Sunday March 5, 2006 was another outstanding day in Rochester Hills Michigan, perfect for a bike ride. I had spoken to Tom the day before and he was planning to come out and ride with us. Bob, Pete and Steve were also planning to participate in this ride. Bob dropped out at the last minute, but Tom did show up and it ended up being four of us on this ride.

Tom was late getting to my house, what else is new, he blamed heavy traffic trying to get out of Royal Oak and through Troy. You know how the traffic gets real heavy due to the massive amount church goers on Sunday mornings. All kidding aside, I called Pete to let him know we were running a couple minutes late, but we were still coming. When Tom got there we quickly got out the air pump and put some air in our bike tires before heading over to Pete’s.

Pete was almost ready when we got there. It only took Pete a couple minutes before we finally rode across Steve’s side yard into his drive way. Apparently Steve had been waiting for us and due to our delay he had actually gotten unready and it took him a few minutes to get ready again. We were definitely off to a slow start to this ride. One of the nice things about our rides is the schedule really doesn’t mean anything, we are very flexible as a club.

It was still a bit cold out and there were still a few areas with ice so we needed to be a little careful on this ride. We decided to avoid the trail, for sure it just wouldn’t be in good riding condition. We stuck to the paved bike paths and side streets for this ride which were plenty safe.

Tom was primed and ready to ride as soon as he showed up. Something looked different about Tom but I just couldn’t place it, maybe I just hadn’t seen him in a while. When we got to Steve’s house I finally remembered to give Steve his club bracelet that Tom had custom made in Mexico last year. I also finally remembered to tie mine onto the frame of my bike right under the handle bars. Steve was impressed and he thanked Tom for the gift.

We had a good time riding as a group. We didn’t have any firm plans, we just headed south toward downtown Rochester and beyond. Once we rode for a while we decided to have lunch at the Hamlin Pub. We had ridden about 9.5 miles when we got close to the pub. Pete decided he wanted to ride a bit further before stopping for lunch, so we all kept going. Then Pete had a grand idea that he wanted to go to Meijers to pick up a few things. The Meijers is located on the south east corner of Rochester and Auburn. Pete wanted to get some Skyline chili and a box of White Castle frozen hamburgers. When we got to Meijers Tom and I waited outside and Steve and Pete went inside. Steve ended up getting a few boxes of White Castles as well. They both filled up their burrito basket with their shopping purchases. I was surprised how much they were able to pack into their burrito baskets.

After Meijers we headed to the pub. We started talking about cars. Steve mentioned he was getting ready to buy a new Chrysler Town and Country minivan. I told him he should talk to Tom since Tom works at the plant where these vehicles are made. I thought maybe Tom could get Steve and upgrade on his floor mats. Well apparently Steve got to talking to Tom and it turns out Tom must be a bigger big shot than I thought at that plant because not only is he going to get him the upgraded floor mats, he is also going to get them to throw in a little extra tint into the tinted windows and a pair of “new shoes”. As George Jones sings, “It helps to have friends in high places”.

We continued to have a good time after we got to Hamlin Pub. We are kind of like regulars at the Hamlin Pub, I think we are the only bike club that regularly eats there and they recognize us when we show up. They treat us well and we always enjoy spending a few minutes talking to the manager. Pete and the manager, I really should know the manager’s name but I am ashamed to admit I don’t, have really been talking about big screen TVs the last few visits. Pete has become a regular in the back control room where all the bar TVs are operated from. We were all just starting to take our seats at the table when I noticed that something looked different about Tom, but I still couldn’t place it. The pub has a burger and beer special that is a very good price and you can substitute pop for the beer. We all ordered the burger and beer special, Steve and I got diet coke and Pete and Tom ordered beer. Tom went to the restroom right after we ordered and as he sat back down Pete looked at him and asked him what he had done to his hair. I looked closely and it finally hit me what looked different about Tom, he had highlights in his hair. Pete asked Tom if he had accidentally dipped his head into the washing machine when he was doing his laundry.  Tom just laughed and told Pete he was just being stylish.  Pete teased him a little about it, but this is considered stylish and a lot of guys have highlights in their hair.   Tom also pointed out how he now has sideburns which he didn’t used to have. Apparently someone told Tom with a big round head like his that sideburns would make his head look thinner. Tom looked at Pete and told him he might want to consider sideburns to help slim down his big fat head. Pete just gave him a funny look and I think that was the end of the sideburn conversation.

Our burgers arrived shortly and they were fantastic. I guess the beer tasted good because both Tom and Pete ordered another while Steve and I got a refill on our diet coke. Tom started talking about a new drink that I had never heard of before, I think it was called “Hypnotic” or something like that. Steve said it sounded interesting and Tom ended up ordering one for Steve. When the drink came to the table it was a light blue color. We all took a sip to see what it tasted like, it wasn’t bad. It had a different taste than I expected and I am not much of an alcohol drinker, I didn’t find it repulsive like I do most alcohol drinks. Steve ended up finishing this fancy drink and he must not be much of a drinker either because it appeared the drink was already starting to affect him. Steve said his arms were getting light, I think he was just kidding around. We all finished our burgers and drinks and we had a really good time joking and laughing as we ate. We took so long eating lunch and socializing it was getting late and we decided to call Diane and ask her to drive up in Tom’s car with the bike rack and pick us up so we didn’t have to ride home. I think we were just joking around but Diane actually showed up so we loaded our bikes onto the rack and the four of us crammed into Tom’s car and Diane drove us home. It was an interesting ride home to say the least with the vehicle filled with so many characters. I really enjoyed the bike ride before we stopped for lunch and I was looking forward to the ride home, but I ended up riding in a car home.

Overall we had a really good time this day. I really enjoyed everyone’s company. It is always fun when Tom shows up for a bike ride. Steve had his camera and he took a lot of pictures. I will create a separate page to post all of Steve’s pictures once he provides them. Following are the statistics from this one way bike ride; 12.6 miles total, 21.5 max mph, 10.6 average mph and one hour and ten minutes on bikes.

David Lindquist