The last 2 Mondays I rode in Watopia but today I rode in the real world. This was fitting to close out October biking. I waited later for the temperature to get to 70 and at 11:17 AM the bike ride began as I headed out on my Cervelo Caledonia bike. Making my way through Kingwood to the US59 northbound frontage road I stayed on it until Community Drive. Community Drive delivered me to Loop 494 where I continued north through a short construction zone passed the FM 1485 railroad crossing. The bridge over Caney Creek is still closed causing me to ride Payne Road back to the frontage road. Over Caney Creek I turned right onto Via Principale Parkway and into Tavola. Normally on my Kingwood – SH242 – Kingwood route I ride a short loop through Tavola but today I made it longer to get to Lilliput Farms. Lilliput Farms took me to N. Linnwood Drive so that I could connect to Railroad Ave. But on N. Linnwood a mid size black and brown dog spotted me and the chase began. There was a drainage ditch between him and as he ran through the grass but it became shallow enough for him to come across into the street. I saw him make the transition to the street and he was almost beside me. I pedaled faster in the 35×13 gears and he stayed close for about 100 feet until he stopped chasing. I knew this dog might be in the area from an earlier encounter on another ride on Railroad Ave. On that ride he ducked under the fence to chase me. No other dog sprint on this ride.

With the dog sprint done I headed to the frontage road again and to the SH 242 overpass over US59. No apparent change in the construction from what I could see. The work area is not very large and traffic flows through it smoothly. The southbound frontage road took me to Valley Ranch Parkway which I rode to Azalea Blvd. Azalea Blvd. was the way back again to the southbound frontage road which crossed through the FM 1314 intersection to the Auburn Trails entrance where I left the frontage road to the quiet space away from US59. Auburn Trails and then Oakhurst kept the quiet going. Through Oakhurst and onto Northpark Drive where I rode west for a few 10ths of a mile to Kingwood Place Drive. Kingwood Place brought me to Kellington and back to the noisy frontage road and the u-turn at Kingwood Drive. A short ride on the northbound frontage road and a right turn onto Kingwood Parc and I was again getting to a quiet place. From there I rode through Kings Manor into Kingwood and finished the ride at 2:22 PM riding 38.74 miles. Today was the second longest ride of the eight previous rides during 2022.

After seeing the temperature get above 70 before starting the ride I went back and changed my long sleeve jersey from thermal to regular keeping a poly long sleeve T-shirt underneath. On the road the first couple of miles was chilly but as I warmed up the jersey change was a good thing. Weather conditions: start 72 (humidity 65%, dew point 59), mostly cloudy, wind NW 5 mph; finish 77 (humidity 49%, dew point 56), mostly cloudy, wind variable 6 mph. The light wind helped me pedal strongly to SH 242 and back.

October bike rides closed out today with a total of 957.98 road and virtual miles. 841.9 of those miles was on the road leaving 116.08 virtual miles. I was on a bike 30 of the 31 days. October 2021 I was on a bike for 30 days for a total of 958.27 miles. I exceeded my 651 road miles goal for October, passed my 800 mile virtual riding goal for the year with 35 miles extra and 2 more months. I need 37 miles to reach my 7,900 road mile goal for the year. October was a good biking month. My only organized ride in October was the Pineywoods Purgatory in Lufkin on October 1st. My goal for November is a modest 360 road miles. Weather changes and daylight saving time ends.