In an attempt to battle route boredom today’s route is a jumbled route. The one I had in mind when I left home at 11:43 is not the one I ended up riding. I exited Kingwood on the back way via Mills Branch and Ford Road. I thought when I got to the Stripes station on FM1314 I would head back towards home (should’ve done that) but I continued to Cumberland Blvd and then turned back to the Stripes station for a break. It wasn’t as many miles (15.4) when I usually take a rest stop but I wasn’t sure I would pass another place and the 32 oz Gatorade was $1.07. Sitting in the shade and drinking the Gatorade I looked at my phone because the sky was getting darker gray to the east. Radar showed rain to the east and south of Porter. Look at photo #5 in the slide show below and the rain is visible on the radar. I thought if I ride through Valley Ranch I might get around it and there is a Texaco station I could stop if the rain started.

It’s about 2.6 miles from the Stripes station to the Texaco station at Valley Ranch on the US59 south service road. Looking at the sky I figured I could get there and stay dry. Things went as planned while I was riding north on Valley Ranch Parkway but as I neared the turn onto Valley Ranch Bend Drive the wind picked up and the temperature dropped several degrees signaling rain was not too far away. I made it to the Texaco with only a few drops hitting me. Standing under the overhang at the Texaco I could see US59 to the north and the rain. I made a decision to stay at the Texaco thinking the rain would come south with the wind blowing strong enough to make the flag stand straight out. But the rain was slow coming. I probably could have rode to Porter on the service road before the rain caught me but that section has no place to get out of the rain for about 1.1 miles. I biked in the rain yesterday and I wanted to avoid that today if possible. So I waited and finally the rain moved over the Texaco store. It wasn’t heavy but the streets were wet enough that puddles formed. After about 30 minutes the rain slowed and almost stopped and the sun came out. I hoped the sun would dry things out enough that I would not get too wet. I didn’t mind riding on wet streets so much as long as I wasn’t in the rain.

Not too long after that the concrete at the Texaco showed some dry spots so I headed to the service road and went to Porter. From the Texaco to FM1314 the road was wet with some puddles. Cars stayed far enough to the left that I didn’t get splashed. South of FM1314 the road was a little drier without the puddles but occasional streams crossing the road. As I approached Northpark Drive the service road was almost dry and south of Northpark to Kingwood Drive the road was dry without any water in the gutter. At that point I turned onto the north service road to get back into Kingwood. Generally the streets were dry except under the trees. I made it home at 3:03 riding 29.2 miles averaging 15.6 mph. The Stradalli was dirty so I spent 15 minutes washing. I got everything cleaned up and as I write this it started raining again at home. Maybe tomorrow will be dry? Up until yesterday I managed to not ride the Stradalli in the rain. Now it has been in it two days in a row.

This week I biked 127.74 miles. Year to date I biked 2433 miles.

June is off to a wet start. Last year I biked 885 miles in June so I think I will make that the goal for this year.

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