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While I was biking today I was thinking that this route must be burned into my mind. The reason is that I now know where many of the road blemishes are and swerve around them without too much thought. On Loop 494 riding north just past the bridge by White Cemetery there is a gash in the asphalt shoulder section. It doesn’t go all the way from the white line to the end of the blacktop so there is enough room to ride around it without going into the main lane. Today I made that move knowing where it was at. Some of the excitement of biking is discovering new things. Does this mean when a route is well known you can’t discover new things?

I exited Kingwood via Adams St. and I noticed Adams St. now has stripes. A yellow center one and two white ones on the edges. I guess this means the resurfacing is complete. The route went through New Caney to Roman Forest Blvd. AT Roman Forest I checked the progress on Lake Tavalo. There are big letters on the far side of the lake on a wall below the tower and the tower assembly is making progress. It still needs to lifted into place. Leaving Roman forest I rode south along US59 through the Grand Parkway construction at Community Drive. As I went through the site one of those very big off road dump trucks scampered across the road with a full load of dirt. Years ago I read about the invention of the electric wheel by a Mr. LeTourneau. One of the things that stuck with me is the amount of dirt that has to be moved during a construction project. The Grand Parkway is no exception. There are dump trucks going in and out of Valley Ranch Parkway hauling dirt. Sometimes the trucks stir up the dust making riding difficult.

The route was 33.39 miles long today and I averaged 15.6 mph.

During my stop at Stripes on FM1314 I had a conversation with a man when I first pulled in to get some paper towels to dry off some. Later While I sat drinking some Gatorade he stopped and we talked about exercise. He asked how many miles I rode each week and he said he use to run 15 miles a week until his knees gave out. He said he needed to get his bike out and start exercising again. I agreed. It was at the 22.25 mile point when I stopped at Stripes. It was 88 degrees there according to the weather app on my phone.

My start was slow getting off the line because the Garmin 510 would not connect to the cadence/distance sensor. After several tries it connected and I rolled out at 9:55. The temperature was 82 degrees. At the end of the ride (12:48) it was 91 degrees and 52% humidity. I wore a Headsweat headband today. It did a little better than the scarf I wore yesterday keeping the sweat off my glasses. While I stopped at Stripes I felt the water dripping down my neck as the headband drained. The scattered clouds did not offer much relief from the sun and the very light breeze didn’t help cooling unless I was moving.

Mile markers:

• 181.94 miles this week
• 675.53 miles in July (40 miles to reach my goal for July)
• 4050 miles year to date
• Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS