I walked out to the garage with the waterbottle and Elemnt computer to get started on the bike ride. I snapped the Elemnt into the mount, spun the front wheel looking for the flashing blue LED to signal it paired and woke up but no response. I looked at the Elemnt to see it registered any speed and nothing there either. I removed the speed sensor from the front hub, not easy getting fingers in there, and went inside to replace the C2032 battery. I found the spare batteries (always keep a few on hand) and the blue LED sprung to life flashing. Walking back out to the garage I attached the sensor to the front hub, gave the wheel a spin and looked for the blue LED and the red LED signaling pairing with the PowerPod. With that problem resolved I rolled out the driveway at 11:31 am.

Choosing the “Kingwood – SH 242 – Kingwood” route I headed north even though the weather showed an 8 mph north breeze. It was hard pedaling to SH 242 but the slight bend in the road to the NE lessened the full impact of the wind. Along the way in New Caney I noticed the Brookshire Brothers Grocery store closed with the outline of the sign on the front of the building the only reminder of their previous activity. A sign company worked at removing the sign from the gasoline island closer to the service road. They probably closed from the Valley Ranch and new Walmart across US59. They had been there for many years.

I took some photos during the ride. The first two are in Woodridge Forest showing the blue sky. The third one is on the US59 overpass at SH 242 looking north. AS I rode towards there a line of clouds slowly dissipated and almost left by the time I got there.

The return trip to the south went much quicker thanks to the tailwind. I rode through Valley Ranch to get around the Grand Parkway intersection and rejoined the south bound service road north of FM 1314. I continued south and stopped at the Circle K/Valero station at Northpark Drive for a quick water and ice refill before reaching the u-turn at King wood Drive. Once I got there it was back into the headwind which required more pedal effort. Winding through Kings Manor and Kingwood I finished the bike ride at 2:03 pm.

Weather during the bike ride: start 80 (71% humidity), a few clouds, wind N 8 mph. Finish 84 (62% humidity), a few clouds, wind N 13 mph. During the night a “cool” front moved through dropping the temperature and pushing out the clouds. Thursday should be great biking weather.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary