More beautiful weather today for biking. I left home at 12:41 to ride the “SR242 – Valley Ranch” route to the north. I knew this route would be less than 40 miles unless I added some to it and the ride ended up at 36.37 miles. I finished  at 3:40. The 86 degrees was perfect short sleeve jersey weather and the blue sky looked great. The SE 4 mph breeze was hardly noticeable but it did make riding north slightly easier. When I made the turn back south at SH 242 I was still able to keep the same speed as the north bound biking. The road slopes down from SH 242 to Roman Forest Blvd. while the north side goes up. I would guess the gain over the 1.5 miles is 40 to 50 feet.

May miles have now reached 164 and the 540 mile goal looks low for now.

Excitement came when I got to FM1485 going south. Riding through the intersection I could red flashing lights headed my way. About 200 feet south of FM1485 a East Montgomery firetruck raced by. This was a big pickup truck. After it passed I looked in my mirror because I thought I heard another siren and not much later fire truck E151 drove by with lights flashing and siren blaring. I wondered where they were headed as I watched the trucks in the distance. Next fire truck E152 passed me with more flashing red lights and loud siren. Traffic up ahead pulled to the shoulder. Not finished yet another fire truck passed me going fast. This one looked like a brush fire type. By now I was getting closer to the county court house annex and saw the trucks turned onto McCleskey Road. This road goes to Bull Sallis Park but I am not sure that was where they were going. When I rode past McCleskey Road I looked and I saw one fire truck’s lights flashing but I couldn’t see if it was stopped or still moving. By then I the sirens were out of range or silent. Before I got this point I was thinking maybe something happened at the Valley Ranch construction area.

I turned onto Valley Ranch Parkway headed to FM1314. At the Grand Parkway I waited for traffic to be gone to cross and ride under the over pass. There was someone working on the traffic signals and if I saw him/her I was going to ask about the sensors picking up bikes to change the lights. I have waited at the lights before hoping they would change but never did. This time when I got close to the traffic lights south of the over pass they changed and i was the only thing around. Maybe the person working on them tripped them for me? Hurrying on I wanted to make a quick stop at the Stripes store for water and then get beyond the Briar Tree schools. When I came out Stripes several school buses were lined up on FM1314 to go to the schools. I got the green light first and was in front of them except for one bus that turned in front of me on Briar Berry Lane from a side street. My plan was to stop at the Oakhurst Community Pool and park which I did. My Edge 520 screen when I got there.

I found a bench in the shade to take a break, eat and drink the water I got at Stripes. It was comfortable in the shade with the breeze. A lady jogger came to the parking lot and got her car. It was quite except for noise off in the distance. While I ate I listened to a podcast on my phone. The weather screen shots while I was there.

After about 20 minutes I got back on the bike for the 9 miles to home. By now the Kings Manor school traffic was gone and the Bear Branch school traffic was almost gone by the time I got there. The shorter ride will let my legs recover for tomorrow’ longer one. The weather forecast repeats today and I like it. Before riding today I watch stage 1 of the Giro d’ Italia. The www.cyclingfans.com website has a special offer of $6.99 per month with no contract and shows the BeIn Sport HD channel. My new Acer Chromebook 14 was perfect to watch on as I ate breakfast.

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