April is winding down but the wind isn’t. On today’s bike ride the wind was waiting for me as I followed the “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road” route. Starting a little earlier than usual at 11:01 AM I got a good start to ride 37.4 miles. This my April total at 785.61 miles, 4 miles short of the most miles in a month this year. March was the highest month. Biking tomorrow (Tuesday) will make April the highest and over 800 miles.

To go with the wind the temperature was 81 degrees at the start so I left the long sleeve jersey at home and wore a new short sleeve jersey above my shorts.

I got this jersey along with two others last week on sale at Bellwether. This one is the Edge model.

Speaking of the weather, during the ride: start 81 (76% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind S 13 mph gusts 27 mph. Finish 86 (65% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind S14 mph gusts 22 mph.

Biking to New Caney was not so hard thanks to the tailwind. Riding west on FM 1485 also had a tailwind at times. Gene Campbell Blvd. has lots of trees on the south to block the wind or at least slow it down. As I rode on Gene Campbell Blvd. to FM 1314 I wondered what awaited when I made the left turn onto the highway heading SE to Porter. I was surprised that the wind wasn’t so bad when the trees were on my right side but whenever I hit an opening there was no doubt the wind was strong. I was able to keep my speed above 14 mph most of the time allowing me to maintain my average speed at 13.8 to 13.9 mph.

Leaving FM 1314 the route turned south and the wind was more pronounced but among the trees and houses in Oakhurst I managed to ride at the same pace all the way to Kings Manor on the east side of I-69/US59.

For weeks a crew has been assembling and burying a big black pipe along Loop 494. I guessed what it is for and today I stopped and asked one of the crew what it was. It is a 12″ natural gas line for CenterPoint Energy to increase the gas supply in Kingwood.

From there I made my way into Kingwood and finished the ride at 1:55 PM.