Oh technology! Today I battled it on two fronts. First my Acer Chromebook updated to Chrome OS 49 and my Bluetooth mouse quit working. I figured that would be the end of my technology problems. No, my Garmin Edge 520 decided to give me fits. It has been acting up lately but today was the worst. I rode the “FM1960 to FM686 – Back” route and wanted to be sure to record the ride since it was a longer one. Since I have been having issues with the 520 I installed the RideWithGPS app on my phone as a backup. It is a good thing I did. I got ready and rolled out the driveway at 12:31. This was about the only good part of the start. Before I rode 1/2 a mile the 520 said the phone was disconnected. This happened several times and when I got to the Town Center Park I decided to do a factory reset to see if this would fix the problem. It took many minutes to enter my information back into the 520 after the reset. I resumed the ride and got 1.75 miles further and the 520 froze. I couldn’t turn it off so I had to look at the frozen screen until I could find a place to stop and turn it off.

If the technology wasn’t working at least the weather was perfect: 84 degrees, clear blue sky and a light breeze from the south. Other than the aggravation I had a good ride on the second ride on this route this year. I ended up riding 42.36 miles. There were a couple of things to overcome though. first the greenbelt trail was closed east of Kingwood High School and I had to lift my bike over the railing to get off the bridge. Next along FM1960 before the Liberty County line workers were trimming tree on the side of the road and I had to make my way around them. Traffic was normal and I didn’t have any other problems. I was reminded that fully inflated tires running on chip’n seal is rough riding. The almost 1 mile section after I crossed the county line was jarring on both trips over it. It was interesting riding without a computer to tell me the time and distance but I guessed when to change hand positions.

After turning back to the west at FM686 and the Dayton Food & Fuel store I stopped there for a quick water bottle refill. The longer rest stop was the Huffman chevron about 6 miles from FM686. I got there a little after 3 pm, got some Powerade and sat under the canopy but in the sun. I checked the RideWithGPS app on my phone to be sure it was recording the ride, it was, and ate two trail mix bars. The weather screen shots while I was there.

Finishing the snack and Powerade I was back on the rode by about 3:30 for the last 11+ miles to home. The hardest part of the 11 miles was riding over Lake Houston. That 7 mph breeze felt a lot stronger out over the lake without any wind break. Once I was off the bridge and among the houses the rest of the way home was smooth. I got home at 4:20.

While I was biking I thought to call Garmin when I got home. I did and spoke with a man in Customer Service. We went over my problems and he asked some questions. It boiled down to hime sending me a replacement head unit and for me to return the one giving me all of the problems. I hope this fixes the Edge 520. Otherwise I will need to find another solution.

April miles bumped up to 153 heading towards my 772 mile goal for April. Four riding days out of 5 days and I am about 1/5 of the way to my goal.

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