With weather as perfect as today’s I had go riding. I wanted to ride a longer route (at least for me) so I chose the “SR242 – Old Houston Rd – FM1314” route and ended up biking 42.76 miles. The sky was as blue as it could get when I left home at 12:07 and it stayed that for the entire ride. The wind was helpful as long as I was riding to the north but when I turned west on SH 242 I had to fight the wind all the way to Old Houston Road where I went left. The temperature was 77 as I left home but by the time I got back home it had moved to 81 degrees. The wind was from the SW at 9 mph with 16 mph gusts.
This was the first time riding this route this year. The road surface was much the same as the last time but when I got to the Grand Parkway overpass on FM1314 the traffic lanes were switched. Previously the east bound lanes compressed to one lane and went under using the west bound lane. Today the west bound lanes were closed and both directions used the east bound side of the road. Unlike before the shoulder was not restricted and I had no trouble riding through the work zone. James Webster had alerted me to this last week I think. After getting through the work zone I stopped at the Shell station at Cumberland Blvd. to rest, eat and drink some Gatorade. The humidity was 24% which can take away a lot of fluid. While I was there I took these weather screenshots.
You can see the wind speed in the left image. The humidity is even lower at 16%. The 24% is at my home weather station.
While I was biking on FM1314 about a mile west of the Grand Parkway construction two Montgomery County Sheriff Cruisers stopped in the west bound lanes. I don’t know why because they motion the traffic to pass them using the center turn lane. I earlier noticed a deputy sheriff at the Old Houston Road and FM1314 intersection in the Old Houston Ice House drive with lights flashing, a dark car with its doors open and a man crossing Old Houston Road approaching the deputy’s cruiser. The man was well dressed with a white shirt and dark pants. I have no idea what was going on.
I did take a quick break earlier at the Chevron station on SH 242 and FM1485. I needed to give my legs a short rest from battling the wind from US59 and refill my waterbottle. I was back on the bike in a few minutes.
The weather is forecast to be like this until Sunday. I plan on biking every day. I may ride the Bulldog Bike Ride in Waller. I have not participated in this ride before.
February miles are now 191.86. That leaves 154 miles to reach my 346 mile goal for February.
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