This weekend Bob and I were planning to ride to our son’s soccer game on Sunday October 3, 2004.  We ended up not doing this at the last minute and I ended up going with Pete for a ride later that same day after we got back from the game.  Before I get into the ride story I want to say that Sunday was Diane’s birthday, I am very lucky to have such a wonderful wife.     

Sunday turned out to be another perfect day for bike riding and anything else you might want to do outside.  When Pete and I started out it was sunny and the temperature around the mid 60s.  It was just a little windy, but not bad at all.  By the time I got over to Pete’s house it was about 2:30 in the afternoon.  On the way to Pete’s house there is a residence that has an old dead birch tree out on their front lawn.  This particular house is on a corner lot and the tree is right out on the corner near the street.  The people that live there have a large parrot that they occasionally put out in the tree to hang out.  I think it is a blue and gold Macaw, which is a large bird.  I believe I have mentioned this bird before, but not for quite a while.  As I was turning the corner relatively fast on my bike I didn’t notice at first that the bird was out in the tree.  I think my bike momentarily heading straight for the tree must have scared the bird because he let out a very loud shriek just as I passed the tree.  Normally I do not get startled easy, like some people do, but circumstances must have just been right because when that bird shrieked I actually jumped out of my bike seat as I rode past.  I looked back over my shoulder to see it was indeed the parrot that had yelled at me as I rode past.   

Pete’s daughter Megan had a soccer game scheduled for later in the day.  Our goal was to get Pete back home by 5:15 pm so he could get ready for the game.  Without a whole lot of time to ride we decided to head over to the Hamlin Pub for a snack and watch a few minutes of football on TV.  We cut through Pete’s sub over to Dutton where we went east to the Paint Creek Trail (PCT).  When we went by Steve’s house I noticed him waving at us through a front window as we rode past.  Steve was too busy to ride this day.  If you follow our club at all I’m sure you are aware of the Dutton hill.  This is the hill on Dutton Road between Pete’s sub and PCT.  Riding up this hill is quite a challenge, and riding down the hill can actually be dangerous if you go too fast.  Dutton is a dirt road in that area and some days the road surface is extremely bumpy.  Usually we coast down this hill with our brakes partially on to keep from gathering too much speed.  Not sure why, but this day Pete decided to push the limit a little and go a bit faster than normal down the hill.  I was behind Pete and I decided to let him get a ways in front of me just in case he was to fall, the last thing I wanted to do was ride right over top of him as he skidded along the dirt road.  Since he was going so fast I figured the road surface must be fairly smooth and I let off my brakes and got going faster than normal.  The good news is neither one of us fell.  The road was not as smooth as I hoped so I started to slow down about ¾ of the way down the incline.  Once we got to the flat area we turned onto the PCT heading south.  We both checked our speedometers and I got up to 32.5 mph and I can’t remember exactly, but I think Pete got up to 31.8 mph.  Not bad for not pedaling and actually using the brakes to keep from going even faster.

We stayed on the trail to the end near the Library.  We kept on heading south down Rochester Road until we got to Hamlin Road where the Hamlin Pub is located on the north west corner.  It was crowed and smoky inside.  We sat a table where we both could see at least three different TVs at the same time.  They must have some special package that allows them to get all the NFL games.  Since we had both already eaten lunch our plan was to split an appetizer with our diet cokes.  Artichoke and spinach dip with chips is what we ordered and it was very good, we highly recommend this appetizer.  We could only stay about 40 minutes to keep on schedule and get Pete home on time.  Forty minutes was plenty of time to finish our snack and allow our clothes to become fully saturated with smoke.  The one nice thing about riding home is it is almost far enough to air out the smoke, but not quite.

We decided to head west on Drexelgate toward Livernois.  About half way on Drexelgate there is a nice down hill stretch.  Pete must have had speed on the brain, because he decided to go for a new speed record on this downhill section.  When we got to the crest of the hill we both put our bikes in high gear and started pedaling fast.  I didn’t get above the 32.5 mph I had reached earlier so my speed didn’t record.  Pete got up to 33.9 mph, which is pretty good for this road.  We will continue to try and better our speed record of 36.1 mph. 

Pete needed a new pair of hockey socks so we rode by the sports store in the shopping center near the northwest corner of Walton and Livernois.  I just waited outside and Pete ran in to make his purchase.  After a couple minutes we were back riding toward home.  As I mentioned earlier the parrot was out in the tree on the way to Pete’s house and I thought if he was still out after splitting up with Pete on the way back to my house I would take his picture with my new camera phone.  No luck, the parrot must have been back inside because he was gone when I rode past.  I did take a couple pictures with my camera phone just to see how they would turn out while riding.  See below for the pictures.

Jonathan and Mark’s soccer team had two more games since the last update.  They played on Saturday October 2 and Sunday October 3 both games against other RYSL teams at Borden Park.  We won Saturday 10-0.  We also won Sunday 5-3, but we made it a bit challenging for the boys by playing the whole first half short one player and in the second half we asked one of the boys who had never played goalie before to play that position.  Even though some of the boys and parents got a little nervous we still won and we are still undefeated. 

Following are the statistics from this ride.  15.5 total miles, 32.5 and 33.9 max speeds, 10.6 mph average speed and total time moving on bikes of 1 hour and 26 minutes. 

Thanks for checking in.

David Lindquist