Sunday July 30, 2006 Pete and I were joined by my brother and fellow club member Tom for a nice hot weekend ride.  It was in the low 90s for this ride which made us all agree to a rather short trip.   

Tom drove out to my house with his bike on the back of his Commander held on by a bike rack.  Tom brought his son Andy out to my house to hang out with Jonathan and Max one last time before Andy ends his extended summer visit.  We also didn’t want to leave the boys stuck at my house too long, which is another reason we made this a short ride.   

Tom and I rode over and picked Pete up at his house.  We headed over to Paint Creek Trail (PCT) through Pete’s sub and then down Dutton hill.  As usual when we take this route we reached our maximum speed while coasting down the hill just before the trail.  The ride on PCT was very nice.  Each of us took turns in the leading and trailing.  There were quite a few people out on the trail which forced us to ride a majority of the way in single file.   

We cut off the trail right at Rochester Park and we headed east toward Rochester Road.  I was wondering at first where Pete was headed, but then it dawned on me that he was probably going to the Dairy Queen.  I was right, we pulled up and stopped our bikes at the Dairy Queen and we each got a treat.  The Dairy Queen wasn’t as crowded as it normally is on a warm day, the line was relatively short.  We must have gotten there at the right time because I noticed the line getting longer and longer after we got through.  

After our ice cream we rode pretty much straight back home.  As we approached the area where we typically split off from Pete we slowed down to talk for a minute.  Pete invited us to come on back over to his house with the boys to cool off in his swimming pool.   

Tom and I rode the final 2 miles back to my house where we got a mixed reaction from the boys as to whether they wanted to go swimming or not.  Tom and I decided we should take Pete up on his offer and we loaded up Andy and Max into the car and went to Pete’s.  We got into the pool shortly after arriving and we stayed in the water for a long time.  I thought we might be overstaying our welcome but Pete didn’t seem to mind so we just hung out in the pool for a while.  Apparently Diane called Elaine and they made plans for a cook out dinner at Pete’s.  We played volley ball in the pool for quite a while.  Max took a hard shot off his nose at one point from Pete and they were on the same team, I’m not sure how that happened.  Max shook it off and continued playing. 

Shortly after Diane showed up with some food I got out of the pool and helped out by manning the grill.  Pete, Tom , Andy and Max kept playing in the water.  They started playing a game where Pete stood at one end in the pool and Tom and Max took turns jumping in while trying to catch a small soft ball thrown by Pete.  The object was to catch the ball while doing something creative and Pete was handing out points and keeping track of totals to determine an eventual winner between Tom and Max.  I’m not sure who the biggest kid was during this game, but I can tell you that Max was probably the most mature.  I kind of quit paying attention so I am not sure who ended up winning between Max and Tom.  The points would change quickly based on Pete’s scoring system.     

We ended up having a nice meal and it was a very enjoyable way to spend the late afternoon and early evening on this very warm day. 

Following are the statistics from the ride, 11.0 miles total, 37.0 max mph, 57 minutes time on bikes and 11.4 average mph. 
David Lindquist