Bike Ride Sunday April 10, 2005
Tom called just after we started riding to let us know he wouldn’t be attending this day.  It was a beautiful day, probably the nicest one of the year so far.  It was nice to be able to ride with shorts and just a light jacket.  Bob and Pete joined me on this ride.  The sun was out and the temperature was in the mid 50s when we started and in the mid 60s at the end. 

I picked up Bob at his house at 10:30 am and we rode over to Brewster to meet Pete.  We didn’t have any firm plans for this ride.  I had been under the weather for the past couple days, but I was feeling much better on this Sunday and I figured the fresh air would do me well.  Bob had been working hard around his house the past couple days and he was raking his front lawn as I pulled up on my bike.  Bob had already developed a strong appetite and was thinking about Hamlin Pub for lunch.  When we met up with Pete a few minutes later it was obvious Pete was tired.  Apparently in addition to Pete’s late night hockey game on Friday he helped a friend from work move on Saturday.  Working on Saturday, especially physical labor necessary while carrying boxes out of the old and into a new house, is a far cry from Pete’s normal Saturday afternoon activity, napping.  At one point I think Pete might have actually fallen asleep while riding on the way home after lunch.  

Sense we decided to eat lunch at Hamlin Pub Pete thought it would be fun to do an easy ride through some of the flat trails at Bloomer.  Bob and I agreed and off we headed for Bloomer.  On the way to Bloomer we took PCT (Paint Creek Trail) from Tienken to downtown Rochester.  The trail was in midseason form.  It was dry and solid in very good condition for riding.  It was good to be back out on the trail again.  After coming out of Bloomer we wouldn’t be far from the Pub.  Bob led us through a few of the trails at Bloomer.  We ended up having to do a few hills in the park, but not too bad.  The water levels have already started to return to their normal levels in the rivers in the park.  Even though PCT was dry and firm the trails in Bloomer Park were still soggy in places.  Many of the trails at Bloomer are carved through large trees and are shaded a majority of the day.  Being in the shade these trails take a bit longer to dry out in the spring.   

After Bloomer we continued south on John R Road on our way to Auburn Road.  The house with the longest circular driveway in Rochester Hills in located on the west side of John R just south of Avon.  Pete loves to ride through circular drives, but he has never done this longest one.  As we approached the long drive Bob ask Pete if he was going to do it today, Pete said he was too tired as we rode past on the bike path.  Once we got to Auburn Road we went into the new subdivision on the south side on the site of the old golf course.  If you were following our adventures last year you might remember that Pete was taking sections of a green from this old course and then placing them into an area of his lawn.  We spent a few days riding around and cutting up sod at this site as the subdivision was just getting started.  This day we entered on an actual street and everything looked very different.  It felt kind of strange riding through this area.  They are really packing the houses in tightly and they all look the same.   

After cruising  through the new sub we came back out onto Auburn and we crossed the road onto the north side in the middle of the street once the traffic cleared.  Pete had taken his jacket off and had it tied either to his body or bike.  While crossing the street Pete’s jacket fell off right in the middle of Auburn Road.  A couple cars almost ran it over and Pete had to double back to retrieve his fallen jacket.  He ended up holding up traffic for a few seconds when he finally ran out to pick it up.    

Once we got to the Pub I was ready for lunch.  They were running their burger, fries and beer special for $3.99.  We all ordered the burger special, but we got Diet Coke instead of beer.  In addition to Hamlin Pub’s food always being outstanding they also have the best Diet Coke on tap, and we have tried the Diet Coke at a lot of places.  For a minute I thought Pete was going to attempt a new record for the most pops, he drank two before I had drank a quarter of mine.  He ended up tapering off and fell way short of a new record.   

A strange and somewhat disappointing trend was happening both before and after lunch.  Much more than the usual amount of people in cars were not paying any attention to pedestrians and bicyclists.  We really had to be paying close attention in order not to be hit by people driving cars pulling into and out of driveways and at side streets.  It is a shame that our society has deteriorated to the point where so many people only care about themselves and aren’t even bright enough to properly look in both directions before proceeding.  What I really find amazing is that so many people don’t even understand the rules of the road.  They don’t understand when pedestrians and bicyclists have the right of way at driveways and side streets.  I used my loud air horn so much this day it ran out of air.  Bob came close to being hit more than once and Pete was so disgusted that he is now planning to buy a loud air horn and mount it to his bike similar to mine.  Drivers not paying attention is by far the most dangerous aspect of this hobby of mine.   

After lunch we took one of our popular routes through side streets back home.  I guess lunch must have given Pete a little extra energy because at one point Pete rode through four consecutive circular drives.  The entrance to each drive was right next to the exit of the previous driveway.   

A couple days earlier I had used my special chain cleaner with a degreasing solution and I also cleaned up the rest of my bike.  It had started looking quite dirty and it is difficult to do a good cleaning during the winter.  I also adjusted the brake and gear cables so in addition to my bike now looking good everything is operating good.  If I get ambitious over the next day or two I think I will tighten and clean all the spokes and give the frame a coat of wax.  So the next time you see me riding by you might just think I have new bike, when in reality just a cleaned up version.  

Following are the statistics from this ride; 22.5 total miles, 26.0 max speed, 9.8 average mph and 2 hour and 18 minutes total time moving on bikes.

David Lindquist