3/22/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca
Memorial Ride

As I left the house today I was as close to being numb or lukewarm as I have been since I started riding. Physically I was doing fine but emotionally I was down. I had received news this weekend the Deacon had passed away. Deacon’s real name was Forrest Petty and he was one of the first people I met when I started riding with the group. He encouraged me because he was still cycling at 82 at the time and I figured if he could get up and ride I could as well. He was always at Burger King waiting when I pulled into the parking lot. The only thing I could think of to do was to set up a ride in his honor. I announced my intention and discovered many in the group felt just like I did. So today would be a ride following the route he most often took to Chris’s and Carl’s. I was very pleased to see the number of people that turned out to join in a ride for Forrest


Pictured at Burger King from Left to right with Richard in front starting with the first standing row is Gerry, Bob F. Jim, Rich, Rick, Art and Jose. Left to right in the back row are Wayne, Ivan, Curt, Bob B. and Ben.

Greg O arrived after we took the picture and Greg G arrived right after him.

I had Jim lead us out to Domenigoni and told the other riders that if they felt like stretching their legs we would meet them at Chris’s. They stayed with us all the way to Domenigoni and then we split into two groups.

Some of us followed Jim all the way down to Lindenburger and then turned north towards Simpson and then east towards Winchester. When we got to Chris’s the rest of the group was waiting for us and we took a moment to reflect on what a blessing Forrest had been to our group.
Some of us were on a limited time schedule so we split up once again and had Jim lead Rich, Ben, Gerry and I back towards Hemet.

When we got back to Stetson we found Greg G, Greg O, Richard and Rick waiting for us. We then continued on towards Carl’s on the other side of town to make our second to last stop in respect to Forrest.

We lost Greg G as we passed his street heading for Ramona Road and the rest of us continued on to Carl’s for a time of reflection and coffee. Some of us left Carl’s and stopped on last time on Lincoln and Meridian to say good- bye at the turn where Forrest most often left us heading for home. Forrest will be missed but he will always be an inspiration to those of us who had the privilege of riding with him.