Red Silicone Case
Yesterday I received the new silicone case for the Garmin Edge 510. I ordered a black one to replace the red one I got with the 510. I knew the red one had faded some form the sun but I didn’t realize how much until I took it off and looked at the inside. The bright red inside was a big contrast to the pale pink exterior. This shows what exposure to all that sun can do. I wonder how my skin and bike cloths fare? The black case looks nice and crisp. I chose black thinking it wouldn’t fade as much. time will tell.
Today I rode an extended “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route. I added some extra streets at the beginning in Elm Grove and Sherwood Trails villages in Kingwood. Later after the usual stop at the Huffman Chevron I rode north on FM2100 to Smith Road rather than the typical FM1960 route. So today I biked 34.79 miles which is about 2 miles more than the typical route to Huffman. My average speed of 15.0 mph was below what it should’ve been thanks to the strong wind from the SW. I didn’t know this until I got home and saw the 10 mph wind was also gusting to 23 mph. This explains the struggle riding west over Lake Houston. Normally this section is where I make up some time to improve the average speed. I was working hard to stay at 14 mph with an occasional burst to 15 mph. Once I made the turn onto Atascocita Shores the wind wasn’t so much coming at me and I sped up some. I could hear some thunder while I riding over Lake Houston towards home and the clouds behind me looked darker. When I left FM1960 I didn’t hear the thunder again until I got home. While I am writing this the sky has clouded up more and the thunder is back but no rain yet.
Earlier as I was biking south on Fairlake Drive I heard a train whistle. At the time I figured it would be past the crossing on Old Atascocita Road but when I reached the turn to Old Atascocita Road I could see the train was moving slowly over the road. I rode up behind a pickup truck and stopped. The sun and heat were cooking and as I waited the perspiration was making a wet spot below my right elbow on the asphalt. I was almost out of water in my water bottle because I didn’t stop at the Chevron at Atascocita Shores Drive on the west side of Lake Houston. I held off drinking all of my water to wait until I got to FM2100. The train seemed to take 10 minutes to slowly move through. A couple of times the railcars made the loud noise when a train slows and speeds up. I was thinking if it stopped on the crossing I might have to go back to FM1960 and then to Huffman.
The rest stop at the Huffman Chevron took about 30 minutes. During the stop I cooled down sitting under the canopy eating and drinking. The wind helped cool me. The paper towels and Greensheet were extra wet when I stood up to throw them away as I got ready to ride again. While I was sitting I saw many Jeeps of different colors and models. I am not sure why I was attuned to them today other than we own two of them. One white Wrangler Unlimited went past with some lumber sticking out the back window. I think the various modifications people do to their Jeep catches my eye too.
Another day closer to the Hotter’N Hell Hundred Saturday. The forecast still shows 102 degrees but now it will be partly cloudy.
Mileage:
- 75.44 miles for the week
- 656.47 miles for August (189 miles to reach my August goal)
- 4869 miles year to date
Links to RideWithGPS and Garmin Connect. Click on an image to enlarge it.
