I’m not going to lie to you………THIS TIME ( I love saying that!). You may not believe this, but one Sunday morning, I was…….you guessed it; out riding my bike. I know, I know, but it’s true.

A friend and I were out riding a new route. With no set plan where to go next, we just kept cycling.

Riding quick, the street was dark
A shining truck she thought was parked
It blocked her path, stopped her heart
But not the hurricane
She saw her chance to slip the trap
There was just the room to pass in back
But then it moved, closed the gap
She never felt the pain

Whoops, sorry, wrong kind of bike……I digress. Those lyrics were from David Wilcox; “Eye Of The Hurricane.” A very cool and sad song about a woman driving fast on a motorcycle who gets killed.

Let’s try this……….(From the Monkees)…..By the way; written by Carole King!

Another pleasant valley Sunday
Charcoal burning everywhere
Another pleasant valley Sunday
Here in Status Symbol Land
Another pleasant valley Sunday

I came flying around the corner. I looked left, then right. I dashed across the large intersection, and just before I cut left, I looked up a little higher, and there it was. The street sign; Pleasant Vally Parkway. “OH MY GOD!!! Holy Shite!!!” It’s Sunday morning, and out of nowhere, this street sign and road turns up on my bike path. I had been listening to this song all week in my car. 

I’m a sign and plaque reader. On the best days, I constantly stop my bike to read plaques, check high-water marks from Hurricanes, observe stone city boundaries and anything else interesting along the way…….which somedays are every 20 feet. A three-mile bike ride could take all day. One of my riding partners is John M. He’s a surveyor and kindred bike spirit. Sometimes, milage is “soulless” so plaques, markers, gravestones, and signs MUST be observed and read! “Sunday-Funday” is right!

High water-marks for the 1938 and 1956 Hurricanes in Downtown Providence, Rhode Island.

John M, high up on the East Side, giving proper attention to the stone “city-line boundary marker” hiding in the rock wall. (Future Blog? Maybe)

Anyway, back on the parkway, I rode fast to catch up with Gus. “Gus! Gus! Gus!” I screamed. “Hey, did you see that sign? How cool is that? It’s Sunday Morning and we’re on Pleasant Valley Parkway. You know, ‘Another Pleasant Valley Sunday’……Here in Status Symbol Land!!!??? You know, the Monkee’s Song!!!!

Well………..either I’ve been watching too much Star Trek, or my Universal Translator really was “offline” because, by the dumbfounded look on Gus’s face, all he got was “Gus, Gus, Gus…..dog 7, fifth yellow out, 9:30…….*%(^$*$….to the end……right now, right now!! Get it?”

No, he didn’t. Hey, it’s an acquired taste.

I suddenly have this cool idea to make up a bunch of “Faux Historical Plaques” and mount them around the city for plaque readers like me. 

Riding bikes, singing songs, reading history; Sunday was never so good……here in Status Symbol Land!

Let’s have David Wilcox sing us out……….