Back to Hickory Glen---Junior League Football

The mountain bike tour was off to Hickory Glen Park in Commerce last night. I was lone rider on the tour and also on the trail. Not one soul out there. The ride was quite enjoyable. The temperature when I started was in the eighties but had to have dropped close to ten degrees by the time I got finished with the front coming in. Luckily, I was able to finish the ride before the storm came through. It wasn’t Katrina but that was some fierce rain in the Commerce area around 7 pm. It was, however, a beautiful evening (pictured) after the storm passed.

While enjoying a post ride soda pop, I watched a bit of the football junior leaguers and their many coaches practice. It kind of brought back some memories of my junior high football career (cue the “way back machine”/dream sequence). I must say we were pretty good in seventh grade but unfortunately that was probably our peak. I will never forget the Muir game where Al and Jim caught touchdown passes in our domination of the lowly Hawkeyes. Throwing in seventh grade was quite rare; everybody ran the ball. Al had a sweet pair of black high top cleats and had guys bouncing off of him. Jim had his backyard football moves that nobody could touch (he was at his best in the snow). Due to my large cranium, my helmet was odd to say the least. It had to have been from the sixties. Rather than being round, it kind of bubbled where the ear holes were at. It wasn’t much of a chick magnet, that’s for sure.

We got a dose of reality, however, in eighth grade. With a limited budget, they combined the seventh and eighth grade teams and I guess I’m a little bitter but I don’t think other teams played the amount of seventh graders that we did. Needless to say, we lost to Muir that year and everybody else. My main memory was watching Muir RB Darryl Barr (“Darryl Star”) run around end and I swear I could feel the ground rumble. He was a man child but unfortunately his junior high legend status was never equaled in high school.

(dream sequence over)

That is all for now. Sorry to throw you in the “way back machine” but it’s always nice to go back every so often. Have a great holiday weekend.

Trail Head

Dear Mr. Fantasy...

Well, I have finally done it. After years of heckling and advising them to get a life, I have joined the world of the fantasy football geeks. Jim M. and I are co-owners of a team. We need a team name so if anybody out there has any ideas, throw them at me. The draft was this past weekend at Roger's house. Well, I wouldn't really call it a draft. The league is set up in a way where nobody loses any of their players from the previous year unless they give them up. With that, all of the good players were gone when Jim and I had our pick. No whining from us though. We'll make do with our aging, injury-prone team. A handful of team owners were not in attendance and calling in their picks so the draft process was ugly (and eventually loud) to say the least. Attached is a picture from the draft party. Beer and Kentucky Fried Chicken. It doesn't get any better than that, eh? I must say my sides hurt laughing when the topic somehow came to "The Fox and the Hound" cartoon movie and Roger and Champ were doing their voice impersonations of the characters, "Hey Copper!" I guess you had to be there but it was pretty funny.

That is about all from the fantasy football world. Don't worry, I won't be using this medium to detail my game results and who I'm going to play each week because I honestly don't think anybody really cares except the person who owns the team.

Lastly, hard to believe it but college football starts this upcoming weekend. I'm hoping for a surprise from the Spartans (aren't we every year?) and even the Motor City Bowl would be an accomplishment. We'll see.

Trail Head

Dropping Some NYC

It was off to New York City this past weekend to embrace the Big Apple and see the Tigers take on the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

The flight in on Friday morning was pretty sweet with incredible views of Manhattan, the National Tennis Center where the U.S. Open is held, and Shea Stadium, home of the Mets. Doke and I dropped the bags off at the hotel and dug in for some sightseeing. Jim had a later flight and was meeting up with us later. Little did we know he would have a bad Northwest experience but you’ll have to ask him about that yourself.

We couldn’t ask for a better location for the hotel; right at the foot of Central Park. The first jaunt was to the park and The Dakota where John Lennon lived and had his unfortunate final day. The Strawberry Field section of the park had an “imagine” symbol in the sidewalk with many Lennon tributes surrounding it. From there we walked a bit further north within the park and got some visuals of the lawn sleepers. There sure were quite a few of those unfortunate folks. I hope I never become a lawn sleeper. The park itself was beautiful. Many large trees, huge chiseled rocks, and well maintained lawns throughout. We made it up to the American Museum of Natural History just outside the park and took in some dinosaur viewing and a pretty cool “Cosmic Collision” movie at the planetarium. We hoofed it back into the park after that for our first $6 beer. That was pretty much the going rate for beer in the city. What can you do? Enjoy every sip! We managed to get a little turned around in the park (I forgot my compass) but found our way after seeing the boat pond twice. My bad. I had to chuckle throughout the trip because everything we were seeing had some form of Seinfeld reference it seemed. Everything from Rusty the handsome cab horse to Famous Original Ray’s Pizza to the Rickshaws (pedaled, not human driven) to Papaya King hot dogs. After working up a thirst there, we ventured over to Kennedy’s Bar for a couple more soda pops.

It was time to finally check into our room. If you are looking for a spacious room, the Hudson Hotel is not for you, however, the place had kind of a “euro” feel to it. Not that I’ve ever been to Europe but the place was definitely artsy (and well decorated throughout). We didn’t come to New York to watch television so the place did the trick.

Jim called and advised he was still in Detroit so Doke and I got our second wind and tackled the Times Square area down Broadway. We walked by the David Letterman/Ed Sullivan Theater but unfortunately they don’t tape on Friday’s. All I can say about Times Square is damn those are some large advertisements. It is quite a scene but not if you are a timid walker. People are everywhere! In addition, we came upon all of the Broadway theaters. It seems like nobody can write anything new these days; it’s all movies made into plays. There is a play made from Legally Blonde and another from Young Frankenstein. The theaters were definitely not in short supply. We had some good grub at the Playwright Tavern and after about two or three bars after that, finally found a place (ESPN Zone) that had the Tigers/Yankees game on the television. Jim got in late on Friday so we would meet up with him on Saturday morning.

The subway was our mission on Saturday for the trip to Yankee Stadium. I studied my subway map pretty intensely and was ready to tackle this mass transit system. There was a station right near our hotel that had a train heading to Yankee Stadium so we were in luck. We had to hoof Jim down a few stairs but it wasn’t too bad. Overall, the trip was pretty efficient. We got to the stadium stop in less than thirty minutes but now we had to find our way out of the maze. The elevator never seemed to get us to street level but we eventually made our way. Jim spotted Todd Jones right at the corner and I gave him a “good luck Jonesy.” He nodded and was on his way. He was our only celebrity sighting for the weekend. After grabbing a bite to eat, we made it around the park and took in a few visuals of the outside, including a pretty cool mural of some Yankee greats.
With my Mark Fidrych jersey on, the older New York fans came up and asked about “The Bird” and his legacy. You can’t hate “The Bird.” We got into the stadium and took in the entire aura of the place. We had hoped to make it into Monument Park in left field but got turned around one too many times and didn’t have a chance. If you ever thought Tiger Stadium had small concourses, you haven’t seen anything like the ones at Yankee Stadium. It’s not for the claustrophobic. The seats weren’t too bad but we were under an overhang so high fly balls were out of sight. The Tigers unfortunately lost but boy did Cameron Maybin launch one off of Roger Clemens. I must say when they played Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” when Mariano Rivera came into pitch; I had goosebumps on my arm. It’s like they choreographed his entrance. It had an intimidating factor about it and was awesome. Whomever plays the music at Yankee Stadium does a great job. The place was rocking. They must have to have good music because the PA announcer puts you to sleep. Slowwwwww (long pause) talkerrrrrrrr. After the game we had a cocktail while waiting for the mob of people that were moving to the subway. It surprisingly wasn’t too bad getting back on the train and we were headed back to home base to ready ourselves for the evening.

We had a great meal at Virgil’s BBQ that evening which was not too far from Jim’s hotel on 51st Street. The meal surprisingly didn’t slow us down as large portions sometimes do. Before we knew it, it was past 2:30 am and it was time to call it a day. They are correct in this city does not sleep. Greg crashed at Jim’s hotel (extra bed in his) and I walked home admiring the street ladies who were soliciting anybody and everybody. I passed.

With limited sleep, we slowly got the motors moving on Sunday morning. Our mission was to hit the sights near the south portion of town. Again, we tackled the subway. The train was pretty packed and the poor girl who was standing near me on the train got a solid whack of my elbow right on the top of her forehead. She was close to bawling right then and there. Sorry! We made it down near Greenwich Village and took in some sights at Washington Square. More lawn sleepers were in attendance in addition to some crack dealers soliciting anybody and everybody. It was a wild scene there. We hitched a cab to ground zero. The area is pretty closed off but you could get a sense of how huge the area was that came down. We took off on foot to Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Battery Park for a view of the Statue of Liberty. It started to drizzle a bit so we took a cab up to Madison Square Garden. I thought I was going to hurl in the cab because I was in the front seat and our driver was on a mission and usually didn’t use his brakes until the last second. We took off on foot back towards my hotel with stops every ten blocks or so for a cold one. Needless to say, we were exhausted when we got back to the hotel and the rain was picking up a bit. Rather than head out again, we ordered a pizza from Original Famous Ray’s and took it back to the room. Good pie.

All in all, it was a fun trip. While I'm not sure they were all from New York City and maybe it's the numbers that do it; but darn there are some beautiful women there.

That is all my friends.

Trail Head

Cleansing of the Soul

It was off to the back roads of America for a

posse of five. Two from Maine, two from Michigan, and one from Georgia. The destination was southern Missouri/northern Arkansas for some curvy road riding, civil war site viewing and a family visit for yours truly. My aunt/uncle/cousins live in northern Arkansas in the heart of the Ozarks. Beautiful country (but a dry county, AHHHH!!!!).

We took off on Sunday morning from Upper Sandusky, Ohio with rain to left, rain to the right and rain straight ahead. Little did we know that the cool rain would be the only rain we would encounter and that the temperature was going to rise significantly. The rain stopped about when we got into Indiana and we had a beautiful drive through the southern portion of the state on Route 50 through Hoosier National Forest. We got to the Indiana/Illinois border and decided to call it a day in Vincennes, Indiana.

We were on a mission on day two to make it to Springfield, Missouri, probably 400+ miles from where we were starting. The temperature was rising quickly so we got going early in the morning. The ride through Illinois was pretty lame to be quite honest. If it wasn’t for Chicago, I don’t know what that state would be good for. Nothing but flat terrain with corn fields and hot pavement (sorry to any Illinois' natives). We made it to Missouri just in time for lunch in Cape Girardeau, a nice little historic village on the banks of the Mississippi. With temperatures reaching close to 100 degrees by this time, that first beer was quite a treat. Route 34 and Route 60 took us through Mark Twain National Forest and some beautiful scenery throughout. Chuck Chenevert is an experienced rider and can dart through those “S” curves pretty well but I’ll admit it, I go pretty much granny speed through them but am getting better each year. Those semis that cruise through the back roads like they are driving a convertible scare the heck out of me. I always seem to come upon them right at the turns. Okay, enough of my crying. We hit dusk with what we thought was maybe 100 miles to go until Springfield but the next sign said 170+ so morale took a little shot in the rear. The sun setting was a blessing because the temperatures cooled off to a chilly 80-85 degrees by that time. It wasn’t much of a drop but it was just what we needed for the last push into Springfield for our two day stay there.

We took off down Route 39 out of Springfield and the beauty grew as each mile we put on. We came upon an impressive lake (reservoir?) called Table Rock Lake. Later on I found out my cousin and her husband have a house boat on the lake. I’ll have to head back there in the near future. From a rest area, we could see the Ozarks in the distance. They aren’t large but they are beautiful, green rolling hills. We got into Arkansas and hit Route 62 through Eureka Springs. I remember Eureka Springs as a kid and it hadn’t changed much. Beautiful, curvy roads on the ridge of the hills but unfortunately the area is tourist-ville and Ken and I got stuck behind tourist number one going two miles an hour. They even have hotels specifically for motorcyclists in the area (pictured). We met up with the others in front of us for lunch and many liquid refreshments to combat the heat. I had planned to go with the others to Pea Ridge Civil War site but time was short and my mission was to see my Aunt Pat, Uncle Joe, and their family who live in Harrison, AR. With that, I split from the group and we’d all meet up at the hotel later that night.

I hadn’t seen my aunt/uncle in probably 20 years and the last memories I have there is the country house they had on ten or so acres and going to run some coon dogs with my cousin Mike. Well, times have changed. They now live in a neighborhood that backs up to a golf course and replaced ten acres with one. I guess you can say they are now city dwellers. The house is beautiful. My Aunt Pat did a great job decorating the place. She was gracious enough to let me put my motorcycle in the garage with the temperature again reaching near 100 degrees. While my Uncle Joe recently had a stroke that has slowed him down a bit, he still cracked me up with some of the dirt he had on my dad. His memory is still strong. My dad and Joe went to different catholic schools and both played football. Joe played linebacker and Dad played quarterback so something had to give. Joe said he got some licks into my old man and blocked a punt for his team’s only score but his team lost pretty well. I also got to see my cousin Kathy, her husband Steve, and her kids Derek and Josh. All good people. What topped it all off was a great chicken dinner from Aunt Pat with all the goodies on the side. It was great to see my family roots and I hope it’s not another 20 years until I see them again. I made it back to Springfield that night with some good memories and a belly full of food.

We had made it as far west as we were going to go on this trip and it was back to the east. With the group heading every which way back home, Kentucky was chosen as a nice destination for the day, specifically Bowling Green, home of the Corvette and Western Kentucky University. We bushwhacked in the morning to get some miles behind us before the extreme heat kicked it. The ride through Kentucky, as it always is, was beautiful. While they are lacking on taverns, they make up for it with rolling hills and twisting roads. We took Route 68 most of the way and through a section called “Land Between the Lakes,” which I had visited on a previous trip. The land is sandwiched between two large bodies of water, Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. We made it into Bowling Green around dusk. In the distance I could see the beer store and I was a thirsty boy. I walked to it with my riding stench shooting from my pores but I honestly didn’t care at this point. I was on a mission for my group. While making small talk with the cashier and asking where her accent was, it turns out she was from Eaton Rapids, Michigan, and had just moved down there. I hope the liquor store is not her pinnacle in life.

The next morning, Dan split from the group back towards his home state of Georgia. The rest of us continued on Route 68 through Lexington. Speaking of Lexington and Route 68, there is a beautiful motorcycle riding road about a half an hour south of the city. The cave and bridge pictures are from there. We got through Lexington and into Ohio with the heat still hanging with us the whole way. Did I mention it was hot? We ended up in Chillicothe, Ohio, about an hour south of Columbus. While I think all Ohio drivers are the worst on earth, southern Ohio is quite beautiful on the motorcycle. It’s like day and night from the northern portion. We got settled into the hotel and had intentions of heading out later for dinner but some fierce thunderstorms settled into the area so we bought some liquid refreshments from the liquor store across the street and had happy hour at the pool. We had our happy faces on for dinner and Bob Evans was the closest place to walk to. I guess you can say we made our own supper club that night. It worked out well I think.

The next morning Chuck and I went our way north and Ken and Pete went their way east back to Maine. They had already put on over 3,000 miles by this time. My fanny was crying; I can’t imagine how tired they must have been and still had probably two more days on the road. Chuck and I stopped for lunch near the Michigan border and I said something I shouldn’t have. Something to the effect of “It’s great that the bikes performed great during the trip and we didn’t have any breakdowns.” Well, we got into Adrian, Michigan with intentions of filling up the gas tanks one final time. Right about this time my speedometer starts bouncing up and down and my digital odometer goes blank. Maybe it’s just a bad odometer/speedometer? We stopped for gas and I go to start again; no power. Bummer! Chuck and I checked the fuses with no problems that we could see. It had to be the battery. Where in the heck are we going to find a store that sells motorcycle batteries? I look across the street and what do I see? Wholesale Battery Outlet. What are the chances? We walked over, they had the battery, the bike started and we were on our way. Lucky in life, unlucky in love I guess (or some silly saying like that). I couldn’t stop giggling on my ride back home after the experience.

All and all it was a great trip with great people. You sure get some serious soul searching/reflection time/memory recall while on these rides and there is nothing like it.

That is all for now.

Trail Head

Hot Evening in Highland

It was a sweltering evening at Highland Recreation Area last night for the ride. Trig was in attendance and had never rode Highland so he was in for a treat (or a nightmare). I had intentions of doing the ‘A’ and ‘D’ loops, however, in the first mile, the bolt that holds my seat decided to break. Loop 'D' was not going to happen. Things happen for a reason I think. I rode the rest of ‘A’ while standing up on the bike and I must say I was whipped and quite soaked in sweat once I got back to the parking lot. I can’t speak for Trig but he also had some nice dampness to his shirt.

Eric and Jim met up with us after the ride. Eric’s bike surprisingly was in the shop. I have written about it before but that bike mysteriously breaks down every time Highland comes up on the schedule. Hmmm. Anyway, Jim showed off his new wave board (pictured). It’s a pretty cool setup but I don’t think anybody with a waist larger than 34 inches will be able to get into the seat.

That is all for now. I’m out of town next week on a motorcycle trip with four other fellas down to the southern Missouri/northern Arkansas areas. It should be enjoyable. I hope to have some stories to share (none from the hospital I hope) when I return.

Think good thoughts.

Trail Head