Yesterday when I stopped at Stripes during the ride the cashier and I were talking about the heat and air conditioning. I told her when I first got to Texas in 1971 the car I had did not have A/C but I did have 4 60 air: 4 windows down and driving 60 mph. That made me think today while I was stopped in Huffman for a rest break. When I saw a convertible drive by with the top down how different their experience is versus riding on a bike. They have the wind blowing from the top of the door behind a windshield while bikers are totally surrounded by the wind though not near as fast. The cooling effect I think goes to the bicyclist while the wind blown look and feel goes to the convertible. On the reverse of this I can remember in high school a friend borrowed his parents’ convertible in the winter. Teenagers not being too bright we put the top down and turned the heat up driving around to impress people.
I rode the last ride of the week going on the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route for 31.71 miles. This put the total miles this week at 264.0; unusually a number with any decimals. The weather was even drier than yesterday at 29% humidity at George Bush Airport. If it gets much lower I think we will classify as a desert. This meant the perspiration dried quickly as I was moving through the wind. Throw in a nice 7 mph northerly wind with 17 mph gusts and it didn’t take long to dry out when I stopped at the Huffman Chevron. The Greensheet newspaper barely showed any dampness when I stood up to leave. I thought I had a chance to see the Amtrak train near Huffman but I didn’t see it. I tried to get to the Old Atascocita Road railroad crossing before 1:15 but my late start from home (12:12) put me behind. Earlier in the year my church moved the Sunday School time from 9:40 to 10:10 and the half hour later makes it almost impossible to leave home before noon. I was back home from the ride at 2:50. I checked the weather at the Chevron and here are the screenshots from my phone.
The only other bicyclist I saw was in Kingwood in the Walgreens parking lot. He was standing next to his bike. I rode past him at first because it looked like he was talking on his phone but I circled back to see if I could help. He said his rear tire was flat. I asked if he had a patch kit and he said no but he lived a short distance away and would walk his bike home. I told him okay and rode on. His rear tire had a Schrader valve and my frame pump doesn’t fit that valve.
The hot and dry weather will be with us for many more days. I plan on taking advantage of them to bike. The home weather stations at the end of the ride today.
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