Tight Squeeze Around a Truck
Back biking today after taking Tuesday off to go to Galveston with my wife for a date. Had a great time there and it was hot. Today is a little cooler as a summer “cool” wave has moved into the area. I got started at 9:38 headed to the Liberty County line east of Huffman. I wanted to ride at least 35 miles and I figured this route would be a good one. I haven’t rode this route since June 3rd. No changes in the roads since then. I ended up biking 37.56 miles averaging 16.3 mph. I label this route “FM2100 – Huffman Eastgate – Huffman”.
Since this route was a little longer and I didn’t want to stop at the Huffman Chevron before going east on FM1960 to Huffman – Eastgate Road I stopped at the Chevron station on FM1960 at Atascocita Shores Drive to top off my water bottle with ice and water. This was at 14.3 miles and I wouldn’t get back to the Huffman Chevron until 26 miles. It wasn’t real hot but I didn’t want to take any chances. As I was leaving the Atascocita Shore Chevron I saw another biker going east on FM1960. He was in an aero tuck wearing a florescent green long sleeve jersey. I follwoed him across Lake Houston on the causeway. I managed to keep about the same distance behind him until Fairlake Drive where I turned south and he kept going straight. He crossed FM1960 before E. Lake Houston Road like he was going to the Exxon station. After that I didn’t see any other bikers.
Stopping at the Huffman Chevron for about 30 minutes I ate a snack and drank some Powerade. While I was there I checked my phone and it was 87 degrees. Sitting under the pump canopy felt very nice as the wind blew through. A DPS State Trooper stopped to visit the store. As he was getting back in his car he asked if it was hot biking and I said not today with the wind. I headed home from there.
While riding through Kingwood Greens I was rounding a curve where a pickup truck was parked. They had some orange cones out to mark the work zone. I could see an oncoming car in the left lane but there was plenty of room for me between the cones and the center line. As I was riding left of the first cone a DirecTV van tried to go around me and then stopped because of the oncoming car. This could’ve caused a problem. I motioned at the DirecTV van driver to stop and give me room to go around the parked truck. After I got around the parked truck the van came by. I wagged my hand at him to let him know I wasn’t pleased how almost caused a problem.
I finished the ride at 12:40. It was 89 degrees with 53% humidity. The wind was from the SE at 9 mph with 16 mph gusts.
Tomorrow the weather will warmup to 94 with a chance of rain in the afternoon when I will probably try to ride.
Mileage:
- 86.12 miles this week
- 806.87 miles for the month
- 4182 miles for the year
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