Brighton Recreation Area - Cool Colors

A beautiful evening it was last night at Brighton Recreation Area. The tree colors are just about at peak. The trails were covered in leaves so the damp tree roots jumped out to throw your front tire in a tizzy from time to time. Mark came oh so close to falling over the front handlebars but managed keep on his feet while his bike ghost rode into the ground.

Jim joined us after the ride and we got some chuckles about hurling in the back of friend's cars (everybody has some experience whether it be actually letting it fly in the car, out the window, or calling for the "pull over"). Well, I guess it isn't so funny when it's your car that is being sprayed upon but at least we can laugh about it now, eh?

It's a bummer how early it's getting dark these days. We thought we were whooping it up into the wee hours of the night but when I pulled out of the parking lot, it was only 8 o'clock. Sad. That big moon was looking pretty fierce on the ride home.

Trail Head

Reliving my youth at the Pumpkin Festival

I felt like I was in the "way back machine" this past weekend at the Stonewall Pumpkin Festival in Rochester Hills with Jennifer, her son Calder and his friend Andrew. We got to pick out a pumpkin out of a pumpkin patch (well, it was more or less a bunch of pumpkins spread out on a lawn), take a hay ride to the carving area, carve our pumpkins, play pumpkin bowling, walk on stilts (that is Calder trying to push me over), and watch the oh so exiting gourd race where they dump a bin of them in a nearby creek with numbers on them and whomever's gourd floats down creek first wins. Kudos to the people putting on the festival. It was very kid friendly. Of course, there is always one bad apple in the batch. While we were leaving the pumpkin carving area, we witnessed a bitter lady putting up a stink because she couldn't find a carving tool and wanted her money back unless someone got her one. It was a beautiful day and it's too bad that lady just couldn't enjoy the moment.

Trail Head

Culture-ized in Chicago

In the past, my trips to Chicago could probably be classified as very large bar tours with sports mixed in some way or another (no complaints whatsoever there). Well, this past weekend, I utilized the portion of my brain that doesn’t get too much activity, the culture area. I had read things about this culture thing and some have told me about it but quite honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I am happy to say my body did not implode in my exposure to this side of the world. I enjoyed every minute of it actually.

Jennifer and I took off Friday afternoon for the Windy City and Mother Nature couldn’t have delivered better weather. After settling in Friday night, we went on a lunch cruise on Lake Michigan Saturday on a ship called The Odyssey. Jennifer has good taste because the whole operation was first class and the meal was great. My version of a swanky lunch probably would have been chicken fingers at Harry Caray’s Bar (not that there is anything wrong with that!). The cruise took us out of Navy Pier and into Lake Michigan right along the skyline. I tried to do my Titanic version of “I’m the king of the world” on the top deck of the boat but I just didn’t have the Leonardo DiCaprio going for me that day.

After lunch we went up to the viewing deck at the Sears Tower. I felt like a cow being herded with the amount of people that were waiting to go up. It was worth it however. The views were outstanding. I liked the “Go Sox” imprint within one of the buildings below (although I can’t stand the White Sox fans---mean people).

To wrap up the day, we went to see the play “Wicked” at the Oriental Theatre downtown. I must say my background in the arts is a bit limited. Most of my theatrical experience has been watching my niece and nephew in plays when they attended St. Clare of Montefalco in grade school with the most recent being an outstanding version of Godspell (picture a group of twelve year olds dressed as hippies singing “Day by Day”). Well, I am here to tell you I had a great time at the play. It’s like a version of Wizard of Oz, the untold story.

I was able to get in a very small football watching fix Saturday but this culture thing isn't too bad.

Trail Head

Bye Bye September

I blinked and September is done. The last mountain bike ride for the month, and the second to last “official” ride for the biking tour was out at Pontiac Lake last Thursday. It was just about a year ago to the day that I had my nasty fall on these trails. I still ride like a sissy boy at the area where I bit it. The many rocks again were in attendance, as was a rider who we hadn’t seen on the trails much this year, Gus. It’s just liking riding a bike, eh E? A nice night it was with a bit of color change out there in the woods.

Saturday was my sister’s going away party for the Robar two year hiatus to Brazil down in “The D.” There is the saying that “there’s no party like a Detroit party” and my sister made sure of that. This was the first time Jennifer got to meet my family and her first impression of my sister was one she will probably remember. My sister was pushing these Brazilian drinks that were rum, lime, and more rum. I had one myself and I could have blown fire if I wanted too. We only stayed a bit but from how often I saw my sister showing everyone how good these drinks were, I’ll bet her head is still throbbing today. There were probably about 100 or so in attendance and a great gathering it was. For all the bad press the city gets, there are some great people down there.

From the party Jennifer and I went to the Young American Comedy Tour at the City Theatre in Detroit. We had front row seats which is kind of a scary thing with the comics that were in the show and the small size of the venue. A married couple next to us was called out and the comic was asking the guy if his wife had ever caught him doing the deed…..alone. The comic claimed that every married guy had to have been caught at least once and went off on a bit on that and other relationship humor. It seemed every comic had some angle on dating or marriage and it was only a matter of time before our number was called but they picked on every couple in the front row but us (thank god). A good show it was.

Hello October.

Trail Head

Hello Cleveland!

It was back in spring training when all was well for the Detroit Tigers. They had made a couple of trades in the offseason that everybody and their brother thought would have them rolling over every team in the league. With that, we made the wise choice in March to buy tickets to the vital September series versus the Cleveland Indians, in Cleveland, because this series was when we were going to walk into the stadium with our heads high, celebrating our upcoming World Series conquest. Well, it just didn't seem to work out as planned for the Tigers, eh? Rather than first place, we are just trying to stay out of the cellar in the American League Central. We weren't the only ones who had the idea back in March because there were Detroit fans EVERYWHERE in the city.

With me on the trip were Al, Doke, Eddie, and Mike. Our journey started Saturday morning with a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the shores of Lake Erie. I'm still scratching my head that Cleveland maintains the hall just because a local disc jockey threw out the term "rock and roll." I saw more of a Detroit than Cleveland influence while checking out the exhibits at the place. Heck, the induction ceremonies every year aren't even held in Cleveland so the whole thing is a bit on the odd side.

From there we checked into our hotel and got our second wind for the game and the evening activities. It's funny because we had been to the city a few times before and stayed at the same hotel each time and ended up walking some serious miles to get to the entertainment areas (i.e., bars). While walking to the game, we came upon a slew of bars/restaurants only a few blocks from the hotel that we never knew were there. Live and learn I guess. The game itself was typical of how the Tigers' season has gone. Our ace, Justin Verlander, got hammered and managed to get his league leading 17th loss of the season. Progressive Field, formerly Jacobs Field, is similar to Comerica Park in that there are many areas around the park to walk around and still check out the game. It was a nice night so even though the product on the field was bad, the environment was great. We almost witnessed a cat fight at our seats (pictured below). A lady with her kids approached another lady, apparently thinking that she was sitting in her seats. It turns out the box office messed up on giving out the wrong seats from a rained out game to one of the ladies. It started out as a heated debate but both parties quickly calmed down. They didn't have to stand up, however, the whole time while they were waiting for the dispute to be settled. Down in front!!! For the seventh inning entertainment, we got to witness the ever-so-exciting ketchup, mustard, and onion race (pictured at bottom), similar to the bagel, donut, danish race at The Palace for Piston games.

After the game we ventured over to a local watering hole, the Harry Buffalo. What a cool name for a bar. It had a great environment with the garage door type glass walls/windows giving us a nice breeze with them open. One of the bartenders was a transplanted Michigander who came over and chatted for a few. I think we were sitting in the Viagra section because there were two couples sitting near us who needed to get a room. A whole bunch of "schmoopy schmoopy" activity going on.

To cap the weekend, while waiting for Ed to pull the car around for the ride home this morning, here comes "Shanequa the Prostitute," dressed in a itty bitty hot pink outfit, walking out the front door of our hotel, apparently just leaving from a busy night's work. I'm sorry the camera wasn't available for that visual.

That is about it for the weekend wrap up. Maybe next year Tigers.

Trail Head

Cycle Racing at Indy

It was down to Indianapolis this weekend to watch some motorcycle racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was nice for me because I lived there back in the late 90’s and got to see some people I used to work with in addition to seeing the “mansion” of a house I had when I lived there (pictured below). The house was a fixer upper to say the least when I lived there. I think I left it better than when I first moved in, however. The place looks like it could use a match now. The current residents don’t appear to be doing much upkeep which is too bad. Oh well.

I met up with Mark, his dad Chuck, and the others at the hotel on Friday evening. My ride coming down on Thursday was blue skies and pleasant. I stopped off on the way for a cold beverage in Fairmount, Indiana; the birthplace of James Dean. There was some good local flavor at the Palace Bar. Only two weeks until the James Dean Festival!!

The forecast for the weekend was interesting to say the least. With Hurricane Ike doing his thing down in Texas, the big question is what impact it would have on Indianapolis when it moved north. Saturday was supposed to rain but we didn’t get a drop all day. I took the group on a tour (from what I could remember) of some sites around the area. With seven bikes in our group, the stop lights made it interesting but we did okay I think. While we had reserved parking outside of the track, we had heard they were allowing motorcycles to park on the infield so we gave it the old college try. What a greeting we encountered towards the parking area. There had to have been fifty or so cars in line waiting to park and the track employees kept waving us through until......we were riding on the Indy 500 track! The motorcycle track cuts through the infield so there is a portion of main track that is open. So we parked our bikes right on the track (pictured below). They really had the whole thing quite organized to ensure the bikes were parked straight with ample room to exit. There were thousands of bikes out there. The speedway itself is just enormous. Prior to watching the qualifying races, Mark, Mike, and I hit the vendor area and took in some great people watching. Why I took a picture of a trough at the track I don’t know but I guess I consider the trough to be underrated when it comes to sporting events. The lines sure seem to move quicker, eh?

After a great day of watching some riding, we got a meal in and went to see some more riding that night at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Rather than asphalt, however, this was dirt track racing. These guys (girls too) were just hauling it around the turns dragging their leg along the way. It’s pretty much motorcycles riding on a horse track. It was definitely loud. I honestly couldn’t tell you the name of any of the riders but it was fun to watch all the same.

While the main race at the Indy track was on Sunday afternoon, I headed back home this morning. With having to work tomorrow, I wasn’t up for riding five hours or so after the race and getting home around midnight. The other fellas had tomorrow off and am pretty sure they’ll be hitting someplace close by tonight and riding the back roads tomorrow headed for home. Looking at the rain that is coming down right now, I think I made a good choice. Rain or not, I just can’t suck it up like I used to (can you hear the whine in that?).

Trail Head

Hello September - Highland Rec

I am happy to report that Hurricane Gustav did not stop the riding this Thursday evening. He spit a bit at Highland Recreation Area but nothing to stop the fun. I am sorry to report that my record crowd from last week must have been reading their newspaper clippings a bit much because they were nowhere to be seen.

The ride itself was enjoyable with a bit of reality jumping out there. Attached are pictures of a memorial on the trail for a fella who died out there five years ago. It is a bummer but it makes you appreciate each moment that much more (can I be more sappy?).

Have a great weekend!

Trail Head