Saturday August 12, 2006 Pete and I did a breakfast ride that turned into a relatively long ride.  We started out early with the intention of eating breakfast at the Greek Island.  I rode over and met Pete at his house at 8:00 am.  It was actually a little cool when we started which was kind of nice for a change of pace.  We have had a very warm summer up to this point and the temperature this morning was in the mid 50s when I left my house.  I put on a second shirt which was long sleeve due to the temperature.  I ended up stowing the extra shirt later in the day as the temperature went up, but I was glad to have it early in the ride. 

We took our regular route to the Greek Island to have our usual breakfast specials.  While we were getting off our bikes in front of the Greek Island a guy came walking over and started a conversation with us.  I think the guy might have been off a little, but I’m not sure.  Pete was very nice to him and we both listened to him tell us long stories about his adventures of bike riding when he had to ride a bike to work back when he lost his car, or wheels as he put it.  I was ready to walk away from the guy when he wouldn’t stop talking.  Pete was very polite and patient with this guy.  I was about ready to check Pete’s pulse to make sure he was feeling OK.  This guy told us he rode 10,000 miles in just one year.  Then he told us he learned that parts wear out when you put on so many miles, which is very true.  His next statement I think was when he started getting carried away.  He told us he had to replace his chain every 500 miles.  That would mean he went through 20 chains in that year he rode 10,000 miles, which is a little unbelievable.  He also told us some stories about when he was on the cross country running team in high school.  Just when I thought this guy was never going to shut up he stopped and walked away.  Finally we went inside to eat.  I am trying to cut down on the diet cokes so I ordered orange juice with my meal.  Pete ordered his eggs under-easy which got a strange look from the waitress, but she didn’t say anything so I assume Pete got his eggs as ordered. 

With full stomachs and energy to burn we continued our ride over toward downtown Rochester to the Library.  Pete needed to return the book that he had borrowed a couple weeks before.  This time Pete went to the drive up drop off boxes to return the book.  I took advantage of the Library being open and went inside to use the restroom before continuing with our ride.  You just can’t beat a Library’s restroom, they are always the cleanest around. 

Neither one of us had any plans for a while so we had plenty of time to keep riding.  We decided to head over to the Clinton River Trail (CRT) and then to the Macomb Orchard Trail (MOT).  I know I have reported many times how fortunate we are to have such nice trails in our area, but it is true and worth repeating.  These two trails in combination with our namesake Paint Creek Trail (PCT) give us a lot of options to riding in the streets or along the paths of main roads.  It is much quieter and peaceful when riding on the trails. 

We stayed on MOT all the way to its current paved end near 29 Mile Road and Van Dyke.  We crossed Van Dyke and went to the party store on the east side of the road to get a drink.  By this point we had been riding for quite a while and also riding at a relatively fast pace, so we were both in need of some liquid refreshment.  There were some shady looking characters sitting in a pickup truck outside the store and we didn’t feel like locking our bikes so we decided to take turns going into the store to purchase our drinks.  I went first and based on Tom’s recommendation from a previous ride I got an orange gatoraid, which was very good.  Pete went in next and he came out with a gallon jug of water.  I started laughing when I saw Pete tipping the large plastic gallon jug of water up to his mouth for a drink.  I just shook my head and asked Pete what he was thinking.  And, Pete always has an answer.  He told me he was just about to buy a regular size bottle of water for a certain price when he noticed he could buy the same brand of water in a much larger size for a lower price.  So, Pete’s logic was he got more water and actually saved money.  It made sense, but I still laughed at him and I took a couple pictures with my phone and will post them at the bottom of this page. 

The next question I had for Pete was about how he planned to carry the large container of water because he obviously wasn’t going to drink all that water at this one stop.  Now that I think about it, I believe this was actually a special bonus jug of water where you get an extra 8 ounces for the price of a gallon, so it was really even more than a gallon, it was 72 oz.  Pete unzipped his chili basket and placed the jug of water into the chili basket where it fit quite well.  Pete accidentally threw out the lid to the jug right when he opened it, so he no longer had a lid.  After riding with 12 pounds of rolled coins in his chili basket I guess a gallon of water is nothing to Pete. 

The ride back was at a fast pace, I think Pete was trying to average a certain speed and we maintained a fast pace the entire time on the return leg of the MOT.  Pete got a few hundred feet ahead of me on the return trip, but I kept him in sight.  At the point where we get off the trail in downtown Rochester Pete was sitting on a bench of a picnic table waiting for me.  As I turned the corner and saw Pete sitting there I noticed water splashed on the ground.  Pete told me he forgot he had the gallon jug in his chili basket and hit it with his foot when he was dismounting his bike.  Apparently he knocked his bike over and almost fell down during the process, which resulted in the water spillage. 

On our way home we rode back along side streets of Rochester.  Pete wanted to stop by the Rochester Bike Shop (RBS) for some reason which I can no longer remember.  As we pulled up to RBS we noticed an old white Pinto sitting parked in the street right across from the store.  You don’t see too many Pintos out on the roads anymore.  This Pinto car was in particularly good shape so I took out my phone and took a couple pictures.  See the end of this page for all the pictures I took this day including pictures of the Pinto. 

Once we were done at RBS we got back on our bikes and finished the ride home.  We ended up with a fairly high average speed for this ride, it was a good work out. 

Following are the statistics from the ride, 31.2 miles total, 21.0 max mph, 2 hours and 23 minutes time on bikes and 13.0 average mph. 
David Lindquist