After riding to Huffman yesterday today I elected to ride north on the route I call “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road”. The idea was to get a longer ride in and adding a few extra zigs and zags produced a 39.27 mile route. The December weather can be pretty fickle but today was great with a nice blue sky, 77 degrees with a 12 mph SW breeze. The wind can probably claim the reward for this warm weather.

Riding to the north did not require too much effort but whenever I turned into the wind my late fall legs struggled to keep my speed above 15 mph. I ended up with a 15.4 mph average speed thanks to the stretches with a tailwind.

When I stopped at the Stripes station FM1314 for a rest break (a little over 27 miles) I sat in the sun. The warmth was great compared to what we experienced a week ago. I did not hurry to get back on the bike because I enjoyed watching the traffic on FM1314 and the people coming into Stripes. Back when I was a youngster I liked to sit on my Grandmother’s front porch that looked out over US40. I looked for unusual vehicles and wondered where everyone was going. That was what I did today. One Toyota FJ Cruiser at Stripes had a bike on a rear rack. I said hi to the driver who was wearing a Bike Barn jersey but he didn’t say much in reply.

Just before I got ready to leave Stripes as I got up from my seat I happened to look at my rear tire. There was this black thing sticking off the side of the tread. I thought it might be a bit of asphalt but it turned out to be a chunk of rubber with some small wires sticking out of it. The wires held it on my tire but they were not long enough to cause a flat.

The weather should be excellent the next two days before reverting to nasty on Thursday so I need to take advantage and get some riding in.

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