July is not off to a dry start. I left home biking at 10:51 planning on riding the “Stroker Road – Huffman” route. Prior to leaving I checked the weather radar for rain. Off to the far southwest of Houston was a band of rain but I thought it would go north and take several hours to get where I was biking if at all. Below is the weather before I left home.

Biking south through Kingwood I could see the sky getting darker to the south. Many times the weather moves to the west below FM1960 for no reason. Hoping this would be the case today I rode on through Atascocita and across FM1960 to Walden. Once I was in Walden around the 10.5 mile point I started to doubt riding the “Stroker Road – Huffman” route. Lake Houston seems to attract rain but also hangs on to it from moving into Kingwood. I moved along the streets in Walden and back to Farmingham Road to Atascocita. Thunder was in the not too far distance and I felt a few rain drops as I rode on Pine Cluster Lane. I turned onto Pine Echo Drive going south and a few more rain drops hit me. At the corner onto Timber View Drive the wind kicked up sharply and the temperature dropped as the rain picked up. I felt a chill from the suddenly cold wind blowing through my wet jersey. I sped up to reach Atascocita Shores Drive riding north and hopefully away from the rain. I was making progress until I reached the traffic light at FM1960 and had to wait for it to change to cross. At this point I officially abandoned the “Stroker Road – Huffman” route. The rain got closer and I rode as fast as I could on Atascocita Shores trying to reach Kings Harbor on the north side of the Lake Houston on W. Lake Houston Parkway. The rain caught up to me where Atascocita Shores becomes Kings River Drive. I biked up the short hill to get to the Kings River pool house where I took refuge on their porch. I waited there about 10 minutes for the rain to slow down or stop.

The rain didn’t stop but it slowed to a light drizzle and I rolled away. Between the cooler wind and my wet jersey I was chilled moving. I hoped my energy would warm me up and the wind would warm so. At W. Lake Houston Parkway I turned to the right and as I rode onto the bridge the pavement went from wet to dry. No rain north of the river at this point. This happens many times. I was about 71 miles into the ride. Continuing to home I rode into the rain again at Kingwood Drive and rode the rest the way home (2 miles) in a light rain. Overall out of the 21.85 miles I rode about 9 miles was in the rain. Two days in a row biking in the rain! Not my favorite activity. The airport weather when I got home.

No rain in tomorrow’s forecast. I will try the “Stroker Road – Huffman” route again, I think. After rinsing off the Stradalli I went inside to dry off.

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