Another ride to the north today. I selected the New Caney – Roman Forest – Valley Ranch route to go at least 30 miles. I ended up biking 31.29 miles and averaging 15.4 mph.

There must be something about biking to the north. The last ride I got caught in the rain and it happened again today kind of. I made it to Roman Forest Blvd and turned south on the US59 service road. I could see the sky was threatening rain in the distance but as I almost got to the bridge over Caney Creek it started to rain big drops. I thought about riding under the bridge to get out of the rain but the drops were big and not really wetting the pavement so I rode on to FM1485 and the Chevron station. By the time I got off the Caney Creek bridge the rain stopped. As I pulled into the Chevron station because it started to sprinkle a little I rode to the porch area by the door. Not looking down as I rolled to a stop I felt something wet on my calf. I looked down and a medium size brown dog had put his nose lightly on my leg. He was friendly and after inspecting me he sit down by the door. I waited at the Chevron for 10 minutes or more walking out to check on the rain. Each time it sprinkled some but no heavy rain. I did not want to ride south from the Chevron station if rain was coming since there is no place to get out of the rain and the Grand Parkway construction has dirt on the road which would be muddy.

Finally it looked like the rain was not coming so I left the Chevron station riding on the south bound service road. The closer I got to the Valley Ranch turn the sky got darker. I thought I might get wet before I could get to the Stripes station on FM1314. I made it the Stripes station under the dark sky, hearing some thunder in the distance and went inside to get a drink. While I was paying the rain started coming down a lot. I went outside and leaned against the soft drinks and ate my snacks to wait for the rain to stop and the pavement to dry up some. After 32 minutes the rain stopped and the pavement dried off enough to head out. Riding through Briar Tree the roads were wet but no puddles. From there the roads were mostly dry with some damp places near the edge all the way home. I made it home without any more rain falling. No dirty bike and no grit on me.

The weather changed while I rode. It started at 88 degrees and ended at 79. The wind was not a factor being less than 6 mph most of the time. The wind did turn cool after the Stripes downpour and the perspiration did not help any.

Maybe I should’ve started earlier than 10:58. I was watching the Tour de Suisse till about 10:10 and it took some time to get ready. With all of the delays I finished at 2:11.

Mileage standings:

• 100.89 miles for the week
• 597.55 miles for June (287 miles to reach my goal for June)
• 3001 miles for the year
• Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS

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