Riding the “Kingwood – Hare Cook Road – Kingwood” route today for 43.45 miles put me over my March mileage goal by 30 miles totaling 661 miles for March. The ride began at 11:59 with the temperature at 70 degrees. The sky was mostly clear with some high clouds on the SE horizon. Wind was a light 4 mph. According to the weather forecast people this could change come Wednesday when another cool front and rain might visit the area. I am ready for the 80+ temperatures to arrive. The last time I rode this route was last year and was about 3 mile longer. I did not ride the 2 miles through Elm Grove and Sherwood Trails villages at the beginning of the ride to shorten the miles.

With the temperature at 70 and the forecast of a high of 74 I decided to dress warm with shorts, long sleeve jersey and an un-vented windbreaker jacket. I expected to sweat if the temperature exceeded 74 which it did with 80 degrees at my home weather station at the end of the ride (3:34pm). At the Huffman Chevron break the end of my jersey sleeves were soaked and the jacket had salt streaks on the sleeves and back.

The ride went as planned along the route. I saw some of the pavement markers from last Saturday’s Band Against MS Ride but no signs. As I was riding west over Lake Houston on FM1960 I saw the only other biker I saw during the ride. I almost missed him as the traffic zipped by but I waved. Wildflowers dotted the pastures on the west side of FM2100 but I did not cross over to take any pictures as I concentrated on reaching Huffman for a break. I got there and took this picture of my Edge 520 screen.

It was 2:12 and I ended up staying until about 3:40. I needed to let my legs recover from the 31.72 miles so far. I ate a trail mix bar, granola bar and some Little Debbie mini-donuts (for the sugar charge to get back home 😎 ). Sitting in the sun felt good and when I got up the Greensheet newspaper I sat on was wet from the sweat. I took these screenshots of the weather before I left the Chevron station.

The wind helped me ride the 11+ miles home from the Chevron station and I improved my average speed to 15.2 mph until I got back in Kingwood and hit all the stops.

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