Sunday October 29, 2006 Pete, Paul and I did a morning ride.  This weekend we gained an extra hour due to day light savings time.  So, when I rode over to Pete's house to pick up Pete and Paul at 8:00 am it actually felt more like 9:00 am and I had already been up and about for a few hours.  My body clock takes a couple days to adjust to the time change.  Sense I was up for a few hours I had to eat breakfast at home before jumping on my bike, I was just too hungry to wait until we rode somewhere.

It was cold, but not bitterly cold so we didn't have to bundle up too much for this ride.  It was in the mid 30's when we started and the wind was fairly stiff, so a good windbreaker was important for this day.  I also wore my thin head cover to protect my ears and neck from the cool wind.

I think out of habit we rode straight to the Greek Island.  I think Pete was hungry, but both Paul and I weren't ready to eat yet so we decided to keep riding.  Pete said he was hungry and he definitely wanted to stop to eat.  We all agreed to ride just a little further and then stop for something quick to eat.  We got as far as the McDonalds on Rochester Road south of Walton almost all the way to Avon.  Pete got his usual breakfast burrito that he really enjoys from McDonalds.  I got a ham egg and cheese Mcgriddle breakfast sandwich.  I can't remember if Paul got anything to eat or not, it seems like he might have waited outside for us without getting anything, but I'm not sure.

After our short stop at McDonalds we kept riding for a while longer.  I thought the wind might slow down after a while, but it didn't.  The wind kept going making the riding a little more difficult than normal.  Pete used his air horn to get the attention of the driver of a car that wasn't looking our direction as we approached a driveway of one of the shopping centers on Rochester Road.  I am ashamed we have to use our air horns so often, but it is just a sad reflection of how the average driver has no clue how to properly look out for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Our friend and fellow pinball collector Rick was having a problem with one of his games, it was hockey themed game.  We headed west over to Rick's house on Crooks.  We planned to stop in and help him fix the game.  Paul was going to bowl a few games on Rick's really cool old electro-mechanical ball bowler.  Once we got to Rick's we visited for a minute before getting to work.  Paul enjoyed the ball bowler and he also spent some time playing the newest pinball game in Rick's collection, Elvis.  The Elvis game is only a year or so old and Rick got it brand new, so it is in excellent condition and a really fun game to play.  After fixing Rick's game we spent a couple minutes playing a few games as well.  Rick has a great set up in his basement with a wide variety of games including a great pinball collection spanning many decades of game types.  I think I mentioned this before, but I'm not really sure so I will mention it again.  Rick finished his basement himself and in the bathroom he installed a urinal like you would find in a public restroom.  Pete thinks the urinal is a very cool feature of Rick's basement and he uses it every time we visit Rick.  I think he uses it whether he needs to or not just because he thinks it is so cool to have a urinal in a house.  It was time to say farewell to Rick and start our ride back home.  We put our jackets, head cover, gloves and helmets back on in preparation for the final leg of this day's ride.

Shortly after leaving Rick's we were making good time heading back home when Paul and I noticed that Pete had fallen a ways behind.  Paul and I stopped and looked back to see why Pete had gotten so far behind.  We quickly noticed Pete was walking his bike.  At first I wasn't sure if Pete had just gotten tired and decided to walk up the incline Paul and I had just finished riding up, or if he had bike trouble.  We waited for Pete and as he walked up closer to us it was obvious he had another flat tire.  The reason I say another flat tire is it seems Pete has had a rash of flat tires in recent rides.  We all started walking as we discussed our options.  Paul took off on his own to ride home.  I walked a few more minutes with Pete before we decided I should just take off for home and then head back in my PT Cruiser and give Pete and his disabled bike a lift home.  Our average speed on this day was not a true reflection of the decent pace we were riding this day due to the time walking.  It took me a little while to get home and head back to find Pete.  I called Pete on his cell phone to find his current location.  We hooked up quickly and we loaded his bike into the back of the PT.  After you fold the rear seats down the PT actually has a fair amount of room.  Pete's bike fit in nicely after we took off the front tire.  After a short car ride I dropped Pete and his bike off at his house.  For some reason Pete has had bad luck with flat tires.  Early on in the bike club history I got 3 or 4 flat tires in a row before Pete got his first flat tire.  Now it seems the trend has changed and it is Pete that is getting multiple flat tires in a row.  I wonder if I am going to start breaking spokes which was Pete's reoccurring problem early in our bike club experience.  I'm not sure Pete would agree due to how the ride ended for him, but I certainly had a good time this day including the visit to Rick's and the fact that I got the chance to get out and have a nice ride on a brisk fall weekend day.

Following are the statistics from the ride, 17.5 miles total, 25.0 max mph, 1 hour and 41 minutes time on bikes and 10.4 average mph.
David Lindquist