The November 12 and 13, 2005 weekend we did two rides, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  Below is my written account of the first ride on Saturday for your reading pleasure.   

Before I get into the story on the bike ride I am going to take a minute to share what I did on Friday November 11, 2005.  To use up my remaining vacation days I have been trying to take off as many Fridays as I can through out the remainder of the year.  This past Friday was no exception and since Bob does not usually work on Fridays it has worked out well for us to do some type of activity.  Lately we have been doing a fairly long run, at least long for my standards.  A couple weeks ago Bob suggested doing the Detroit Thanksgiving day Turkey Trot this year.  Apparently every year the city of Detroit organizes a run the morning of Thanksgiving along the parade route.  The Turkey Trot is approximately 6 miles.  Bob and I were considering signing up this year and doing the Turkey Trot run, then Bob had a great idea where we would do our own Turkey Trot but avoid all the traffic and hassle of the official one.  The complete circular path out at Stoney Creek Metro Park is also approximately 6 miles so we decided this would be the perfect place to do our own Turkey Trot.  We did this run on Friday and it was a perfect day for a run.  We had a great time and we completed the entire six miles with stopping once, granted our pace wasn’t real fast but we did average just slightly over 10 minutes for each mile, we finished the entire six miles in about 63 minutes.  We are planning to do this Turkey Trot a few more times over the next few weeks, so if you want to join us just call or send an email. 

Back to the bike ride.
Saturday November 12, 2005
After we finished our run on Friday Bob came up with the idea of doing a nice fairly long Park to Park bike ride.  The plan was to start out at Stoney Creek Metro Park and ride all the way to the point out at Metro Beach and back.  Bob mapped it out and figured it would be approximately 50 miles total.  We considered riding our bike from home to Stoney Creek, but this would have added too much time and additional miles beyond what we wanted for this ride.  I thought it was a great route with a good concept,  something we had never done before.  Bob has a bike rack for the back of his van which will hold up to four bikes which we used to get our bikes over to Stoney Creek. 

I talked to Pete on the phone to see if he was in for the Park to Park ride.  Pete was definitely in, but he was trying to change the plans before we even started.  I told Pete the concept of the ride and he finally agreed to just go along with the plan.  I told him to make sure and eat breakfast because this would be a late lunch ride not a breakfast ride.  Pete was going to check with Steve to see if he was in.  Turns out Steve wanted to go so it would be a total of four of us.  Plan was to leave around 9:00 am.  Bob showed up at my house with his van around 9:15 am and we loaded my bike on to the rack.  Next stop Pete’s house where we picked up Pete and his bike.  Finally we drove over and picked up Steve and his bike before heading over to Stoney Creek.  It was a tight fit but we did manage to get all four bikes on the rack. 

The weather was nice for a bike ride.  It was a bit cool, temperature in the low 50s but the sky was clear and the sun was out most of the day.  It did warm up a little and the sun helped keep us warm.  Bob and I wore shorts, both Pete and Steve over dressed and they ended up taking off a layer during the ride.   

With my sense of direction I can’t remember the exact route we took.  We started out going south on Shelby road, we were on Clinton River road for a good stretch and also on Garfield for a while and once we got to Metro Parkway (16 Mile Road) it had a nice wide bike path for the entire way east to the end.  On the way there instead of staying on Metro Parkway we diverted a little and we ended up on Jefferson Avenue for a short ways which was pretty cool.  We only had to ride in the street for a couple short stretches and even though these were main roads they were not busy type main roads.  For 95% of the ride we were on side walks or bike paths.  I can’t remember the intersection, but at one point there was an elevated bridge that we rode up and over to get across one very busy rode.  I took some pictures at the bridge and I will post all the pictures I took with my phone at the end of this story.  Steve also had his camera and he took a bunch of pictures as well.  Once Steve forwards me his picture I will make a separate page to post them. 

At the intersection of Clinton River Road and Garfield there was a long funeral procession which forced us to take a break.  When we finally saw the last car of the funeral we were surprised to see another hearse and a second funeral profession which extended our rest stop for a few more minutes.  We made a stop along the way to get air for the tires on Steve’s bike.  We took this opportunity to get a drinkable yogurt as a snack and a little energy for our bodies.  We weren’t planning to stop for lunch until about ¾ through the ride or at about the 39 mile point so it was important to get some energy to keep our bodies fueled and capable of completing the ride. 

Once we got to Metro Parkway (16 Mile Road) the light was changing so we had to stop before crossing the road.  Well, apparently Steve didn’t see the light had changed and he just slowly proceeded out into the street crossing the road against the light right in front of a police car which was waiting to make a right turn.  We thought maybe the cop was going to pull Steve over.  I think Steve’s style of waving to everyone as he crossed the street at a slow pace may have confused the cop.  Once the light changed we caught up to Steve and continued on our way. 

Once we got out to Metro Beach we rode into the park and circled around checking the place out.  There were only a few people out walking in the park.  We were the only bike riders.  I was surprised to see how nice this place was.  It is a big park with a lot of various facilities for outdoor activity.  There was an area that during the summer has many fountains and water falls for kids to play in, kind of like a water playground.  Since all the water was turned off we rode our bikes through this area.  They had a section with a series of low arches that if we ducked down we could just fit under on our bikes.  We each took a turn riding under the arches.  We also rode on the board walk along the lake.  Even though it was a little cool the sun shinning brightly made it quite a beautiful setting.  We rode out to the point where there was a fairly new gazebo.  We stopped to rest and walk around near the gazebo.  Pete found a bench inside the gazebo and completely collapsed lying on his back on the bench.  It did feel good to take a break from our bikes for a few minutes, we had already done quite a long ride.  Bob and Steve walked out on the rocks toward the water.  Nobody ended up going in the water, it was just too cold this day.  We took a few more pictures out at the point before starting our ride back to Stoney Creek. 

The houses along the canals were interesting to look at as we rode out of the park.  We had been riding at a good pace most of the way and we continued at a good pace as we started out on our return ride.  My legs were starting to feel tired and I just felt like I needed some energy so after about five miles of riding after leaving the park I told everyone I wanted to stop and get a coke at a gas station, which I did.  The coke gave me the additional energy to keep riding.  It was around this time that Pete started complaining that he was really getting hungry.  We had planned to stop at the Shamrock Pub in Utica on the way back for a late lunch so we kept riding.  The ride before stopping for lunch was a long grueling ride, but we kept pedaling along until we finally made it to Utica.  I can’t remember for sure but I think we were just slightly over 40 miles when we stopped for lunch.  I think it was around 2:30 pm when we stopped for lunch. 

We all ordered diet cokes and one of the waitresses finally ended up bringing over a large picture of pop to keep from having to give us refills constantly.  All except for Pete order the max pastrami sandwich, Pete ordered the max turkey sandwich.  The sandwiches were great and the diet coke was good as well.  Bob ended up breaking the club record for amount of pops during a club ride meal for an individual with eight.  I do have to admit that the mugs were on the small side compared to those of Hamlin Pub, but the new record still stands.  Steve has a one million dollar bill that he keeps in his wallet.  When it came time to pay our bill we all chipped in the necessary money to pay the tab and also give the waitress a very nice tip.  I hung onto the real money and Steve gave Bob the one million dollar bill because Bob was sitting on the side toward the waitress.  Our waitress was a very nice young lady and we had been having fun with her the entire time.  She seemed like a good sport and never did get mad at any of our smart comments so we decided to try and pay with the one million dollar bill.  Bob was holding out the tab with the one million dollar bill on top.  She walked over and took it from Bob.  I think she must have thought it was a one hundred dollar bill at first because she quickly glanced at it and then looked up and said I will be right back with your change.  Steve quickly replied it better be a lot of change.  At that point she looked down and took a closer look at the bill and started to laugh.  She walked back over toward us and said where did you get a one million dollar bill.  Steve told her he got it in change when he bought something with his 10 million dollar bill, she just shook her head and didn’t quite know what to say.  I gave her the real money and we were on our way.  If nothing else we certainly livened up that quiet almost empty bar and gave the girls there something to talk about for the rest of the day. 

We were all feeling good after a nice meal and a lot of diet coke.  I was afraid Bob would get out front and start riding too fast.  I knew we still had about 8 or 9 miles to go before getting back to Stoney Creek.  I figured if we maintained a nice 10 mile and hour or so pace I would be fine.  We started out going at about a 14 mile an hour pace and sure enough the burn in my legs came back quickly.  I knew I would finish this ride, but I was getting concerned if I pushed it too much I would either injury myself or be so sore the next day I wouldn’t be able to ride with Tom.  I started to slow down to pace myself a little and I got a few hundred yards behind the other guys.  When I caught up to the group at a light Bob said his legs were starting to burn again.  I told him he was setting too fast a pace and I recommended he slow down a little to make it easier to finish.  Bob did slow it down a little and the rest of the ride was more comfortable.  The last stretch in Stoney Creek to get to where we parked is all uphill.  This last uphill section was tough.  I put my bike in low gear and just took my time going up hill.   

We loaded our bikes back onto Bob’s bike rack and we headed out.  Bob dropped us each off at our houses after a really nice and interesting ride.  Even though this was one of the toughest rides we have ever done it was also one of the most enjoyable rides as well.  Following are the statistics from this ride,  50.3 total miles, 4 hours and 29 minutes of actual ride time, average speed 11.2 mph and 21.9 maximum mph.  
David Lindquist