First ride after Thanksgiving waited until Sunday. Friday featured sporadic rain and Saturday slowly warmed up to 67 degrees. I had my doubts about the temperature reaching the 75 degree forecast but it got close at 73 when I finished at 2:31. When I left home at 12:31 the sky lacked any clouds but as I rode some wispy clouds started to move in from the south and southwest. I dressed like it was going to be cool with a long sleeve jersey over a short sleeve one. I am glad I did because in the shade the 10 mph breeze made it feel cooler than you would expect. I think the pavement cooled down with two nights in the 40’s so when the wind goes by it cools down. I notice a similar effect when I ride over Lake Houston and the water is cooler than the air.

Fortunately Thanksgiving did not add any to my weight. In years gone by I have been known to add 7 or 8 pounds. I would like to drop a couple of pounds but that is not such a big deal.

My route selection today took me north to Porter where I turned east on FM1314. This was my first time into the wind and I could feel the coolness even in the full sun. This alternated as I turned back north on Loop 494 to Community Drive where I went west for a short distance and then took the US59 south service road to Valley Ranch. Once I crossed over US59 on Community Drive (the high elevation point for the ride) it was into the wind most of the time. This route totaled 28.37 miles at 15.4 mph average speed, 22.9 mph top speed and 78.4 RPM average cadence. With this less than 30 mile distance the riding time came to 1:50:40 plus 9:05 time stopped. Mileage totals: 75.94 miles this week, 254.58 miles in November, and 6194.8 miles YTD.

A sad point on the ride happened when I got to the Old Sorters Road and FM1314 intersection. About 200 feet west of the intersection a full size pickup and a small pickup collided. I stopped at the traffic signal as a Porter fire truck, Montgomery Country Sheriff and a Montgomery County Hospital District ambulance all arrived at the scene. There were several people standing around the big pickup. I could not see the damage from where I stopped. With the traffic backed up I waited until the green light to cross over FM1314 and continue my ride.

Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com data views.

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