Saturday June 10, 2006 Pete and I decided to ride one more time before the big Tour de Cure ride the next day.  We haven’t ridden as much this year in preparation for the Tour de Cure ride, but I think we will still be in good enough shape. 

Pete told me that Steve was thinking about joining us this day, but his dad is in town so he isn’t going to be able to ride.  I started out riding over to pick up Pete from his house.  From there we rode over to Steve’s house to drop something off.  I got the chance to meet Steve’s dad RC, big R little C, as he said when we were introduced.  I could see the family resemblance between Steve and RC.  Not only do they look alike but their mannerisms and out going personalities are also very similar.  RC is a little shorter than Steve, otherwise it might be difficult to tell them apart. 

Apparently RC just recently obtained a Garmin GPS unit and Steve was on the computer trying to get it set up when we showed up.  Pete offered some advice and gave Steve some ideas of what to try.  You just can’t beat a Garmin unit, they are fantastic.  After hanging out and talking to Steve and RC it was time for Pete and me to hit the road. 

We rode over to the Paint Creek Trail (PCT) and took it south until we came to the Clinton River Trail (CRT).  We took the CRT to Hamlin and cut over to Rochester Road.  By this time we were both hungry and we decided to stop at the Hamlin Pub for lunch.  The Pub was showing a world cup soccer game which we caught the tail end.  I’m not sure but I think it was the England vs. Paraguay game.  The Pub is a great place to watch world cup soccer, many transplanted Europeans come out to watch their favorite teams with friends. 

After a consistently  good lunch Pete and I were back on our bikes for the ride home.  Pete still has Paul’s old bike radio mounted to the handle bars of his bike.  It is nice having music playing as we ride through the quiet streets of the Rochester area.  With the Tigers doing well this season it is also nice being able to turn on the radio and listen to the Tigers as we pedal along. 

Since the Tour de Cure ride is tomorrow Pete and I made our plans for the next day during this ride home.  Pete has an acquaintance through a friend that recently obtained an Old Chicago pinball machine.  Old Chicago is a mid 70’s Bally game that is fun and is a classic.  Ironically both Pete and I own one of these games, there are only a couple games in our collections we share in common, this being one.  The guy with this pinball game is having trouble getting it working all the way, so Pete told the guy we would stop by after the Tour de Cure to check out the game to see if we could get it going.  Apparently this guy lives relatively close to where we will be on the west side of town, so we will just make a short stop on the way home.   

After today’s ride, Pete and I are ready for the big ride tomorrow.  The weather was beautiful for today’s ride and the prediction is even better for tomorrow.  I am hoping for a cool day with a little overcast to keep the sun from overheating us. 

The ride home today was nice, no problems at all, smooth sailing all the way. 

Following are the statistics from this ride, 17.4 miles total, 30.5 max mph, 1 hour and 31 minutes time on bikes and 11.5 average mph. 
David Lindquist