Monday July 9, 2007 Pete wanted to drop off his bike and his son and fellow bike club member Paul's bike off at the Rochester Bike Shop (RBS) for some work.  Paul's bike needed a tune up and the rear wheel on Pete's bike was out of round again.  This wheel is relatively new, but Pete is rough on his bike and apparently the wheel had been banged up often enough already that it needed to be repaired.  The plan was for me and Pete to ride the bikes over to RBS after work and then walk home.

Pete picked me up on his way home from work.  While Pete quickly changed and wolfed down dinner I put the wheels on Paul's bike out in the garage in preparation for the ride.  I had never ridden Paul's bike other than a quick spin around the driveway when it was brand new.  Paul's bike is a Trek and more of a mountain bike than a rode bike, but it is a high quality bike.

We left Pete's house around 6:15 pm and we arrived at RBS at about 6:50 pm.  It is a fairly short ride from Pete's to downtown Rochester.  Sense I wasn't riding my bike and I didn't turn on Paul's speedometer I don't have any statistics from this ride.  I estimate we rode about 5 miles to RBS.  I was surprised how smooth and nice the ride was on Paul's bike.  It really coasted easy and without much friction, it felt like it coasted easier than my bike with the larger wheels.  this really surprised me, I figured with the knobby tires that Paul's bike wouldn't coast and overall ride so smooth.  I guess it just goes to show you how important good quality bearings are in a good riding bike.  I didn't even seem to mind the handle bars being lower, maybe this was because it was such a short ride and I didn't have enough time to get uncomfortable.  

The bike shop was still open, I assume Pete had checked this out to make sure they would be open by the time we showed up.  I guess it really didn't matter if they weren't open, it would actually be easier to ride back home than walk.  Someone from the bike shop took the bikes and wrote up the repair orders quickly and we were on our way.  We walked over to Rochester Rd and headed north.  Pete had the idea of stopping at the Dairy Queen located right on Rochester Rd for ice cream.  Being a nice warm summer evening there was a small crowd of people but the wait wasn't too long.  We we each got an ice cream and continued walking.

We cut over to trail and took it north all the way to Dutton Rd.  As we were walking up the hill on Dutton Pete had the idea of calling Steve to see if he was home because we were going to be walking right passed his house.  Steve was home and we stopped by and sat on his deck for a few minutes.  Being a gracious host Steve brought out a beer for each of us and I think Pete may have had two.  He also brought out some salsa and chips that we munched on while relaxing on his deck.  I don't remember why but we ended up carrying a few items from Steve's back to Pete's house.  We had a pair of crutches, a huge pitch fork and a coal shovel.  So, after leaving Steve's for the short walk to Pete's we were carrying these items.  As we were walking a guy wearing a New York Mets baseball shirt approached walking from the opposite direction.  I nodded my head and said hello to this man and Pete asked the guy where his pitch fork was.  I think this guy might have been forgein and I'm not sure if he understood Pete.  He stopped and looked at Pete strangely and Pete repeated his comment about the pitch fork.  this really confused the guy and I could hear him mumbling something about a pitch fork as he continued on passed.  Pete laughed thinking it was really funny confusing this poor guy.  I guess it didn't hurt anything and it probably gave the New York Met fan something to talk about when he got to wherever he was walking.

Once we got to Pete's house Pete gave me a ride home in his car and our adventure for the day was over.  It was a nice ride and walk combined with a visit to Steve all in one evening including ice cream, you can't beat that.
David Lindquist