“Kingwood – Hare Cook Road – Kingwood” route covering 44.5 miles was where the bike ride went today. I rolled off at 10:31 am under a mostly cloudy sky (not as much blue as yesterday), 90 degrees, 66% humidity and a 8 mph SW breeze. I wanted to ride at least 42 miles to reach 90+ miles for the week and move closer to my goal for August.

Getting out of Kingwood I ran into a problem along Kingwood Drive by Kingwood High School. Work crews are replacing the greenbelt sidewalk in both directions but they are not very good about telling you where the work is until I came around a bend on the west bound side to see a sign saying the sidewalk was closed ahead and no place to ride around it. I turned around and rode back to the traffic light to cross to the east bound lanes hoping the sidewalk there would be open. Portions of it are fixed but the entrance ramps at the side streets’ intersection are not poured and I couldn’t get on the sidewalk so I rode on Kingwood Drive. Fortunately the traffic was light and when someone came they passed in the other lane. Looks like I need to find another route until they are supposed to finish before school starts on August 28th.

The ride went as planned until I turned right onto Ramsey Road east of FM 2100 when I bogged down biking into the wind which seemed to be stronger than 8 mph. It helped cool me down but the extra energy required to pedal took its toll. I continued pedaling and looking for a shady spot to get out of the sun for a few minutes. I found one on Stroker Road a hundred east of Peters Road. Standing the shade the breeze felt good and my legs recovered somewhat. I was glad I stopped at the Chevron station on the west side of Lake Houston and topped off my water bottle because I needed the cold water.

Resuming the ride I was back into the headwind going south on Miller – Wilson Road. For some reason there was more traffic on this road than usual but I appreciated it because they broke up the headwind as each car or truck passed me. Making the right turn onto Hare Cook finally came and the wind eased up some. At FM 2100 the route changed to the north but before I rode too far I stopped at the Valero station for more water and ice. After that I set out for the Huffman Chevron with a nice tailwind helping me as I hit 18+ mph. But I started to notice the pavement looked damp from a recent rain. The closer I got to Spanish Cove the wetter the road got until I was getting sprayed from passing cars and trucks. No rain, just spray messing up the clean Stradalli. At the railroad crossing by FM 1960 the road dried off some and I rode to the Chevron station. Their driveway had some puddles but I found a dry spot to sit on under the canopy. With some blue Powerade I sat on a newspaper and tried to cool off but the rain upped the humidity and I continued to generate lots of sweat, soaking a bunch of paper towels and the newspaper. This 32.8 miles into the ride and I arrived about 1:08 pm. After eating a couple of fruit filled bars I had and thinking about leaving I saw rain drops hitting the puddle out from under the canopy but they only lasted a few minutes. With the sun out the pavement started to dry quickly after a 30 minute stay I headed out.

FM 1960 was wet but within a couple hundred yards I was on dry concrete but I could see a dark cloud off to the northwest where I was headed. I almost wanted the rain to come to cool me off but it didn’t. As I rode on Atascocita Shores Drive and Kings River Drive to W. Lake Houston Parkway I sped up some thanks to the wind getting held back by the trees and terrain. At W. Lake Houston Parkway I saw those dark clouds to the north again. No rain though as I rolled to the finish point and stopped the ride at 2:35 pm ready for some shade and more ice water. I washed the bike off before heading inside.

No ride on Thursday but I should be back on the Stradalli on Friday.

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