On Sunday May 8, 2005 it was mother's day and Barry and Carol had invited us over.  Barry called with a  good idea of doing a bike ride around his neighborhood.  Diane and Melissa were both working so it was just me , Jonathan and Max going to make the visit.  I stowed away the rear bench seat in the van and I loaded my bike and Tom's bike for the trip to Huntington Woods.  In addition to riding with Tom and Barry we also had a new member ride for the first time, Amanda.  Amanda is our second female member and by far our youngest member to date.  Welcome to the club Amanda. 

Barry was kind enough to write the story for this ride, and I think he did a great job.  I found it very informative and interesting.  Following are the statistics from this ride; 13.2 total miles, 20.5 max speed, 8.2 mph average speed and a total time moving on bikes of 1 hour and 35 minutes.  The one thing Barry forgot to mention in his story is the new one lap speed record that was set by me, on the dirt track around the baseball field at a city park.  I did it in 55 seconds which now stands as the new record.  Following is Barry's story, I'm sure you will enjoy.  Thanks again for writing the story Barry.

David Lindquist 

Last Sunday, Mother’s Day, David asked me to write a guest column about the bike ride we took after our excellent barbecue dinner.  He said, “Barry, you know the route we took and the landmarks we saw, so you can write about them and be our very first guest columnist.”  I agreed to do so, but have been so busy this week that it took until now to get around to it.  Here goes….. 

First, let me tell you about the participants.  There was David of course, Tom, myself (Barry), and my lovely daughter Amanda J. Friedman, M.S., PA-C.  Her mom and I are kind of proud of her.  She just graduated from the Physician’s Assistant program at Wayne Sate University, thus all the letters after her name. 

The weather could not have been nicer.  It was probably in the upper 60’s or lower 70’s with a beautiful sky.   

We began our journey at my house in Huntington Woods.  Initially, we headed west on Lincoln Dr. into Oak Park.  We then went south on Kipling St.,  passing the house of my sister Debbie on Ludlow St.  We continued down Kipling until we turned west on Winchester St.  Heading west on Winchester I was pleased to find a shiny new 2004 “Iowa” quarter.  We then got to Balfour park, which goes over interstate 696.  There were some kids playing on the toys there, being watched carefully by their parents.   

We traveled a bit farther along the freeway (there are parks along the path it takes through Oak Park) until we reached Rothstein Park.  Again we saw kids playing on the toys while their parents were watching.  We then crossed over the freeway and headed down Church St.  On Church St. we coincidentally passed a synagogue and a temple.  The synagogue is where I once attended Hebrew school.  Lots of bad memories there!   

After crossing Ten Mile Rd. we came upon Oak Park Park (now called Shepherd Park).  It is named after the former mayor-for-life of Oak Park David Shepherd.  He was an OK guy though.  He used to live right behind me when I lived in Oak Park (more about that later).  My friends and I used to pound whiffle and tennis balls of the back wall of his family room and his roof.  This went on for ten or twelve years and not once did he ever give us any trouble.  Anyway, back to the park.  This is the park that Tom used to call Oak Oak Park when he was a kid.  Tom used to love to play on the train there.  So did Amanda.  So, while David, Tom and I rode up Hamilton Hill (a.k.a. Oak Park Hill), Amanda played on the train.  She spent a good fifteen minutes there, and appeared to make some new friends.  All of whose ages added together would not equal hers.  David decided to ride down the steep side of the hill (used by sledders in the winter).  Tom then joined him.  They each did this four or five times.  David was unable to ride the full way back up each time, but Tom made it once.  Congrats Tom!   

We finally left the park and headed south on a combination of streets that led us to my old house on Whitmore St.  Oh yes, while traveling down Church St. again we were spotted by a cop who followed us for half a block.  Then suddenly he turned on his lights, put the pedal to the metal and was off like a bullet.  He turned at the next corner, but we never saw him again.  At my old street we looked at my old house.  It still looks pretty much the same, except that there is now a bay window in the living room.  I had a nice few minutes thinking about all the neighbors I had back then.  I pointed out my old elementary school which was behind the houses directly across the street from my house.  I showed them the secret cut off that allowed access to the school property from my street.  Then we passed the back side of the old Detroit Artillery Armory.  The Armory is long since gone, but not the memories of sneaking through holes cut in the fence to climb on the military hardware that was parked there.  Or being chased off by the MP’s and escaping through the holes in the nick of time. 

Next we passed the Einstein Elementary school.  Rumor has it that it was named after some really smart guy.  We next headed by my old junior high school, Clinton.  David wanted to know why it was named after Bill Clinton back in the 60’s when nobody knew who he was until the 80’s.  I couldn’t answer that one.  Amanda also attended this school when she was in high school.  It was where all the smart kids went for advanced classes like AP physics and AP chemistry.  Amanda won awards and scholarships for her excellent work in the sciences. 

The next landmark we passed was my old high school, Oak Park High School.  It still looks the same on the outside as always.  I was inside last September and I must say that it looks better than it did when I went there.  Unfortunately the old passage at the south end of the football field is now fenced off, so we couldn’t cut through there and ride around the track.  I’ll bet that’s why they fenced it off, to keep morons like us off the track with our bikes. 

We then headed for Coolidge Hwy.  On the way we passed my grandparents old apartment on Geoffrey Ct.  They lived next door to Chuck Zakalik.  Chuck is the neurologist who took care of former Red Wing Vladimir Konstantinov after the limo accident that ended his hockey career.  I wonder how he is doing these days.  It has been a while since I last heard anything about him. 

Heading north on Coolidge we passed several churches, middle eastern bakeries, some other assorted shops and a shopping center.  At the freeway I warned everyone about the nitwits who turn off of Coolidge at high rates of speed.  Luckily they listened.  Tom and I made it across easily, but Amanda and David had a harder time.  Four morons turned in front of them, not yielding the right-of-way.  Shortly thereafter we returned home. 

After having a (soft) drink David and I headed out again. This time we stayed in Huntington Woods (mostly).  We actually were in Royal Oak for a bit as we passed behind the Detroit Zoo.  It was late by then and no animals were seen.  But we could hear them.  We chatted briefly about Winky and Wanda, the former residents of the elephant compound. 

Next we passed by the new house being built at Nadine and Huntington.  The old one burned down last year.  This one looks like an office building, specifically a doctor’s office.  A guy driving by Amanda and I at the same place two days later agreed with this assessment.   

The last thing we did was cross back in to Oak Park again and go to the house of my friend Burt.  Burt wasn’t home according to his son Matt.  So, David plastered a PCT Bike Club Sticker on the storm door and we left. 

I probably should mention that all had a great time at the dinner.  We had barbequed steak, hamburgers, cheeseburgers and hot dogs.  We also had potato salad, fruit salad and corn on the cob.  For desert we had lemon meringue pie and brownies. 

Well I hope you enjoyed this summary of the ride we took on Mother’s Day.  It has been my honor to be the first guest columnist.  Take that Pete!  Keep peddling! 

Barry