The “Eagle Springs – Walden – Huffman” route I rode today is one I don’t do very often. I rode it twice in 2015 and now once this year. I think the main reason is the crash I had at Atascocita High School in September 2013. Now I ride there when school is not in session. Today when I went past the parking lot exit where I collided with the car it was closed off with barriers and yellow caution tape. It looked like a work crew was doing something where the street connects to the parking lot. So no one could cause a crash there.

Rolling out of the driveway at at 12:19 I headed south out of Kingwood. The sky was overcast with the temperature in the upper 70’s. Not as warm as yesterday thanks to a minor cool front moving through and then backing up. The wind was 10 mph from the east. Later in the ride it seemed stronger.

Nothing unusual on the ride as I rode toward Huffman. I got to the Huffman Chevron a few minutes after 2 PM and took a break to rest my legs after battling the wind. I bought a Powerade fountain drink ($1.70 compared to yesterday’s $1.50 at Stripes) and settled down under the canopy to eat a couple of granola bars. When I stopped I took this picture of my Garmin Edge 520 screen.

The 23.75 miles were tough whenever I was riding into the wind. I noticed after I turned north onto FM2100 I was in a higher gear than I normally use which increased my exertion even more. The 1 1/2 miles to Huffman was easier with the wind behind me and a better gear.

I stayed at the Chevron about 30 minutes. Before I left I took these weather screenshots.

Notice the wind speed in the right shot. When I got home at 3:23 and checked the airport weather the wind was 17 mph with 23 mph gusts. No wonder the headwind was so strong. The temperature was 81. With the somewhat cooler temperatures I opted to wear long sleeve and short sleeve jerseys topping off my shorts.

The new tube in the front tire solved my flat problem. I wish the Bluetooth connection with my Edge 520 was as easy to fix. I got another phone disconnect alert before going 1 mile but it reconnected and I didn’t go through the pairing mess from yesterday. Maybe there are spy radio waves in my neighborhood breaking Bluetooth since once I get away from there the problem does not happen very often.

No biking tomorrow (Thursday). Friday looks like rain. Saturday and the Grand Parkway Bike Ride in New Caney might have rain before the 8 AM start time. The forecast shows the chance of rain decreasing after 7 AM.

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