The last ride for August got off to a good start as I rolled out the driveway at 11:10. I decided to ride to Huffman for 30 + miles. All went well until about the 10 mile point when I noticed my rear tire going soft. I limped to a shady spot along Kings Parkway and I sat down on the sidewalk/trail beside the street. Even though I was in the shade this did not keep my sweat from running down just about every appendage. I thought this might cause a problem patching the tube since my fingers left water whenever I touched something. Checking the outside of the tire I couldn’t find anything sticking in or out. So I pulled the tube out and aired it up. It didn’t take too long to find a cut about an 1/8″ long in the tube. Leary that the glue in patch kit might have dried up from all of the heat I roughed up the tube after sticking a sheetrock screw in the hole to mark the patch spot. (I have been known to miss the hole after I put the glue on.) Opening up the glue relief joined me as glue moved onto the tube and I spread it around. It didn’t take long for the glue to dry in the heat. I put the patch on and aired up the tube to check if it would fix the problem and there were no other issues. I guess some of the patches in the kit are left over from older kits and the adhesive under the foil must age some because when I pushed the patch on a small piece of the edge did not stick. I figured the air pressure would force the patch in place so I inserted the tube back in the tire, remounted the tire and began pumping it up. Since I don’t have a pressure gauge I squeezed the tire every few pumps to see how firm it was. When it didn’t feel soft I added about 10 to 15 pumps and removed the pump. Pumping air under pressure builds up heat in the pump and my fingers got real hot when I removed the rubber hose from the hand pump. The particular pump I use is a Lezyne Road Drive. With the tire aired up solid I put the wheel back on and rode. While I was working on the tire one lady rolled down her window to ask if I need help. I said I had everything under control. Not much later a young man walked from around the corner to see if I needed a ride to a bike shop or home. I thanked him but did not need any help since I had the tube fixed.

By now I had cooled down enough that when I started biking again I actually was chilled from the wind moving through my jersey. It didn’t take long to warm back up though. It was 88 when I left home and 96 when I got back at 2:05. During my break at the Huffman Chevron I checked the temperature on the Garmin Edge 500 and it showed 97. Earlier when I stopped for ice water and to wash my hands before riding east over Lake Houston the Garmin reported 103.7 but that was in the sun.

While I stopped to fix my tire there was some kind of incident on W. Lake Houston Parkway between Firesign Drive and Pine Cup Drive. As I approached the Firesign intersection on W. Lake Houston I could see a man in a hi-vis vest directing cars off W. Lake Houston onto the side street where I was headed. I planned on crossing W. Lake Houston at the school and as I did I saw a Harris County Sheriff car blocking northbound W. Lake Houston. Looking past the sheriff’s car there was what appeared to be an ambulance in an intersection. Not sure what happened.

Continuing on I rode the usual route to Huffman. No more incidents but I did come upon another bicyclist going the opposite direction on Old Atascocita Road at the railroad tracks. When I arrived at the Huffman Chevron I wanted to take a quick break so I could get back home to watch the opening football game between Purdue and the University of Cincinnati (my school). I recorded it while I biked. Sitting at the station I thought I saw something black moving around in the shadows. Looking closer I saw 2 love bugs. These usually come out in the spring but sometimes a fall crop appears. I hope this is the extent of them.

After eating a Kashi Trail Mix Bar and drinking a Sunkist soda I took off riding the last 11 miles home. The heat bore down as I pedaled across Lake Houston on FM1960. I got some relief when I turned onto Atascocita Shores Drive with the light breeze at my back and occasional shade trees.

Getting home the ride distance totaled 31.76 miles at 15.6 mph average speed. August miles end up at 845.12, well over my 721 mile goal. Year to date I biked 5097 miles. The total for the week stands at 156.8 miles with an opportunity for one more ride on Sunday. Tomorrow’s forecast calls for 100 degrees. Pretty warm for this time of the year. Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com maps and metrics.

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