I was out the door at 11:40AM into mostly cloudy skies, 79 degrees and a supposedly light 4 mph breeze. Riding through Kingwood to US59 north I choose the longer route through Woodland Hills Villages and onto Kingwood Drive. Once I was on the US59 north bound service road I was able to make for the lost time coming out of Kingwood. The light breeze was at my back and I pushed my speed up to 22.2 mph at times. Once I reached New Caney I took FM1485 west.
On FM1485 I started to get a taste of the wind I could expect at some point when I turned back into it. On Gene Campbell Road the wind was not a problem most of the time because of the trees lining the east side of the road but every so often when I was in an open space I caught some wind. Arriving at FM1314 my timing was good with the traffic light and I did not have to wait until a car tripped the signal. I turned left onto FM1314 and almost immediately the wind slowed me down to 15 mph or less. Some of the gusts were strong enough to lower my speed to 12 mph but when the gust passed I got back up to around 15 mph.
My goal was to get to Old Sorters Road and FM1314 to take a break by 1:25Â and I made it. I got a Diet Pepsi and ate two Kashi Trail Mix bars. While I was resting an older man on a Huffy was taking a break too. His bike was set up to collect aluminum cans along the roads. He had several tools with sharp points to stab the cans from a distance. He asked about my helmet mirror and we exchanged stories about 18-wheelers and the wind draft moving our bikes when they passed. When I finished we both headed for Old Sorters Road but I quickly moved away as he looked for his prey.
Later when I was eating lunch on our patio the trees were really swaying back forth from the wind.
With my longer exit route out of Kingwood than Monday’s ride along this route today I biked 36.46 miles (vs. 34.25 on Monday) at a 15.4 mph average speed. I finished at 2:30 PMÂ with a riding time 2:22:19. May miles now total 211.19 and year to date I am at 2304 miles.
When I got up this morning it looked like the rain might hang around from yesterday but it did not last more than a few minutes. By the time I left the streets were dry except for some low spots in the gutters. Tomorrow calls for partly cloudy sky and 88 degrees. Yesterday I did not ride because of rain until around noon, threatening skies and wet streets.
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