I was out in the garden most of the morning and was in the garage when Jen came around the corner and said, “let’s do an epic Ride today”!  I looked at her and said Epic?  Are you sure you are up for that?  Well…… after what seemed like a long pause I decided to speak and said epic in the spring sense of the word, is at least 45-50 miles.  A pause for a few seconds from then out of the silence she mention that perhaps we could do a modified down and back???  Okay, an hour later we were oft.

As we started our journey I described to her that there are numerous ways south into the city and by turning right on Central Ave we could ride all the way down into Mexican Town before turning left to head over to see our friends in Mid Town.  Most people do not really understand the street layout of the city, its mystical origins, its historic parallels nor the fact that you have to be east of Livernois before the intersecting streets run South-East as a parallelogram to Woodward Ave.  Ahhh those French Mystics, Lafayette, Walpole’s, St. Clair’s, the original finical supporting families of the Knights Templar… Ok back to our ride.

As we came across 8 mile Central Ave jogs out to the west before it resumes on down south, with the wind in our face Jen was feeling her legs from all of her Gym work outs throughout the week,  she “suggested” maybe we should head East and down as usual?  With such complete beauty how could she be denied?  Entering into Sherwood Forest, soon across 7 mile I took her into Palmer Park via the asphalt bike path to show her some of the work we have done on cleaning the main trail while pointing out the inner woodland trail system that we are currently working on opening up for mountain bikers and hikers.  If you can ever find the time to delve into the history of the Park and the “Sage of the log cabin” I suggest you take the journey. 

Mr. Palmer was a graduate student of the secrete mysteries, one who decided to effect the greater good with his deeds and eventual donation of his families entire farm/estate to the city of Detroit as a Park.  The original Log Cabin home is still there waiting to have its History revealed.   The tails of traveling the world and sending an agent to Europe to bring back Arabian horses and raise them on his land is quite a story to read.  Numerous quotes can be found with respects to his vision and the way he lived his life.  Here is my favorite; “Senator Palmer holds the view that Heaven is on earth to all who know how to make a Heaven of the earthly life. He thinks that a man’s spiritual life is progressive and continues to grow after it pass out of the animal body, and that the further advanced it is when transition takes place the higher will be its starting point in the spirit world. Hence it follows that the time spent in cultivating and building up the spiritual life while on earth will not be lost”. For the complete story click on the link

http://www.archive.org/stream/souvenirhistoryo00mcel/souvenirhistoryo00mcel_djvu.txt 

Through the Park and once again on Third Ave., we huffed it on down to Canfield and turned left to enjoy the rumble of the historic hand cut cobblestone street.  Today we decided to stop at the Traffic Jams Brewery and try out the Owosso Wheat beer we had read about in the Detroit News.  Tasty if wheat beer is your style we recommend you stop in, say hello and enjoy.  The steak that Jen ordered, well let’s just say that was a different story, smashed out overcooked shoebox leather creates an accurate picture of what showed up on the plate.  The home made cheese and breads were tasty and for me hit the spot rather well.

With Jen re-filled we were oft and headed back north enjoying the moment, smiling, breathing, enjoying each other’s good company all the way home…. Bike Detroit!  J.& J. Meyers