For some reason landscaping crews caught my eye today. It is amazing how many crews drive by me as I ride and the ones I see working in yards. It must be a lucrative business to support all of them. You would think every lawn would be the showcase of the neighborhood. When I stopped at Stripes while biking the “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road” route I saw at least 6 crews stop for gas and/or food. During the spring as grass grows with more plentiful rain a freshly mowed smell permeates the air as I ride. Now that the heat is here and the rain is not the smell of grass being mowed is not as strong. Blower and mower fumes are more likely what I smell as I ride by.

According to the Houston Chronicle weatherman Houston reached 10 days in a row of 95 degrees or more. It was hot today and I tried to get a little earlier start to beat it but leaving at 10:46 is not early enough. I got back home at 2:00. While I took a break at Stripes I took these screenshots of the Porter weather.

I varied the route somewhat by riding north on Valley Ranch Parkway instead of south on Old Sorters Road. I rode through Forest Colony to US59 and then south on the service road to Kingwood Drive. This got the total mileage for the ride up to 37.53 miles. I did not see any other bikers on the route. This is the 4th time I rode this general route. A comparison of those rides.

Riding southeast on FM1314 when I got to the Grand Parkway FM1314 overpass construction I pulled up to ride through the detour lane to the left but there was a long line of traffic going east. I looked at the construction activity under the overpass and the few workers there were eating lunch (it was 12:20) and I decided to ride through the work area rather than wait for a break in the traffic. They didn’t seem to notice me riding by.

Before the ride I installed the matching DT Swiss RWS front skewer and now both wheels look alike. I can relax now. I like things to match.

More heat tomorrow and stage 17 of the Tour but I plan on riding but it could be a short route.

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