I set out to ride the “Fairlake Drive – May Park Community Center – Huffman” route leaving home at 11:53. Before leaving I checked the weather radar for rain. There was a big patch over Baytown to the 35 miles southeast of where I live. My thought was the rain would move to the east out of the route area and all would be dry. Nice thought that lasted until I turned into Kingwood Greens off of W. Lake Houston Parkway. there was another biker doing the opposite headed where I came from in a big hurry. I rode on Kings View Drive about 100 feet and the rain start coming down. Maybe it was just a spot and I could ride out of it. Nope! It started raining harder so I moved to the sidewalk under the trees to get away from the rain. The trees went away and I rode back onto the street going fast to get back to W. Lake Houston Parkway.

Across W. Lake Houston Parkway sits Kings Harbor, a group of buildings with restaurants and shops and most importantly a parking garage. I waited for traffic to pass and darted to the parking garage but a slow pickup truck was in front of me waiting on a car that was backing up for some reason. The car stopped and I rode around the truck and ducked into the garage as the rain increased. I was dripping wet but I was out of the wind, kind of. With the rain the temperature dropped from the 96 degrees at my house to somewhere in the 80’s. Being wet I could feel the change. I waited in the parking garage for 20 minutes or more for the rain to at least slow down. Finally the puddles showed just a few drops landing in them and I left to continue the ride.

I wasn’t sure if I would ride the route I planned but as I approached FM1960 the streets were dry and I decided to stay the course until I ran into rain again. Riding through Walden the streets continued dry and I made it back to FM1960 to ride over Lake Houston. No rain so I stuck to the route. Once I was on the causeway the shoulder was damp but not enough to be a problem. Fairlake Drive and Old Atascocita Road were dry as well. Going north on FM2100 to Huffman the sun came out and I hoped I would dry off some. At Huffman I turned right onto FM1960 and began riding to Huffman – Eastgate where I would turn. As I got closer I saw some flashing lights near the turn. It was a wrecker pulling a pickup truck out of the west bound ditch. He wa heading east on the shoulder and I did not get a good view of the pickup truck until he made a u-turn and came my direction. The front of the pickup truck had connected with a pole and the smashed the front end quite a bit.

Making the turn onto Huffman – Eastgate the road was wet again because of the overhanging trees but once I was out from under the trees the road was dry. It stayed that way to the May community Center, from there back to FM2100 and then to the Huffman Chevron where I took a break at the 28 mile point. Waling inside the store I was hit by the cold air conditioned air against my soaking wet shorts and jersey. My new Pearl Izumi Elite Gel Vent gloves were soaked as was my wrist bands. I tried a bunch of paper towels to soak up the water from the wrist bands but it wasn’t too successful. Getting back outside quickly I sat down under the canopy on a Greensheet newspaper. I ate my snacks and drank some Powerade. I checked the weather on my phone:

The yellow and green rain was between me and home. I looked at the western sky and a dark patched moved over Huffman but no rain fell. I got up and the newspaper was soaked. I checked the weather radar again and the rain had moved to the north and I got ready to leave.

Riding back onto west bound FM1960 I felt a few rain drops and made a mental note of places to get out of the rain if it picked up. Fortunately the drops were few and I kept riding. Once I was on the causeway over Lake Houston there would be no place to hide from the rain. The drops continued but not enough to get me any wetter than I already was. I rode through Atascocita Shores and Kings River back to W. Lake Houston Parkway. The streets were damp until I got to the Parkway. It was dry until I turned left onto Kingwood Greens Drive. The streets were damp again. I made a big “U” back to W. Lake Houston Parkway on Kings View Drive for the final 3 miles home. From there no more rain drops to home.

I got back home at 3:45 and washed the bike. I am getting way to much practice washing a bike. This is the 3rd time in a week.

Where I stand after today’s ride:

• 187.06 miles this week
• 153.81 miles in September. My goal is 340 miles.
• 5282 miles for the year. My goal is 6500 miles.

A summary of the rides on this route this year.

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