Back on the bike today after a day off yesterday while we went to the medical center and then to Conroe so my wife could visit her brother, Loyd Lockhart, who was in the ICU at Conroe Regional Hospital. He was injured in a tractor accident on 8/16/2017 and was not doing well. While I was out riding today my wife sent me a text message that he had passed away this morning. That is so sad because he was a very good man exuding kindness from every pore.

The ride started got delayed by my side gig (selling promotional products) answering emails from a customer so I didn’t leave until 11:06 am on the “May Park Community Center – Huffman” route. Due to the sidewalk construction, which I remembered after starting, I altered the route to reach Kingwood Drive and then south to Atascocita. The sidewalk work continues making this a wise choice. I was concerned this might shorted the ride but I rode 40.4 miles boosting the week to 133.4 miles and August to 517 miles. I am 283 miles away from my goal for August.

About a mile into the ride I spotted an older Ford Explorer sitting at a strange angle almost in the Speedy Stop store entrance from Northpark Drive. The closer I got I saw the front bumper and other parts were missing and in the middle of the street where it and another vehicle collided. Some people were standing in the shade looking at Ford and around. I altered my route and cut through the Jack in the Box to go around the scene.

After that the ride went as planned through Kingwood, Atascocita, Walden and across Lake Houston. The weather was hot with mostly cloudy skies, temperature around 94, 55% humidity and a light breeze.

When I got to the May Community Center I refilled my water bottle and sat on a bench at the doors to call my wife to talk about her brother’s death. From there I rode to Huffman for a rest break at the Chevron station. This was 28.1 miles into the ride. I stayed there about 25 minutes drinking ice water and eating two fruit and grain cereal bars for energy to ride the last 11+ miles to finish the ride. Riding a few extra streets to be sure I rode at least 40 miles altered the route some more. I finished the ride at 2:47 pm.

More nice bike ride weather on Saturday so I plan on riding. I might start very early for me to get finished in time to watch the Vuelta a Espana stage 1 team time trial.

RideWithGPS.com map and metrics

Strava Ride Summary (click the image for more)