I went south to find some warmer weather and while I was gone the temperature at my home dropped to 28 degrees. Fortunately in Harlingen it didn’t get quite that cold. When I started today’s bike ride at 12:47 PM I had waited for it warm up and it did to 62 degrees. The 7 mph wind from the north added to the chill and I was glad I brought some warm biking clothes: shorts, leg warmers, thermal long sleeve jersey, regular long sleeve jersey, wind breaker jacket, and full finger gloves. The humidity during the bike ride was 24% dropping to 20% at the finish, levels I am not used to. That probably added to the chill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The route I put together with the help of Google Maps went north from where I am staying along US77. The frontage road had spots of chip and seal making for some rough biking but smooth sections broke them up. Traffic wasn’t bad but my choice of turning west at Wilson Road wasn’t the best one. If I had positioned myself in the left turn lane it might have been okay but I didn’t realize the street was ahead putting me in the right most lane. Lots of traffic stopped at the traffic light coming from the east as I rode east to make a u-turn and ride west. I waited fora break and crossed from the east bound side to a truck lot on the north side of Wilson Road. It was my gravel portion of the bike ride. After a few minutes I found a break and got in the west bound lane. Once I made it under US77 and passed the frontage road a shoulder appeared and I took it all the way to my right turn onto Stuart Place Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stuart Place Road did not have a shoulder but I don’t think one car passed me all the way to Primera Road. Up to this point a headwind worked against me but biking east on Primera the wind let up. Under US77 Primera became Loop 499 with a bike lane until I got to US77 Business Route not far from the end of the bike ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n