Saturday July 22, 2006 Pete and I planned a bike ride to the Hamlin Pub for lunch.  The British Open golf tournament was happening this weekend and we thought it might be fun to watch Tiger Woods continue his run for another major while we ate lunch at the pub. 

I rode over to meet Pete at his house to start our ride.  When Pete came out of his garage he was carrying a couple items.  I couldn’t tell what they were at first, the one item looked like a plastic bag with some thing heavy inside.  The second item turned out to be a set of ankle weights.  Pete told me he had a bunch of rolled change in the bag that he planned to take to his bank, which is a credit union on John R near Auburn.  Pete showed me the rolled coins inside the bag before he placed it in his chili basket on the back of his bike. 

I guess the extra weight of all the rolled coins wasn’t enough for Pete, so he decided to wear ankle weights on this ride.  These ankle weights weren’t the small cheap kind you typically see around.  These were high quality ankle weights with a lot of weight.  Apparently Pete got these nice ankle weights to use during the rehab of his knee after surgery.   Pete strapped the ankle weights on before we took off.  I took a few pictures of the rolled coins and the ankle weights, see the bottom of this page for the pictures I took with my phone on this day. 

Pete actually had trouble lifting his right foot over his seat while getting on his bike due to the extra weight.  We both laughed at how silly it was to wear ankle weights on a bike ride.  Pete said it would be good training.  

We had a nice ride over to the area of the credit union.  Pete did complain a little about the extra effort required to pedal up hill due to the ankle weights, but overall he did quite well.  When we got to the credit union Pete got the bag of rolled coins out and walked inside.  I followed Pete inside just to see what this place looked liked.  I was surprised to see how busy it was.  There was a long line of people standing waiting their turn, I estimate at least 20 people in line.  I have never seen so many people in line at a bank or credit union before.  I was joking with Pete as we pulled into the parking lot on why he continues to use this place for his banking.  It isn’t conveniently located and based on how busy it was I just don’t see the advantage.  Pete blamed Elaine for why they still use this place, he claims to have tried to change to another bank before, but Elaine doesn’t want to change.  I’m not so sure about the truth of that excuse.  I went back outside to wait for Pete next to our bikes, I knew with that long line it was going to take Pete a few minutes before he got up to a window.  I sat down on the edge of a large round cement structure containing flowering plants.  

After waiting about 10-12 minutes Pete came back out of the credit union still wearing his dew rag and ankle weights and also still carrying his bag of rolled coins.  He told me they tried to charge him 10% to take his rolled coins.  Pete thought this was ridiculous and pronounced that he was going to quit dealing with this credit union because of this outrageous surcharge.  This meant Pete was going to have to ride all the way back home with the added weight of the coins back in his chili basket.  This isn’t the first time Pete has made the statement about changing banks, I’ll believe it when it actually happens. 

After this hollow trip to the credit union it was time to head over to the Pub for lunch.  Along the way we stopped at Dunham's Sports and Dicks Sporting Goods.  Pete was looking for a new putter to replace the one that he lost with the rest of his golf clubs when they were stolen out of his car the night of Paul’s graduation party. 

At one point Pete took off his ankle weights to give me a chance to try them out.  I certainly didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity of riding with ankle weights so I put them on and rode the mile and a half or so we had left to the pub.  I was surprised how once you got going it really wasn’t too bad.  It was definitely a little more difficult getting started, but overall not a major problem once you got your momentum going.  I could feel my legs straining a little more than normal, which I am sure was due to the extra weight.  When Pete started riding after he took them off and gave them to me he was like a little kid running through the store at top speed with his new PF Flyers.  At the Pub I took off the ankle weights and we locked our bike together and went inside for lunch.  Pete didn’t feel safe leaving his bag of coins outside so he brought those inside as well.  We had a nice lunch and we did get to watch some of the British open on TV, which was the plan. 

As usual our lunches were very good.  The manager came by to tease Pete about still not having a big screen TV.  We talked with the manager about golf and the world cup while we waited for our meals.  We are definitely regulars at the pub and the manager always makes a point to stop by and chat with us for a couple minutes.  The manager is a nice guy and we always enjoy talking to him. 

After lunch Pete put his ankle weights back on and we rode one of our regular routes home.  There were some kids out sitting in their driveway as we rode past.  One of the kids yelled out to us to honk our horns.  Pete told me about these kids from when he did his solo ride a few days earlier.  It seemed funny to have kids yelling for our air horns as we rode past.  Pete was low on air, but I had a nearly full charge so I gave them a couple loud blasts.  The kids let out a cheer of appreciation.  I guess we have become celebrities while out riding, even the local children recognize us. 

Following are the statistics from this ride, 20.4 miles total, 29.5 max mph, 1 hour and 45 minutes time on bikes and 11.5 average mph.  Not a bad average considering all the extra weight Pete was carrying this day.  Pete did send me a note with the actual weight of the ankle weights and coins for the record.  He went home and put them on a scale after the ride just so I could post the weights here.  Ankle weights 10 lbs ( 5 lbs each) and rolled coins 12 lbs for a total of 22 lbs. 

David Lindquist