if it isn't one thing, it's another

Up early for a ride today. Dale had a golf game so I was a lone wolf, apart from about 5,000 runners, of course. I had to deal with the usual foot traffic in Terry Hershey, but it generally clears west of the dam. But not today! There was an organised run going on and I spent the next three miles threading my way through them. Everyone was very polite and made room but it's hard to maintain a decent pace with that much traffic. I finally got to Barker-Clodine where the runners turned round, while I headed on into George Bush Park. Half a mile down the road I had to turn back because the trail was flooded out. This happens occasionally - the park is on the edge of the Addicks dam, after all, but with no way through I was faced with another three mile slog in heavy traffic back to Terry Hershey. I rode up to I-10 instead, to see if there was a decent shoulder that I could use. There wasn't, but there was a sidewalk, so I took that instead. That went quite well, apart from a short cyclocross section where the sidewalk was overgrown and I had to dismount and carry the bike. Eventually I made it back to the relative safety of Memorial, and cranked it up a bit. I had a pretty good head wind all the way back so I got my exercise. Back in my neighbourhood and the fun wasn't over - the construction workers had the road blocked with a big digger, so I had to detour round.