For several days I’ve been planning on riding the Spring Creek Greenway until yesterday. I was scrolling through Strava activities and came across photos by Don Hollingshead on the Spring Creek Greenway Strava page showing construction between mile marker 3 and 4 from the US59/I-69 trailhead.

The greenway is closed and Don says a sign shows it will be that way until September 11th. I guess I’ll wait until later in the month to ride the greenway.

I wanted to ride at least 40 miles today so I scraped the Spring Creek Greenway for the New Caney – Roman Forest – Valley Ranch route. This would be the 4th time on this route in 2023. For some reason I haven’t biked this one more. I rode my Lynskey Helix bike for the first time since August 1st. I had taken it out of the bike rotation to sell it but no one was interested so it is back. I had to make a couple of minor adjustments to the Lynskey before starting today’s bike ride and this delayed the start to 9:05 AM.

For the first time in many weeks the Space City Weather email today mentioned rain. The sky looked good when I started but when I reached New Caney light rain started. Looking back where i came from rain was coming my way so I took shelter at St. John of The Cross Catholic church on Payne Road. That was a good choice because the rain arrived seconds after I rode under the porch. It didn’t last more than 10 minutes. I got back on the back and rode around the puddles and on to Tavola. The streets were wet in Tavola until I crossed Tavola Drive on Via Principale Parkway. They stayed way as I rode through Roman Forest until I returned to US59 at Lilliput Farms. I stopped at the Shell station for a few minutes and the rain stopped.

Riding back to Kingwood the roads were dry and the sky didn’t look too threatening. I took a break under TX 99 on Valley Ranch Parkway for a snack. while I sat there cars from the south started appearing with windshield wipers on. Not a good sign. I finished and started riding south on Valley Ranch Parkway which was dry until around Azalea Blvd. where puddles showed recent rain. But the rain didn’t return and I rode on with damp streets popping up occasionally.

All was going great until I hit a sharp rock with the rear tire on Loop 494 on the way to Kings Manor. I hoped it would go flat but by the time I reach Kings Manor Elementary school it was flat. I walked to the benches under under the cover and set up shop to get back on the road. When I pulled the tube out I saw 3 other patches and decided to put my spare tube in rather than patch the tube. I did that but the spare tube wouldn’t air up. I took it out of the tire and found the 2 snake bite holes in the original tube. Opening the patch kit I quickly saw the glue was not new. I roughed up the rubber on the tube, squeezed the last drops of glue onto the tube and spread it with my finger. I almost applied a mid-sized patch but changed my mind because of my weak record patching flats and applied the large patch, pressed it freely on the glue and aired up the tube. It held air and I put it in the tire, aired it up until the bead snapped onto the rim, and put the wheel back on the Lynskey. During all of this I heard thunder in the distance and hoped I could ride home before more rain. I did, finishing at 2:01 PM.