10/28/09
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca

There was a time when the weather man used a jar of bear grease and maybe a match box with a cricket in it to forecast the weather. The way things seem to be going these days I am not sure they didn’t have a better system than the one we get on TV. Monday they predicted rain for our area but there wasn’t a chance of rain by the time we got up this morning. It was cool by our standards, about 50 degrees and a bit windy. As we stood around commenting on the wind and cold it was soon decided a short ride east would be best. At least if the wind got worse we would be riding downhill coming home.
Raptor and the pack.

Once we decided to ride down Soboba Road we had to start out heading north right into the wind at the time. The wind was light but it seemed to be blowing right at us all the way up Lyon heading for Ramona. I lead the way followed at the time by Raptor, Hit man, Quick sticks, Duramax and Shadow. With the exception of Hit man we looked a bit like a pack of yellow jackets. By the time we turned back onto State Street the wind was in our face again.

Duramax, Quick Sticks and Shadow

At least when we turned onto Soboba the wind was at our side and even thought we had three little rollers to climb over it seemed easier than the ride to get there. It seemed as if most of us were saving our energy in case the wind picked before we got over to Florida and started up towards the ranger station.

Hit Man

Both Hit man and Raptor decide to leave us before we got back to Florida so it was down to four of us in a rather tight formation making to turn towards the Ranger Station. We pulled into the Station parking lot as a group and got a quick drink of water before heading back down Florida to meet up with Deacon at Carl’s. The wind seemed to be decreasing a bit but now it was blowing right at us as we traveled west. Still we were able to cruise at close to 20 MPH all the way to Carl’s. In fact we got there right after Deacon and went in to warm up and talk about the ride. It is always interesting to watch what Shadow gets compared to the rest of us when we stop for coffee.

Shadow and a Shake

Once we were warmed up we all went outside and started for home in two groups. Duramax and deacon heading one way and Shadow, Quick Sticks and I went another. I wish deacon hadn’t mentioned that the wind seemed to die down while we were having coffee because it returned in force as we rode home. Still it was a good 32 miles and it was much better than riding in the rain.

Deacon