Sunday January 11, 2004, today’s ride was attended by three of us Bob, Pete and David.  This was our coldest ride yet.  The temperature was 22°F when we started and the wind was only blowing a little so we didn’t have a big wind chill factor.  Most of the roads and sidewalks were only partially snow covered so riding was still easy.  When Bob and I were headed over to Pete’s the sidewalks along Dutton road east of Adams were completely covered with a couple inches of snow and there were a lot of footprints that had refrozen which caused our bikes to slide from side to side.  This kind of riding is extra work and just a little unsafe so we took to the street until we came to cleared sidewalk again.  It was cloudy and we only saw light snow flurries for a few minutes after we headed back north later in the day.  The snow never did accumulate to anything and it even stopped after a few minutes.  Overall today turned out to be another great day for a ride.  The key to enjoying a ride on a day like today is staying warm; I use multiple thin layers of clothing, which seems to do the trick.  It had warmed up to 28°F by the time we finished.  No complaints form anyone this week; I think we all stayed warm. 

This week we had planned to go south, which we did heading down PCT after a short stop at Pete’s to pick him up.  The trail was also snow covered and it had two flattened down areas from walkers, joggers and most importantly bikers like us.  The ride was very bouncy and we had to use our arms and upper bodies more to maintain control.  Even with the extra bounce caused by the packed down snow it was very safe riding on the trail.  Heading south on the trail we can only go a couple miles before we need to get off.  We got off and took a few side streets working our way east heading toward Rochester Road.  When we were heading down the sidewalk on Rochester Road Elaine pulled up in her car in the Kmart/Marshalls shopping center and yelled at us that we were going too slowly.  When I saw Elaine drive up I thought maybe Pete had commissioned her to follow us just in case he had another mechanical problem.  I had temporarily forgotten that Pete has his new bike and shouldn’t be experiencing any mechanical problems for a long time, hopefully.  I think what Elaine was probably really doing was she heard that Marshalls had a special sale going on and she was trying to get there before Diane.  You see Diane and Elaine are in their own club as well, it is a shopping club and they won’t give us any information because they are trying to keep it secret, so next time you see them pretend you don’t know about the shopping club. 

We arrived at Hamlin Road and decided to stop for lunch.  Usually we ride a bit more before stopping for lunch but today Bob was running low on energy.  Apparently Bob is on another new diet, the South Beach Diet.  He is in the first two weeks of this diet where carbs are strictly reduced or eliminated, I’m not sure since I don’t really know the details of this diet.  Since Bob had greatly reduced his carbs he was running low on energy so we cut our ride a bit short this week.  Pete and Bob were discussing the diet over lunch and Pete seemed very interested until Bob mentioned that beer is not allowed at all during this first two-week period.  I think Pete is still going to try out the diet with his own slight twist; he calls it the South Beach and Beer diet.  We will just have to stay tuned to see if Pete stumbles onto the next diet phase that captures the nation.  Speaking of diets, I have an idea for my own diet book that I have been formulating in mind for a couple years now.  I have revealed some of my thoughts on this subject to some of you in the past.  I am now asking that you keep my comments in strict confidence and do not repeat these thoughts, the last thing I need is someone else making millions off my idea.  Thank you for your consideration on this subject, remember mums the word.  Once I make my millions I will make it worth your while for maintaining confidentiality.  

Needless to say we had a very good lunch at the Hamlin Pub.  As mentioned before the Hamlin Pub opens early on Sunday and they play European soccer games on their big screen TVs.  They get a big turn out of transplanted Europeans eating eggs and beans for breakfast while watching soccer.  The regular menu is also very good and they still have the best diet coke on tap that we have found. 

After lunch Pete needed some fuses from Radio Shack so we decided to head over to the one on Livernois on the way home.  Bob stopped into the running store in the same shopping center and I think he purchased a pair of wind and waterproof sock covers.  I think Bob plans to use these after he turns 50 to help keep his feet even warmer on our long ride coming up.  This brings me to two points, Bob turning 50 and our long ride. 

Yes it is true, Bob is our most experienced rider and he will turn 50 this coming weekend.  In celebration of this milestone the club is planning a special ride to the Red Coat Tavern on Woodward in Royal Oak.  This is a longer than normal ride and we feel we are up to the challenge.  All club members are invited to join in, but keep in mind this ride has been rated a “B ride” for the extra distance, it would probably be rated even more severe, possibly a “C ride” if there were more hills involved.  For those of you who don’t know the rating system, don’t feel bad I just made it up and after I give it some thought I might even define it in writing.   Barry, we are calling you out again, meet us at the Red Coat.  It will only be a short ride from your house, Barry!…, Barry!…, Barry!…, Barry! (This is a Barry chant).  Everyone else is invited as well, even if you don’t ride a bike get together with your friends and carpool over to join us for lunch, it is not often a club member celebrates a 50^th birthday.  The Red Coat Tavern is located right on Woodward between 13 and 14 mile roads on the east side, their address is 31542 Woodward Ave, Royal Oak.  We are planning to start our ride at 10:30 am Saturday January 24 and we figure it will take us approximately 1.5 hours so we should show up between 12:00 and 12:30 pm.  We will have a large club logo sign mounted to a stand at our table so you will be able to easily spot us.  Hope to see you all there; actually we just hope the place is open so we can get lunch before the long ride back home. 

Back to this weeks ride.  I some how accidentally reset my speedometer so I lost some of the statistics of this ride.  I can report that after we swung by Pete’s house to check out his working OXO we rode back to my house and the total mile traveled was 16.8 miles.  A rather short ride compared to our normal, but very enjoyable nonetheless. 

David Lindquist