I got a slightly earlier start today leaving home at 11:50. The plan was to ride at least 37 miles and I accomplished that by riding 38.19 miles. I rode the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman Extended” route adding a few streets to “extend” it even further. This put April’s total miles at 751, 21 miles short of my goal. I don’t know if I will be able to bike tomorrow (Saturday April 30th) with the forecast calling for rain but in case it stops long enough I will try to bike some to get closer to my goal.

At least 4 other bikers crossed my route today, most of them between FM1960 and FM2100 when I was on Fairlake Drive and Old Atascocita Road. I was surprised today when I was approaching the railroad crossing on Old Atascocita Road. I hear a train whistle coming from my right. There is a difference between a freight train whistle and the Amtrak whistle. This sounded like the Amtrak whistle but I haven’t seen an Amtrak train on these tracks in at least a year; I figured they were on other tracks to the south going through Crosby. It was the Amtrak train. As it passed i waved. The last car had a glass window at the end with two men sitting in chairs watching the track as the train moved by. The train leaves the Houston station about 12:10 pm and it was 1:21 pm when it made its way past me.

The wind was a challenge on today’s ride until I made the left turn from Old Atascocita Road onto FM2100 north. At Bush Airport in Houston it was from the SSE at 21 mph with 28 mph gusts when I left home. Later when I got back home at 3:11 the gusts had increased to 30 mph from the south with sustained wind at 20 mph. Riding north on FM2100 to Huffman I enjoyed the tailwind and picked up my speed. I made my normal stop at the Huffman Chevron and took this picture of my Edge 520.

Speaking of the Edge 520. It now has firmware version 6.0 which installed earlier this week (I think it was Wednesday). The changelog did not mention any Bluetooth fixes so I kept the Bluetooth turned off on Wednesday’s ride. Today I decided to turn Bluetooth on and pair it with my Nexus 6P phone again. I thought maybe they did something and didn’t know they fixed my problem. The phone paired and Live Track connected like it should before I walked out to the garage to get the bike and leave. The screen showed the Live Track icon and the speed/cadence sensors connected as I rolled the bike out of the garage. So far so good. Riding out the driveway I turned left and at about 200 feet from home I got a “phone disconnected” message. I rode on knowing I started the Ride With GPS app on my phone as a backup in case the 520 failed. A few seconds after the disconnect message I got the “phone connected” message. The odometer was still counting up during this period so I figured the ride was still being recorded. After that no more messages and the 520 worked great. I talked to my wife when I was at the Huffman Chevron and she said Live Track was working great. She knew where I was and saw me riding earlier. When I got home she said it worked all the way until I saved the ride on the 520 which ends Live Track. In the past when the 520 failed the Live Track was still running on my phone but the webpage was not updating.

Checking the weather while I was at the Chevron station I took these screenshots.

The right screenshot shows the wind at 16 mph and sitting at the Chevron I could feel the wind blowing. I tucked the paper towels into my shorts’ elastic band around my legs to keep them from blowing away. I had to put my snack bar on top of the plastic bag I keep my phone in when I used the phone. I thought the wind would not be as big of a problem from the Chevron station to home except when I rode across Lake Houston on the causeway. I was right; the tried to push my wheels to the side whenever a gust of wind would pass through or the traffic passed leaving an opening for the wind. While I was resting at the Chevron station a freight train came. This created a dust bowl. With the strong wind blowing the train consisted of 30 to 40 open top gondola cars full of gravel and sand sticking above the sides of the gondola cars. The sand created a cloud as the train raced through Huffman making it hard to see. I wonder if the gondola cars will be as full when they reach their destination. After the train left the sand was blowing across FM1960 making small piles in the low places.

Once I got to Atascocita Shores Drive I turned right and the wind moved to my back. After that the wind was mostly at my back or right rear quarter helping me along. The weather when I got home.

Now I will wait to see if the heavy rain forecast comes to pass on Saturday.

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