The best laid plans...

Last weekend before the big ride, and both Kevin and I wanted to get some miles in, but he was playing with both his bands at the Wirt Road UU Church music fest and needed to be back in town by noon.  So the plan: an early start at Zube, the standard 45 mile loop and if there was time and inclination a few bonus miles at the end.

Came the morning (way too early), Kevin rolled up at 6.15 and off we went.  I usually take it upon myself to provide an "ear-worm" - a catchy piece of music that sticks in your ear during the ride, and today's choice was Jethro Tull's flute-heavy version of Bouree (on their Stand Up album).   Courtesy of Wikipedia I now know that this piece was written by Bach as Bouree in E minor for Lute, and a bouree is a french dance.  Anyway, Kevin was pleased with the choice - turns out he's a Tull fan, having seen them live twice in the 70's.

Sadly we got to listen to most of the album, because 290 was closed for construction at Bauer, about two exits before Zube, and we found ourselves on the access road going nowhere fast.  We finally got to Zube at about 7.00am, about 5 minutes before Paddy pulled up with the Mules trailer.  A quick hand-shake and then we were off, on a beautiful, if cool morning.

Kevin was clearly feeling his oats and pushed the pace early on.  With the benefit of my GPS I could see just  how fast we were going and was able to rein him back to 18 mph, already a hot average for me.

An uneventful run out to the gas station, although the NWCC fast group caught us at about mile 20, and the gas station got very busy with bikes while we refuelled.

Back at it and Kevin was charging again.  Rule number one for a domestique - don't drop the team leader!  We were at Waller in no time, and I took Kevin onto the Old Houston Highway, a two-lane blacktop that runs parallel to Business 290 but has almost no traffic.  He took to it like a duck to water, despite the strong headwind we were now feeling, and set a steady 18mph pace.  I velcro'ed myself to his back wheel and was amazed at how quickly we got back to Hockley.

Despite the late start we were back in very good time.  Kevin was up for more but I was blown and cried off.  Against all odds we got lucky with traffic on the way home and were back by 11.30.

I enjoyed a nap after lunch and then Susan and I drove out to watch the first set - the Western Sky trio with Kevin on bass and backing vocals -great fun and a pleasant reminder that Houston isn't all suburbs, SUV's and strip malls.