Keeping up the tradition of multiple rides, Bob and I did a ride on Saturday March 20, 2004 and the club did our official ride on Sunday.  Some of the club members expressed interest in doing multiple rides with Bob and myself.  Check the web site and I will try to post when we are planning an extra ride.  All lot of times these extra rides are planned spur of the moment, but I will attempt to post them. 

On Saturday Bob and I decided to head east with the intent of having lunch at the Stony Creek Road House on 26 Mile Road.  The day was a bit risky weather wise.  It was warm, in the 50s by the time we finished, but it was threatening rain.  We did get sprinkled on a little on our way there, but after lunch the sun actually came out and it was very pleasant for the ride home.  I am happy to report we found a good route to Stony Creek Metro Park that we will use in the near future for a weekend ride.  We turned off on a bike path and found that after going over many wooden bridges, we ended up at the park.  By riding all the way to the park we went past the restaurant and had to double back to stop for lunch.  Even though the lunches were a little more expensive than typical they were good and the Diet Coke or Pepsi, I can’t remember which they served, was good as well.  On the way back we rode past the old historical Stony Creek Farm which is a hidden piece of history tucked in an out of the way area just east of Rochester off the beaten path.  We started this ride heading north to a shopping center at Silverbell and Adams before going to our intended destination.  This north loop added an extra four miles to this ride.  This Saturday we rode a total of 24.3 miles, max speed 21.1, and average speed 10.7 for a total on bike time of 2 hr 23 min.   

Our scheduled club ride this weekend was held on Sunday March 21, 2004 the first day of spring and was attended by Steve, Pete, Rich and myself.  Bob did not ride with us on Sunday, but he joined us for lunch by jogging and meeting us at the restaurant.  It was much colder on Sunday, I think it was in the high 20s when we started and in the low 30s when we finished, but it was a beautiful day with the sun out most of the time.  It was a little windy but not too bad.  Rich had coupons for lunch at the Red Knapps in downtown Rochester, so that was our objective.  Bob was going to jog and meet us at Red Knapps at 12:30 for lunch. 

We took a little different route this week led by Pete.  We went south on Brewster past Tienken and took a side street off Brewster that was downhill for a long distance.  We also swung through the back of the West Middle School in honor of Megan, Pete’s youngest who goes to school there.  We found the soccer goals lying face down on the ground.  We picked up one of the goals and Pete applied a club logo sticker on the front of the cross bar right in the middle.  Hopefully Megan will notice the sticker and proudly mention to her friends that her Dad is a member of that cool club.  We ended up on Crooks and we took the old railroad track trail heading east and north.  We stayed on this for a couple miles until we got to Livernois.  We were only on Livernois a short distance until we took Drexelgate going east again.  We rode around behind the Kmart and Dicks shopping center.  Pete even decided to ride through the Burger King drive through area.  We were killing time since we weren’t supposed to meet Bob at Red Knapps until 12:30.  We started heading north back toward downtown Rochester.  We stopped at a couple of the new car dealers on Rochester Road to check out some of the new cars. 

We got to Red Knapps a few minutes early when Bob called to tell us he was running late.  We decided to change plans and meet Bob over at the Take Sushi place on Walton just west of Livernois.  We rode over there to find out the sushi place doesn’t open until 4:00 pm on Sundays.  Being the flexible group we are we quickly asset our situation and changed plans again.  We called Bob and told him to meet us at the Greek Island in the same shopping center as the sushi place.  Bob was still a few minutes away so we went and got a table at the Greek Island.  Pete’s birthday is on the 22 of March, and he wasn’t shy telling us about it, so we decided to start a new club tradition and buy his lunch. 

After lunch we planned to top off the delicious lunch with ice cream from Maggie Moos.  Bob took off running at a good pace while we got our helmets on and unlocked our bikes.  It took us a few minutes to catch Bob and then we rode along side Bob on the way to Maggie Moos.  At one point one of the club members rode right up next to Bob as he was jogging along the sidewalk.  This member, I don’t want to mention any names, went close to Bob and grabbed the hat right off his head.  This member rode up front waving Bob’s hat in the air while screaming at the top of his lungs.  I assume by now you figured out who pulled off this childish stunt.  Pete dropped the hat on bush and Bob retrieved his head cover. 

Once we got to Maggie Moos Bob kindly treated.  Rich and Steve didn’t have anything.  Bob and Pete both had a malt shake with crush malted milk balls.  Bob opted for the chocolate ice cream and Pete for the vanilla ice cream.  I had my favorite mint ice cream with chocolate chips in a waffle cone.  We hung around the center court area while we finished our deserts.  Once Bob finished he took off jogging for home.  The four of us mounted our two wheeled mechanical horses and headed for home as well.  We went through the back parking lot at the Village shopping center along Adams road.  At the end of the parking lot there are stairs up toward the sidewalk.  Typically us well conditioned bicyclists will just ride right up the steps or at a minimum we will ride up the grass hill along side the steps.  Pete was the first one to get to this spot and he has seen us easily ride up an area next to the steps so he decided to take the lead today.  Well needless to say Pete got about half way up this little hill and he lost momentum.  He obviously wasn’t going to make all the way.  With Pete being perched up so high on his fancy bike with extra big wheels it is difficult for him to maintain balance once he comes to a stop, especially if the stop is unexpected.  This event was no different, once Pete quit climbing he tipped over side ways and flew off his bike.  The bike stayed on the side of the hill and Pete rolled about ten feet down the side of the hill.  As far as Pete’s episodes of falling off his bike goes this one was rather mild, but nonetheless still very funny.  We had just a few minutes earlier in the day commented how Pete’s coat looked recently washed and was still looking good without any mud or water being kicked up today from his rear tire.  Well this little tumble took care of his clean coat.  You know the thing that really concerns me the most when Pete has one of these events is not the safety of Pete, but the safety of Steve.  Every time Pete goes flying off his bike, Steve scrambles so quickly to get out his camera for a picture I am afraid Steve might injure himself.

After Steve got a couple pictures of Pete lying on the ground we all got back on track heading home.  Just to show Pete that the hill wasn’t as difficult as he made it out to be I shifted into low gear and rode to the top.  After I got to the top Pete made the comment “Well I could have done it like that”, I’m still not sure what he meant.  Anyhow, the good news is Pete did not hurt himself and he gave us a good laugh again.

Following are the ride statistics from this ride, 18.18 total miles, 22.6 mph max speed, 9.3 mph average speed and a total time on bike of 1 hr 57 minutes. 

Thanks again for checking in on us.  Steve did have his camera this week, check out this link for the new pictures.

David Lindquist