Like last weekend I had the opportunity to go on multiple rides.  Because of the nice weather Friday Feb. 27 evening Bob and I decided to go out for a ride.  With no real objective or destination planned we ended up going for a decent ride.  We ended up in Catharine and Jim’s neighborhood.  We were preaching the virtues of bicycle riding and safety to a group of kids in the street, one of which was Jimmy.  One of the young fellows was selling candy bars for some fundraiser.  Even though Bob and I are not big candy eaters we thought the least we could do was help out so we each bought one.  Catharine came running out to the street concerned there were a couple strangers talking to the kids.  She was not only relieved it was us, but I think she was happy to see us setting a good example to the kids.  The kids were glad to hear we were planning to start a youth extension program as part of the bike club.  We also gave each of the boys a club logo sticker.  You should have seen those little faces light up.  One of them was so excited he couldn’t wait to use it and he immediately put his sticker on his skateboard.  By the time we got home Bob and I ended up with a 20.6 mile ride.  It was starting to get dark as we got closer to home and I am happy to report the light up spoke reflectors that I received from my mother as a Christmas present this past December worked very well.  They are going to come in very handy for riding at night. 

Our scheduled club ride this week was held Sunday February 29, 2004 (leap year day) and attended by Bob, Pete and myself.  We also had the pleasure of welcoming a new potential member on this ride, my brother in law Barry.  We had been trying to get Barry to join us for quite a while, but he was waiting for the temperature to warm up.  A short way into the ride Bob and I were ready to welcome Barry as an official club member and Bob put it to a vote.  The vote was two for and one abstain.  Needless to say Pete was the abstaining vote, he wanted to watch Barry’s performance a bit longer before making his decision.  So we decided to wait until lunch.  It was mostly cloudy today but the temperature did go up into the mid-50’s, which is the warmest day we have had in quite a while.  It felt good to be out riding without so many layers of clothing and without the thin head/facemask I had been wearing the past many weeks.   

Barry has a very nice bike, so one of my early concerns about his equipment being substandard is not an issue at all.  His bike is actually much nicer than mine.  He did show up without a helmet and even though we all did our first few rides without a helmet we now strongly recommend everyone where a helmet when riding a bike, especially when riding with us, Pete is a club member you know.  Since we had a new person with us we decided to make this a nice easy ride.  We didn’t go as far as we normally do and we kept the speed at a nice comfortable pace.  I must report that Barry’s performance was outstanding.  He is the first first-time rider with us that did not walk at least a short portion of the trip.  

During the Friday evening ride Bob and I rode the early portion of the route to Red Coat Tavern and we were pleased to see the bike paths through Auburn Hills are now passable.  We will be re-scheduling this ride very soon.  On Sunday we just rode to the Hamlin Pub with a rather direct route.  We all had a good lunch.  Barry and Pete both had the turkey rueben, ordering the same meal as Pete actually got Barry some bonus points.  Bob tried the philly stake sandwich, which he said was outstanding.  I stuck with my old reliable monte cristo sandwich and wasn’t disappointed.  We all had the Pub’s tasty diet coke to drink.  I think Bob and Pete were having a contest to see who could consume the most refills.  We took another vote on Barry and this time it was unanimous, Barry was now a proud club member.  Everyone at the Pub now recognizes us and they stop by our table to chat.  We have become quite well know at this establishment and around town in general.  Many people in cars honk and wave at us as they drive by.  

After lunch we headed home with a planned stop at Maggie Moos for ice cream.  When we got to The Village shopping center where Maggie Moos is located there were people everywhere.  The good weather obviously brought people out of their homes.  Maggie Moos was crowed and we waited out turn in line.  The girls working there also recognized us and told Bob that they met our request to have the whopper milk balls added back to the selection of toppings.  Bob and Pete like to have these added to the malts they like to order.  Barry ordered raspberry sherbert with gummy bears on top.  Well when Pete saw what Barry had ordered he immediately took back his vote and requested that Barry be kicked out of the club.  Needless to say even though I was a little unsure about the gummy bears as well, we did not take any formal action against Barry and he is still an official club member.  I can tell you though; Barry did quickly obtain a new club nickname, “Gummy Barry.” 

My speedometer is still working, so it looks like the problem was just the cold temperature.  Following are the ride statistics, 16.52 total miles, 25.5 mph maximum speed (a new record), 9.9 mph average speed and a total time on bike of 1 hr and 47 minutes.  The new record maximum speed happened while going south down the hill on the sidewalk along Rochester Road right near the Clark gas station. 

Thanks again for checking in on us.  No one had a camera so we don’t have any pictures from this ride.

David Lindquist