Sunday July 2, 2006 Pete and I loaded our bikes into my van and we drove over to Gary’s house in Royal Oak.  We got there about 8:45 am and Gary was already out in his driveway with his helmet on getting his bike ready for the days ride.  Pete and I were both looking forward to riding around the Royal Oak and surrounding areas.  I call this area the flatlands since it is so flat compared to what we are used to near home.  Riding in the flatlands is much less strenuous, you can cover a lot more area in the same amount of time when you don’t have a series of hills to deal with. 

We made our first stop before we barely got started.  Gary took us to his Uncle Gus’ house.  Since Uncle Gus passed away Gary has taken on the job of remodeling the house in preparation for selling.  Gary, with help from his partner Glen have done a lot of work on this old house located just down the street a short distance from Gary’s house.  They replaced all the plumbing, and I mean all the plumbing from top to bottom.  Naturally all the dry wall has been replaced, Gary is in the dry wall business.  The kitchen has been redone and they also redid the bathrooms.  The floors are coming up on the list.  By the time this house is done it is going to be a very nice almost new old house.  Gary is doing a really good job on this restoration project. 

After the tour we were back on our bikes heading toward Huntington Woods to see if fellow club members Tom and Barry are interesting in riding with us.  We stopped by Tom’s house first and it didn’t look like he was home, but we rang the door bell just to make sure.  We waited a couple minutes and Tom didn’t answer so we figured he wasn’t home.  Against my advice Pete put a bike club sticker right in the middle of the window on the side door just to let Tom know we stopped by. 

Next stop was Barry’s.  Barry is my brother in law and I happen to know that Carol likes to sleep in on the weekends so I warned Pete to be respectful as we pulled into the driveway.  In Pete’s best respectful manner he proceeded to empty his air horn while in the driveway.  I was surprised that no one showed up at the door.  We next rang the door bell and again no one showed up right away.  Finally another club member Amanda showed up at the door with a puzzled look on her face.  She was wearing a bathrobe and I have a feeling we got her out of bed.  Just about the same time Barry came walking up the driveway after having walked to a local store for some bread.  Barry looked a little surprised to see the three of us sitting on our bikes in his driveway.  We quickly invited Barry to join us on our bike ride.  At first Barry said no, but then after just a little encouraging he decided to join us. 

Barry got his bike out of storage and his tires were almost flat.  Without a pump Barry said he wouldn’t be able to ride with us.  I got out the small hand pump I keep in my burrito basket and put as much air into each the front and rear tires.  You can’t get enough leverage using this small pump, only enough air to be sufficient for riding to a nearby gas station to finish filling up to the proper pressure, which is exactly what we did.  Barry put on his helmet and looked at me and asked if it was on backwards or not.  I asked Barry if he saw me get out my phone and take a picture of his helmet.  Barry quickly realized this was an indication that he had the helmet on correctly. 

Gary had mapped out a general route in his head and that was our plan for this days ride, we would follow Gary.  We went west through Oak Park on our way to Southfield and then Birmingham.  We went a few miles before coming across a gas station where we finished filling Barry’s tires.  Now Barry would have an easier time riding.  It is difficult to ride with under inflated tires, it is like riding in mud.  We kept going toward Birmingham.  On the way we made another stop at another gas station that had a convenience store attached.  Barry went inside and got a Diet Coke at this rest stop.  I took a couple pictures with my phone during this rest stop.  See the bottom of this page for all the pictures I took during this ride. 

As we rode Barry told us an interesting story about something he had done recently at an airport during one of his travels.  I can’t remember the specifics, but I think I will be able to relay the story basically as Barry told it as we rode along.  Barry had a few minutes at the airport before his flight, I believe he was in the Omaha airport.  It was a warm day and he wanted to change into a pair of shorts to be more comfortable on his flight home.  He went into the nearest public rest room with the intent of changing clothes.  All the restroom stalls were filled so there wasn’t anywhere to change.  Barry came out of the rest room and looked around for any other opportunities for changing.  He saw this small room right near the security station that you have to pass through before boarding the plane.  Barry walked up to the security guard standing there and said to the guy I bet you get a lot of funny questions in your line of work.  The guard replied that every once in a while they get a strange question or two.  Then Barry asked the guy where they take people when a more personal search is required.  The guard point to the small room and said that small room right there is what we use for privacy.  The guard was now getting curious so he asked Barry why all the questions.  Barry told him of his desire to change into shorts for his flight home and the fact that the restroom was full.  Next the guard went over to the room and asked another guard that was sitting in there doing some paper work to vacate for a minute.  They allowed Barry to use the room and he promptly changed into his shorts.  As he came out of the room Barry thanked the guards for their understanding.  The original guard told Barry this will now be considered one of the strangest requests they have had related to their interrogation room.    

After Barry finished his Diet Coke during our short rest stop we kept riding north going through side streets and riding on sidewalks along busy roads.  We rode down Oak Ave for quite a while until we came to Quarton Lake, which is a very pretty area.  We turned south and rode along a path next to the lake.  There is a public dock that goes out into the lake.  We rode our bikes out over the lake on the dock.  We looked around for a couple minutes enjoying the scenery before getting back on the path to continue the ride.  The street along the lake paralleling the path is called Lakeside Drive.  The houses on this street are big and beautiful and some of them look relatively new.  This is definitely a very nice area. 

Once we finished hanging around the lake we headed out through a path to 15 Mile Road.  I told Barry we were planning to keep riding and suggested he might want to peel off and head home before we got further away.  Barry thought this was a good idea.  I wasn’t trying to get rid of Barry, I just knew he had a lot to do this day and I figured this would be a good place for him to turn around.  Barry agreed and we said our farewells and parted company as Barry headed south on Woodward while we continued on going east on 15 Mile Road.  Barry had another five miles to ride to get home from this point, so this would turn out to be a fairly lengthy ride for Barry.  We estimate approximately 17 miles total.  Thanks for riding with us Barry, it was a lot of fun.  

Pete, Gary and I kept on riding.  I think we ended up going through Clawson and Madison Heights in addition to the other cities we had already gone through earlier.  On our way back to Gary’s house we ended up on Normandy.  As we traveled on Normandy we stopped at a house that Pete thought was another old high school friend who we haven’t seen in a long time.  Dave W is the person I am talking about.  Pete wasn’t 100% sure but he was fairly confident this was Dave W’s house.  Gary was skeptical as to whether this was the correct house.  When we stopped to get air for Barry’s tires Pete used the opportunity to fill up his air horn.  Instead of walking onto the porch and ringing the door bell which a lot of people think is a conventional way to present yourself , Pete used his air horn.  Pete pulled his bike right on the sidewalk next to an open kitchen window and just blasted his air horn.  A couple dogs started barking immediately.  Then an older gentleman came running out the side door to see what was going on.  Pete asked him if this was Dave W’s house.  The guy said no this was his house.  Then Pete asked him if he knew where Dave W lived.  The guy said no he had never heard of Dave W.  I apologized to this man before leaving, I figured this was the least we should do after Pete nearly scared the guy to death with his air horn.  

As we rode away Pete commented that it seemed strange that this guy would lie to us about that being his house and not Dave W’s house.  Gary and I both just shook our heads.  Then Pete commented maybe we should go back and see why this guy was lying to us.  I told Pete that this guy was probably holding Dave and his family hostage, maybe we should call the police.          

A few days later Pete sent me a map pointing out the house we went to and the actual house just down the street where Dave W really lives.  Obviously we had the wrong house and after a little research even Pete  agrees we had the wrong house.  Gary was right again.  I will post the map along with the pictures at the bottom of this page. 

After the experience with the wrong house we kept riding.  We went through a lot of side streets.  We ended up going down the street Pete grew up on in Royal Oak.  We were also planning on stopping by to visit my parents in Royal Oak later in the ride.  We ran out of time and never did stop by to visit my parents this day, we will just have to catch them next time we are riding in Royal Oak. 

It was getting near lunch time and it was starting to rain.  We decided to stop at a Taco Bell over on Eleven Mile Road, I think.  It was perfect timing, we waited out the rain while we ate lunch and by the time we finished the rain had stopped for the remainder of our ride.  Gary and Pete wolfed down their lunch before you could blink.  They ended up having to wait a few minutes for me to actually chew my meal. 

After lunch we were back on our bikes heading to Gary’s house.  We finished right around noon.  This was a really fun ride and we ended up going through quite a few cities on this flatland ride.  I look forward to my next opportunity to ride the flatlands. 

Following are the statistics from this ride, 26.3 miles total, 19.1 max mph, 2 hour and 22 minutes time on bikes and 11.0 average mph.   
David Lindquist