This week we rode on Sunday November 14, 2004.  Again, Bob and I were the only members to participate.   

The ride this weekend turned out to be very similar to the ride we did last week.  Again, since it was only Bob and I and neither one of us wanted to go too far this day we just did another ride to the Hamlin Pub for lunch and to watch some of the Lions game.  I don’t know why we keep doing this to ourselves, especially as poor as the Lions are currently playing.  One of the good things about the Hamlin Pub, in addition to their high quality food, is they always have many different games on at the same time, so we aren’t forced to only watch the Lions.

On the actual ride we went through my old neighborhood, Fairview Farms, and through some subdivisions on the south side of Tienken east of Brewster.  We came out on Walton Road just west of Livernois.  We decided to cross Walton and try to ride behind Rochester High School.  We got about half way around when we noticed we were fenced in with no way through.  We had to double back the same way we came in and go around the high school on the Livernois side.  At least we learned something and won’t try this route again.

Our soccer team this past season practiced at McGregor Elementary School, which is located south of Walton and east of Livernois, kind of behind Crittenton Hospital.  Diane had told us that you can get to the school off Livernios by taking a side street.  Bob and I decide to try out this route to see if this would be a better way to get to the school for the next soccer season, assuming we will have practices at the same place.  The side street turned out to be a dirt road just past the shopping center.  It does take you right to the school, but on the opposite side of the parking lot.  We rode around to see how far out of the way it was to get to the parking lot.  Once we finished circling around this area we headed out back on track toward the Pub.

The weather was perfect for bike riding.  A little on the cool side, but once we started pedaling for a few minutes it was very comfortable.  I had on a pair of wind pants, a couple thin wicking shirts and a light weight pull over Borg Warner jacket/shirt.  I also brought a thin wind breaker type jacket in my burrito basket just in case I needed it to help block the wind, but I never pulled it out.  I think the temperature was in the mid 40s, which is a nice temperature for bike riding.  Now that I think of it, I don’t think I have ever come across a temperature that isn’t perfect for bike riding.  I am actually looking forward to riding every weekend again throughout the entire winter season.  I know we may have a weekend or two when the snow is just too deep, but assuming we have a winter similar to last year we will be riding almost every weekend.

We got to Hamlin Pub around 1:30 again this week.  The Lions game had already started, but we didn’t miss anything but a few early punts.  They were playing Jacksonville, so it was a battle between two below average teams.

Bob and I decide to split an artichoke and spinach appetizer and then split a monte cristo sandwich.  The appetizer was outstanding and it was probably enough food, but we had already ordered the sandwich so we each ate half of that as well.  In honor of Pete I had three diet Cokes with my meal.  Sometimes Pete will have four or five refills on his diet pop during a bike ride lunch.

I didn’t bring my radio this week, so we weren’t able to listen to the Lion game as we rode home, which wasn’t a bad thing considering the way they were playing.  The ride home was uneventful.  We did ride through the Mount Avon Cemetery on the way home which is pretty cool.  This cemetery is the oldest one in Oakland County.  It also has a statue of “Billy Yank” who is a confederate soldier.  It was put up in honor of the local Union Soldiers in 1911.  Doing a little research on the internet I found out many Northern cities have statues of “Billy Yank”.  The oldest headstones in this cemetery date back to 1817.  I wish I had some other interesting story to tell you about the ride home, but I don’t.  Next week I am going to take Friday off as a vacation day and Bob and I going to do a Friday ride.  Hopefully we will run across something interesting to report.  With any luck I may be able to do another ride on Sunday.

My brother in law, and fellow PCT Bike Club member, Barry invited me to go curl with him Saturday night.  Rumor is Barry may have invited Pete to fill in for my nephew Brian who backed out of the event.  I think my baby brother, Tom is also planning to participate.  It could be a very fun event.  I will report on the activity in my next update.

Following are the statistics from this ride.  16.6 total miles, 20.0 max speed, 10.7 mph average speed and total time moving on bikes of 1 hour and 32 minutes. 

Thanks for checking in.

David Lindquist