Long rambling ride to nowhere

I get every other Friday off and today when I woke up the weather was ideal for bike riding.

• It was cool for Houston; mid seventy's with mix of clouds and sun. This is important because we have had 2 weeks straight of 93 degree plus weather which sucks the energy out of your bones.


• There was little wind which is a huge factor in a pleasant ride here since any wind that is blowing is invariably in your face.


• And finally, it was the last day of school for millions of Texas rug rats so they would be penned up inside while I was outside doing my thing.

So with no plan and some concern about the weatherman adding to that run of high temp days I set out on a ride to see what I could see. The first half of the ride was on familiar routes up to George Bush park where the Bike is king and no cars are allowed. This would get me through the morning commute for those poor souls who had to work on such a nice day.

I stopped on a bridge over the Buffalo Bayou to talk with some other old farts who were also out riding. They bemoaned the fact that there were no rabbits out this morning. I had seen two along side the bike trail but they said that those weren't the right kind. They were looking for 20 something young ladies who looked good in bike shorts and jerseys and were riding in their general direction. I opined as how I at least wasn't greyhound enough to catch those and they agreed but said that it was the race that was important, not the outcome.

I stopped at several garage sales along the way. Why? I have no idea but I have a compulsion to look at other people's junk. This when I have a garage of my own full of perfectly good junk that I haven't yet gotten rid of. I blame it all on the Antiques Road Show on PBS. I'm looking for that Rembrandt or a Tiffany lamp for $5. And I'll find it someday too!

Since I was in the area, I decided to head up to the local bike shop and see what was on their sale rack. I always need new jerseys don't I? Ended up buying nothing but a tube of butt butter (non bikers will have to Google this product to understand how important it is to us long distance bikers). This is the point that I usually turn around and head home since it gives me a nice 35 mile ride and gets me home before noon.

Today I felt strong and there was nothing at home to drag me there, Marni being out on her own LD ride in Indiana by now I guess. So instead of turning right out of the parking lot, I turned left. Immediately across the main thoroughfare, I saw the following sign.


Now there's a nitch market that I would never have thought of. Not only can you wash your car and canine at the same time but you can do that at 3 AM. I guess I didn't know that there were that many insomniac dog owners with dirty cars in Southeast Texas. I would like to know how you get that soaking wet dog home in your newly cleaned car without making a mess of it.

I kept on riding through increasingly less familiar territory until I came to the end of the road.... literally. Cinco Ranch Boulevard is a main road that I have crossed many times at various points but never ridden from end to end. I thought that since it was so major an artery, it would connect to the main highway at some point so that I could get my bearings and plan my next move. Silly me. The road petered out in the middle of a cow pasture that is being turned into a gazillion new huge homes on postage stamp lots.

We're talking 4000 square foot houses on 8000 square foot lots. This is Texas, the biggest state in the Union. (I know about Alaska but Texans say it doesn't count because its got Canada between us and them so its really a foreign country.) Why do they build these huge houses on no land at all when they have so much land that no one is using for anything? Two answers; air conditioning and grass mowing. Until they can air condition the state, no one goes outside between March and October except for us biking nuts. And if the houses had any yard to speak of, you'd have to have it sodded and then have to cut that grass. Grass grows after each rain in Houston. It grows 4 inches after each rain. Over night. I know because it my job to mow it. Small yards are good. Yards paved in concrete are better.

Anyway, I back tracked out of the cow pasture /suburb and finally found my way to familiar roads. I had been looking for new wild flowers to photograph but found that the week after Memorial Day, every municipality in the county decided to mow every ditch and verge on every road. There was nothing but crew cut stubble that would stay that way until the first rain when it would turn into 4" grass and weeds. Not a wild flower to be seen until I found a thistle rose up against a fence post that protected it from the mowing madness. Here's my sole flower photo for the ride.

I took it easy going home since the temp had risen to 91 degrees and the wind was starting to blow, in my face naturally. My final stats for the ride were 51.2 miles at 13.1 mph and six bottles of water and Gatorade. My legs said I could do another 20 miles but the heat headache said time to quit. Sadie, our Corgi pooch got her salt fix by licking my legs when I got home.