This weekend the club did two rides, one on Friday September 3 and a second on Sunday September 5, 2004.  This article is about the Sunday ride.  The weather was great on both days.  It has been a fairly cool summer this year and finally this weekend it felt like summer.  The temperature was in the mid 80’s by midday and the humidity was high all weekend.  I am certainly not complaining, the bike club has truly appreciated the cool summer.   

Pete and I rode on Sunday.  Originally we were going to start the ride at 1:00 pm, a little later than normal so that Steve would be able to join us.  Pete called and told me Steve was too busy and dropped out at the last minute, so we ended up starting this ride around 10:45 am.  The plan for this ride was to go back out to the old Rochester Golf Course to gather up some more putting green for Pete’s backyard project.  We found out Bob has a manual sod-cutting tool that he offered to lend Pete.  Before meeting Pete at his house I rode over to Bob’s and picked up the sod cutter.  It is a long handled tool with a flat semi circle shaped blade on the end.  The shaft connecting the blade is bent to aid pushing the blade under the sod.  When I got to Pete’s house he took a look at the sod cutter and wondered if it was worth carrying on his bike all the way out to the golf course.  We ended up strapping the sod cutter to Pete’s bike.  Even though this was better than carrying it while riding, it was still a little inconvenient, it got in the way of Pete’s right leg while pedaling.     

We took PCT south toward Rochester and got off at the intersection of the river where you can go under Rochester Road.  After getting off the trail we rode past the Rochester Bike Shop to see if they might be open on Sunday.  Pete lost a plastic plug that goes in the top of one of the front fork shocks on his bike.  He was hoping to get a replacement.  For future reference the bike store is not open on Sunday. 

We decided to get our work done on the golf course before stopping for something to eat.  After arriving at the golf course we noticed the subdivision construction is quickly approaching the green where Pete has been removing sod.  We quickly got to work.  I pulled the plastic sled from its hiding place and Pete started using Bob’s sod cutter.  It turns out the sod cutter made the job easier and Pete was thankful he decided to make the extra effort to bring it along.  Pete cut sections of sod and then I would drag them on the sled to the pick up area.  Pete ended up cutting up three nice strips of sod.  Pete also brought his digital camera and I took quite a few pictures while on the golf course.  Once we finished cutting putting green sod for this day, we put the sled back in the hiding spot and strapped the sod cutter back onto Pete’s bike.

Pete had another Entertainment coupon for Penn Station, so we decided to go there for lunch.  Pete ordered an Italian sub and I had the monthly special of Philly steak and cheese, without the onions of course.  As usual the subs hit the spot and we had our fair share of pop from the self-serve drink dispenser.  I almost forgot to mention that Pete gave his name as “Gipper” when ordering his sub.  The young lady at the checkout wrote down “Kipper” and Pete corrected her and made her fix it on the ticket.  So, when our subs were ready the girl delivering them to our table was calling out “Gipper” as she walked through the eating area.

Elaine asked Pete to stop by Damons Hardware to pick up some pool supplies, so this was our next destination on the way home.   After lunch we got back on our bikes and we rode over to Damons on Livernois just south of Walton.  Pete went into the hardware store while I waited outside with our bikes.  As I was sitting outside day dreaming a tall lanky fellow dressed in a shirt and tie walked toward me.  It turned out to be Steve.  He had just finished purchasing a few sheets of sandpaper from Damons for the home improvement project he is working on that prevented him from joining us on the bike ride.  I told Steve that Pete had just walked into the store and I was surprised that they hadn’t past each other.  Steve went back into the store and found Pete at the checkout.  I tried to take a couple pictures of the two of them through the storefront glass with Pete’s camera, not sure how they turned out.  Pete unhooked the sod cutter from his bike and gave it to Steve to transport home in his car. 

Pete and I rode home from Damons.  It was warm and humid and I stopped by Pete’s house for a quick refreshing dip in his swimming pool before I did the final two-mile ride back to my house.

Following are the statistics from this ride.  Total miles 23.8, max speed 28.0 mph, average speed of 10.1 mph with a total time moving on bikes of 2 hours and 20 minutes.  Pete finally forwarded the pictures from this day, check out this link to the pictures.

Thanks for checking in.

David Lindquist