porter. In Porter FM1314 east got me to Loop 494 for the ride to New Caney. In New Caney FM1485 west brought me to Gene Campbell Road. So far no rain today at this point. Gene Campbell connects with FM1314 and from there I rode to the Stripes station at Valley Ranch Parkway. I had rode about 25.5 miles at this point so I took a break to eat some Pop-Tarts and drink some Gatorade. When I came out of Stripes to sit down there was a young man standing beside the soft drink display. We chatted about biking and his walking long distances. I sat down and he asked numerous people if they could give him a ride to the west on FM1314. Many people turned him down but finally a man said he could ride with him. I was watching the sky while chatting with him and eating. It was getting dark to the east but moving to the north and not my direction. Finishing up I took off through Briar Tree and Auburn Trail to the south US59 service road. The wind was pretty strong and I had to pedal hard all the way to Kingwood Drive and the u-turn to the north service road.

So far I was soaked from perspiration but as I entered Kings Manor a very light rain started while I rode in the sun. It didn’t take too long to ride out of the rain as I finished the ride. Not long after I got home it started raining. This was the first day I biked on dry roads all the way or didn’t get rained on. No need to wash the Stradalli today, a wipe down was all that I needed to do. At home at 12:25 it was 89 degrees and 63% humidity before the light rain started. I saw the wind was from the south at 20 mph with gusts to 25 mph, the reason I had difficulty riding from the Stripes station to home.

Mileage report:

• 182.74 miles for the week
• 894.32 miles for the month (exceeded my goal by 6 miles)
• 3298 miles year to date
• Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com

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