Today I rode with Ronnie Clark on a route I have not taken since April 2011.We met at Kingwood Park High School and set off to US59 to ride to Splendora. The comfortable 73 degrees stayed with us as did the 89% humidity. By the time we reached Splendora sweat was freely flowing from about every pore I had. S hor stop at the Chevron station allowed us to towel off some of the perspiration and fill up our water bottles. Turning west on FM2090 the next stop was Grangerland. The road surface on FM2090 was smooth and we held a nice steady pace. I did not check my average but I could see I had made up the slow time I accumulated getting our of Kingwood to US59.

Ronnie had not been to Grangerland before so I pointed out “downtown” as we turned right onto FM3083 and rode to Creighton Road. About 2 miles before we got to Creighton Road there was a small hill that slowed us down some but we were able to regain our speed. At our turn we took another quick stop at the Valero station (one of the remodeled buildings I noticed) refilling water bottles and toweling off more sweat. The temperature had increased some and probably the humidity had went down some. Our pace was still good.

Leaving the Valero station we rode on a rough Creighton Road where two dogs came out to the road to bark but not chase us, thank goodness. Making it through the rough pavement and bumps we arrived at FM1314 where we would head back to Porter. By now we were around 36 miles of the expected 63 mile ride. It turned out that my miles would end up at 63.01. By now we were starting to feel some slowdown from are previous pace. Fortunately the breeze was light so no headwind to battle but we could have sued a little more breeze to help with keeping cool. When we stopped at the Valero station I noticed we were at 33.7 miles and I told Ronnie our next stop would be the Stripes station on FM1314 before US59 in Porter.

Arriving at the Stripes station we took a break for me to down a Diet Pepsi and two granola bars to carry me through the final 11 miles or so. From there we biked through Briar Tree and Oakhurst with a little more energy from the rest stop. Winding over the streets we exited onto the south bound US59 service road north of Kingwood Drive. While we rode this section some rain drops came down but not any more than the sweat we were producing. The streets were wet so I slowed some on the turns.

Making a U-turn at Kingwood Drive there was a short stretch along the service road and then onto the street past Homewood Suites taking us to Loop 494. Once we made it onto Loop 494 we did not get too far before Ronnie suffered a rear tire flat. We gathered at the stop light into Kings Manor while Ronnie replaced his tube and aired up the tire. It was a little spongy after he aired it up so we took the most direct route so he could get home before any other problem came up.

At the 58 mile point I checked my average speed and it was 16.1 mph which surprised me. I knew we were riding at a good pace but I did not thing we were that good. I maintained that average until the end of the ride. It may take a day or so to recover from this longer than usual ride but weather permitting I hope to ride some tomorrow after church. Ronnie plans on riding the Katy Flatland Ride which is more aggressive than mine.

Mileage marks after today’s ride:

• 200.92 miles this week
• 595.43 miles for July
• 3921 miles for the year

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