Friday August 18, 2006 I took a ½ day vacation and Bob and I did a ride in the afternoon.  It was a nice day for a bike ride and Bob needed to go to the Verizon cell phone store to check out a new phone.  We ended up riding to the Verizon store on Lapeer Road. 

We cut to the back of the sub and headed west on Dutton to Squirrel.  Squirrel has been closed to through traffic for most the summer due to a repaving of the street project.  A good thing is they also added a new black top bike path along the west side all the way from Dutton to Silverbell.  This will make this a nice route to ride when going north.  When we got to Silverbell we looked both left and right to check for bike paths for future rides.  It appeared the bike path ended very soon to the right but it continued all the way to Lapeer Road in the direction we were heading. 

Once we got to Lapeer Road we road along the shoulder and along a few narrow dirt paths on the east side of the street since there aren’t any bike paths along Lapeer.  We ended up riding through parking lots, on a few sidewalks that spanned a couple businesses here and there and right across a few grass sections when we had no other options.  Lapeer is just way too busy of a road to even attempt to ride a bike.  The speed limit is 50 or maybe even 55 along this stretch, which means people are driving 70.  You won’t catch me out in traffic at those kinds of speeds.  People behind the wheel of motorized vehicles are dangerous enough when they are going 30 or 35 mph, it is crazy when they are going 60 or 70. 

We arrived at the Verizon store after a few minutes and Bob did his shopping.  A young lady showed Bob a few phones and answered his questions.  Bob didn’t buy a new phone this day, but I think he narrowed down the type of phone he was looking for a near term purchase. 

We hadn’t had lunch yet so we continued on heading north to downtown Lake Orion where we stopped for a late lunch at our favorite sandwich place, Poppy Seed.  If you are ever near Lake Orion and you are looking for a place to get a quick meal we highly recommend Poppy Seed.  We took our sandwiches and sat outside at one of the small stainless steel tables they have in front.  It was a perfect afternoon to eat a meal outside.  We took our time and relaxed for a little while before jumping back on our bikes for the ride home. 

After lunch we cut over and took Paint Creek Trail (PCT) south toward home.  We got off the trail at Gunn Road and took it east until we got to Adams.  We rode past the new elementary school, Delta Kelly, at the corner of Gunn and Adams.  As we approached Silverbell I asked Bob if he had ever tried the new Carvel ice cream place in the shopping center at Adams and Silverbell.  I had never been there myself, but I had heard people talking about it so I new it was there, Bob didn’t even know the place existed.  You don’t have to twist Bob’s arm too hard to get him to stop for ice cream.  We parked our bikes in front and went inside to get some desert.  I asked the guy how long he had been open and he told me just over one year.  I got a soft sever cone of chocolate and vanilla twist.  It was OK, but it was too creamy for my taste.  I like the soft sever a bit grainery.  Bob got a couple scoops of two flavors and he said his was really good.  Not a bad place, a bit pricey, but all the new fancy ice cream stores seem to be pricey.  Apparently Carvel originates from the east coast and they are very popular out there.  They have just recently started expanding to other areas of the country.  

After our ice cream we did the short side ride down Adams to our home area .  Over all it was a very enjoyable afternoon ride. 

Following are the statistics from the ride, 16.5 miles total, 19.9 max mph, 1 hour and 37 minutes time on bikes and 10.3 average mph.
David Lindquist