Combining roads I rode before into a new route produced today’s route, “New Caney – Casey Ridge – Roman Forest – 242- FM1314 – New Caney”. In the quest for variety I came up with this route. I wasn’t sure how many miles this would be but while I was riding I did some guesses of around 37 miles. It turned out to be 36.72 miles. All the roads are north and west of the Grand Parkway construction. Some roads are the smoothest though. riding through Casey Ridge the streets in some sections are a series of asphalt patches. Nothing dangerous but I was frequently out of the saddle to minimize the bumps. From Casey ridge I entered the southeast corner of Roman Forest and the streets smoothed out. I created a long route name to differentiate this from routes using the same roads.
FM1485 shoulders narrow in a few places going east from New Caney. I think this is a result of the recent resurfacing and line painting. A few of the narrow spots hug the guardrail over drainage ditches in corners. The rest of the shoulder averages 4 feet and is smooth.
With good roads I pedaled around 18 to 20 mph except when I encountered some small inclines which seemed to also be going into the light breeze. Overall I averaged 15.7 mph but at times I averaged as much as 16.0 mph. Most of the ride averaged 15.8 or 15.9 mph. The average speed dropped to 15.7 when I stopped at the Mobil station at US59 and FM1485 to get ice and top off my water bottle for the drive home. This was across US59 from the Brookshire Brothers store parking lot where I parked the Jeep.
ON SH 242 about 2 miles west of US59 I looked in my rear view mirror when I heard a siren approaching. A motorcycle officer was coming from the rear. When he was beside me he warned me about a wide load coming. The shoulder is about 6 feet wide where this took place and I moved to the right edge and slowed. A convoy passed with a heavy duty truck pulling a trailer with many small wheels and a truck pushing the rear of the trailer. A huge windpower turbine took up most of the flatbed trailer. Not too long after the first one another passed me. Oncoming traffic crowded to the left shoulder to give the convoy clearance. The trucks disappeared in the distance. When I got to the SH 242 and FM1485 junction the convoy was parked at the Chevron store. I went inside to refill my water bottle and saw everyone was taking a lunch break. Here are some pictures of the convoy.
It several minutes for me to eat a trail mix bar, whole grain fruit bar and drink some ice water. I figured the convoy would continue on SH 242 where I was going so I wanted to get a head start to maybe avoid them by the time I got to FM1314. I rode SH 242 and got to FM1314 before the convoy. I took a left onto FM1314 for the ride back to New Caney. No more wide loads came my way.
Gene Campbell Road took me from FM1314 to FM1485 and the last 2+ miles to the Brookshire Brothers parking lot. The lane going to FM1485 on Gene Campbell Road needs some repairs. All of the heavy trucks going to and from Walmart and the other businesses are breaking up the asphalt requiring me to stay near the center line in several places.
I left Brookshire Brothers at 10:59 and returned at 1:39. The weather was hot (91 degrees) with partly cloudy sky but the wind was light most of the ride.
My legs did great during the ride. There are a few inclines on this route but nothing serious.
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