HTX Bicycle Tour Day #1

After a late night of solving the world's ills with the neighbors over too many beers on the back porch, Kim shook me at 6am telling me to get up.  It took me a few minutes but I got up and started packing knowing it would be twice as hard once Henry woke up.

We packed the panniers, 2 for each bike, then loaded the trailer with kid supplies.  Blankies, toys, books and a lot of cold water.  It was about 80 degrees but would likely be 95 degrees by the time we hit our destination.

Kiddos were excited to go.

With the bikes packed and ready to go we handed packed in Amelia and Henry and set off down Mason Creek at 7:30am.

The Neighborhoods (4.5 miles)
The first section of trails was familiar as it's the route I take to work.  It's a section of trails that line the bayous that run through the neighborhoods.  They snake their way north east until you hit Kingsland road which has a sidewalk you can take straight into George Bush Park.

George Bush Park (3.5 miles)
George Bush Park is a 7800 acre resivoir that is meant to capture flood waters from the Buffalo Bayou.  It is mostly dry with trails running throughout, but after a heavy rain the entire park fills with water for weeks.  A 30ft levee was built on the North, South and East sides of the park to catch the floodwaters and on the outside of the levee is a popular trail.

While it's nice to have so much bike trail, it's boring and there's no shade.  It isn't very long but it feels extremely long!

Terry Hershey Park (6.5 miles)
Terry Hershey Park is roughly 500 acres of green space that runs along the Buffalo Bayou between Hwy 6 and Beltway 8.  In high school I spent a lot of time riding the mountain bike trails on the south bank and loitering around the giant dirt ramps called the Anthills.

After college we spent some time paddling the bayou and now, finally, we are riding the running/biking trail on the north bank.

Looking back at the day, this is absolutely the most beautiful stretch of the ride.  The trail twists and turns and rolls up and down the banks of the bayou.  For Houston, any bit of elevation change is welcome.

Along the way we stopped to let the kids out to run around and make sure they get some water.  Amelia ran like crazy and Henry did what he does best...ate a whole bag of dried fruit and crackers.

Picnic in Terry Hershey park.

Before we knew it we were at Beltway 8 and making our way into more urban landscape.


Beltway 8 to Memorial Park (9.5 miles)
From the peaceful rolling trails in Terry Hershey to the feeder of Beltway 8, we weren't too psyched about this section but had to get through.  Memorial drive snakes through some really lovely neighborhoods with huge houses but the trails are crap and the drivers are fast and unpredictable.

We took it slow, had a couple drink breaks but for the most part it was unremarkable.  It wasn't until we go to the San Felipe crossing of Buffalo Bayou that we got our excitement back.  The Buffalo Bayou Regatta begins here and we have a lot of good memories of it.  Next year Kim and I will be taking first place in the mixed tandem category!

Turns out the city limit is right at the start of the Buffalo Bayou Regatta.

After the bayou we cut into Tanglewood and made our way down to the Galleria.  I love riding through here.  For years I lived and worked in the Galleria and really love that time of my life.  Even though it was a bit out of the way we spun by my old office at BHP Billiton.  9 years with them...lot's of memories.

Memorial to Midtown (6 miles)
We cut through uptown park, then up the bike path along 610 to Memorial park.  Our speed was picking up due to the excitement.  For me I was on my old bike commuting route and I had forgotten what a beautiful ride it is.  We made our way through the park and into Rice Military and stopped at a gas station.

At this point we had 4 32oz bottles of water and were dying.  It was 11am and the heat was beating down on us.  Kim bought an ice cold gallon of water and we nearly drained the thing.  Henry had been sleeping for an hour but he got up to enjoy the cold water.  We were bushed and didn't have much left in us, but had to press on.

We continued up the bike path along Memorial along the Buffalo Bayou.  It's not until writing this that I realize we followed it's banks almost the entire time.  We used the pedestrian bridge at Montrose Blvd. to cross the bayou, followed Allen Parkway to Taft, then up W. Webster to Midtown.

We passed right by my buddy Madhav's place on the way in and kind of feel stupid for not asking to crash in his guest room.  Next time.

Once in Midtown we met Brendan our host from AirBNB.  He's a sports reporter and looks the part.  He was really nice, showed us the place then handed over the keys and was off to Minute Maid Park to interview the train conductor (a train runs along the west wall when the Astros hit a home run or win the game).

I hauled the bikes up a flight of stairs and we crashed out on the floor soaking up the AC.  With all our might, 5 minutes later, we were back out into the heat looking for food.  We tried an old favorite, Christian's Tailgate, but it was closed for remodeling.  On to Little Woodrows and were turned away due to their no kids policy (that's a first) and ended up on Spec's Liquor.  Before you judge the downtown Specs could be classified as a grocery store with a decent deli in the back.  We could tell we were in the land of young professionals and popped collars from the lack people smiling at Henry.  That and being turned away from Woodrow's for having kids!

Bellies full we went back to the loft to put Henry down for a needed nap.  Didn't happen.  After a couple hours of trying we decided to get back out.  We called Liz and DK, who were already in Downtown and met up at Discovery Green.  The kids play and had an awesome time.

We walked to Phoenicia and it was packed with Cowboys from the Garth Brooks concert and people headed to the Pride Parade.  You couldn't get a stranger mix of people.  We had a great dinner, as always and said our goodbyes.  We loaded up the bikes once again and headed back to Midtown.

Dinner in front of Phoenicia.

Before bed I took Amelia to the pool and while the sun went down we swam around.  It was like the entire day washed off my body and I felt so good after swimming.  Amelia, in her words, had fun Fun FUN!!!

The final adventure of the day was getting a 2 kids to sleep in the same bed in a loft apartment.  I must have put Henry back in bed 20 times.  Eventually they crashed and while watching a movie so did I.

It felt like we put 3 days into 1.