Friday evening June 9, 2006 Pete and I were still trying to get in as many rides as we could in preparation for the Tour de Cure ride in two days.  The weather was nice and it was a perfect evening for a short ride.  We figured we could easily get in a few miles before it started to get dark.   

After work and a quick dinner I rode over to meet Pete at his house.  We took Paint Creek Trail south toward Rochester.  There were a few other bikers, walkers and joggers out on the trail this day.  It is a different crowd of people out on the trail during a week night as opposed to the weekends.  It seems to be a more casual crowd.  The more serious trail users seem to come out on the weekends. 

Once we got to the end of the trail Pete decided he wanted an ice cream so we headed over to the Dairy Queen on Rochester Road.  This Dairy Queen gets a lot of business and on a nice early summer evening it is usually very busy.  When we got there the line was just approaching overflowing outside the door.  They had at least four people working so the wait wasn’t bad.  I got a small soft serve chocolate vanilla twist cone and Pete got a fancy blizzard of some sort.  Once we got our ice cream we went back outside to sit on the ledge out front of the place next to where we parked our bikes. 

When we got outside we ran into Bob’s next door neighbors Paul and Kristen and their kids.  We talked to them about the big remodeling job they are currently doing on their house.  They are having a lot of work done including an addition.  It sounds interesting and I am looking forward to seeing it once they are finished.  Paul was surprised to see that Pete and I had ridden our bikes to the Dairy Queen, I told him we still ride quite often, usually on the weekends but every once in a while after work during the week as well. 

Paul’s family finished their ice cream and they headed out while Pete and I were still finishing ours.  As we sat there enjoying our treat I noticed an elderly lady methodically maneuvering her car into a parking spot along the fence.  There was a car in front of her and a car behind her and I was amazed at what a good job she did getting her car part way into the spot.  There was no way in the world she could ever get her car all the way into the spot, but she came closer than I thought was possible.  Once she got there she just sat in her car without moving.  She was all by herself and I couldn’t figure out why she was even there.  In front of her was a white sedan and behind her was a large black SUV of some sort.  A young couple that owned the SUV behind her was done and they got into their vehicle, but there was no way they could get out, they were wedged in tight.  The guy stayed in the car while the girl got out and tried to give him directions as he tried to get out.  He could only move 6 inches forward and rearward which didn’t allow any progress.  The elderly lady saw what was going on behind her and she moved forward as much as she could, which was only about another 6 inches which really didn’t help the situation.  By this time both Pete and I were done with our ice cream but we weren’t going anywhere, we decided to wait to see how this situation turned out.  The white sedan upfront could have relieved the log jam, but the owner of that vehicle was nowhere in sight.  After about another five or six minutes the owner of the vehicle behind the black SUV showed up and they had a little space behind them and they were able to pull out which in turn allowed the SUV to get out.  About this time an elderly man showed up carrying an ice cream.  This was who the elderly lady must have been waiting for.  The elderly man got in the passenger side and with the SUV no longer behind her she was able to back up and pull out without any problem. 

I guess the point to this sub-story is that it is a lot easier just to ride your bike to the Dairy Queen. 

Once the show was over Pete and I put our helmets back on and we started our uphill ride home.  We rode pretty much straight home after the Dairy Queen. 

Following are the statistics from this ride, 13.5 miles total, 23.5 max mph, 1 hour and 17 minutes time on bikes and 10.5 average mph.  
David Lindquist