Finally back riding again!! today is the first bike ride since August 12th. Between a family get together and all of the rain I have not been able to get the rubber on the road. When I left home today at 10:34 the sky had some clouds but the radar didn’t show any rain in the area. In an attempt to make a dent in my monthly goal I rode the “New Caney – Roman Forest Loop – Valley Ranch” route adding a few extra streets to get the mileage up to 41.09 miles. This pushed my August total to 450 miles, 350 short of my 800 mile goal. Year to date stands at 5,303 miles.

When I reached the north bound I-69/US59 service road the pavement was wet but no rain fell. The pavement stayed wet until I started up the incline to Community Drive. I turned right onto Community Drive on the way to Loop 494 and no more wet road. With all of the rain the temperature no longer was in the 90’s or 100 but the humidity makes up for it. At the start of the ride it was 80 degrees.

The ride went well through Roman Forest and all the way to the Porter Stripes station where I stopped for a rest break. I got there at 12:34 at the 28.7 mile point of the ride. Since I haven’t been riding I decided to not buy the Gatorade and stuck with water to wash down the Clif bar and snack crackers.

I refilled my water bottle to leave Stripes at 1:08 for the 11+ miles to the end of the ride. As I rode through Briar Tree I saw the sky getting dark to the southwest. Once I was in Oakhurst I started to hear thunder and I upped the pace. Making my way through Kings Manor and into Kingwood the dark sky was getting closer and the thunder more frequent. I remembered I needed to stopped at a store but it was on the other side of Kingwood Drive. To cross over I had to ride to the west moving me closer to the dark clouds. Once I was across Kingwood Drive riding on the greenbelt trail I saw rain ahead near the entrance to the store I was headed to. I thought I was going to to get wet but by the time I rode into the parking lot the rain stopped. I got the package and raced back onto the route to finish the ride all the time hearing thunder behind and in front of me. I finished the ride at 2:06 without getting rained on but it was close. Later while I washed my bike I felt some rain drops but not enough to make me wetter than I was.

Maybe the rain will leave tomorrow and I can ride. It will be tough to reach my goal if the rain doesn’t let up.

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