I thought leaving home at 8:35 AM driving to Galveston would get me there earlier than the ride I did last year on June 19th but I ended up starting today’s bike ride at 10:44 AM only 5 minutes earlier. The plan was to ride the seawall from the East End Beach to the west on FM 3005 turning around at beach access point 12. I did that but I added over 5 miles to last year’s ride. Those miles came from biking on Haborside Drive and the East Beach Road all the way to the end of the road at the beach. Today I biked 35.12 miles.

When I got to the Ferry Road parking lot I found it was reduced in size for construction. I drove into the last open parking slot. I got my Lynskey R300 bike out of the Jeep, put my biking gear on and headed out. The wind was 5 mph unlike last year when it was 12 to 14 mph. Lots of sun and 87 degrees. By the time I finished at 1:44 PM the wind dropped to 3 mph and the temperature was 91. Later while driving home the outside temperature according to my Jeep hit 109 for awhile but I think it might have been a couple of degrees too high. After all of the rain lately this was the first weekday without much of a rain threat. I thought a weekday would be less crowded on the seawall and I think that was the case.

FM 3005 on the west end of the island had construction on the east bound lanes for about a mile or more. Only 1 lane with the other lane getting new asphalt. I didn’t see this until I was about halfway through the zone riding west. So I continued to beach access 12. Turning around there I rode the shoulder to the construction area and pedaled faster on the shoulder through the work zone. Traffic passed but gave me space. About 2/3 of the way through I pulled off at beach access 6 to let the traffic pass while I stood under a building in the shade. About 5 minutes later I went back to FM 3005, waited for a traffic break and pedaled even faster to the end of the work. From there it was about half a mile to the seawall.

Back at the ferry parking lot I looked for the restrooms but the building was off limits. There were some very nice portable air conditioned restrooms though. I changed out of my bike clothes in cool comfort after putting the Lynskey back in the Jeep. Next I drove to Landry’s for lunch and early dinner. My wife and I used to eat there whenever we came to Galveston after Hill’s Restaurant closed. The fried seafood platter was great as was the air conditioning. The drive back home went smoothly until I caught rush hour traffic on I-45 and the I-69/US59 raised road. I was back home around 5:20 PM.

Looking at my Strava activity page I couldn’t count all of the segment medals.