I walked out to the garage to unlock the door before the ride today. I thought I should check the tires and the front tire was flat. I suspected there was a problem yesterday but I pumped up the tire before riding. I removed the tube from the tire after inspecting the tire to see if there was some object. Looking at the tube I couldn’t find a hole so I moved to the water test. I still couldn’t find a leak after one pass through the water but on the second try I noticed a bubble coming from the top of the Presta valve screw. It was slow but I took this as the leak and replaced the tube. While I was at it I but a boot inside the tire where the sidewall had a slit. Previously I put duct tap over the slit but it wasn’t holding the tube in like the boot would. I pumped up the tire and headed back in to get dressed to ride.

Today I rode north on the “New Caney – Roman Forest – Valley Ranch” route. I figured this would be over 30 miles which helps me reach my 259 mile goal for January. It ended up being 32.29 miles. I had to circle back home at the beginning of the ride to change gloves. It was 65 degrees but my fingers were not happy with the half finger gloves and they were much warmer when I got the full finger “Wind Stopper” gloves. I left home the first time at 1:22 thanks to the flat tire issue. My only stop was at the Stripes station at FM1314 and Valley Ranch Parkway. This was 21.15 miles into the ride. The stop accomplished two purposes: a snack break for two trail mix bars and delay my passing by the schools in Briar Tree until the traffic left after dismissal. The timing was good. The weather screenshots while I was a Stripes.

After leaving Stripes I had cooled down and had to warm backup. The shadows covered the road frequently and I could feel the coolness. By the time I reached Oakhurst I was starting to warm up. I got back home at 3:58. and the temperature was down to 63 but it felt cooler.

I am up to 129 miles for January which leaves 130 miles to reach my goal. Halfway there!!!

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