3/29/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca

It seemed like I had only been sleeping a few minutes when I noticed it was getting light outside. I had gone to bed a bit early to try and get plenty of rest for the ride today and I must have gone to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I looked outside and it was just getting light and the sky was clear except for just a few wisps of the lightest clouds. I was thinking that today would be a pretty easy ride because it was relatively flat and not that many miles. By the time I was ready to leave the house it was starting to warn up and I only put on leg and arm warmers out of habit more than need.

Once I pulled into the parking lot at Burger King I could see there would be no need for arm or leg warmers and once again I got there first. Duramax pulled up within a few minutes and we watched as the rest of the group assembled. By 9am we had nine riders ready to hit the road and they all looked fresher than me.


Sometimes I can’t help it my imagination just seems to get the best of me and today was one of those days. I looked at all of the bright colors and nice looking machines and thought of a flight of Bi-planes from World War One. Wart was back with us again after being gone for quite a while flying his Red Specialized. Sam rejoined us after a rather long absence on his trusty Cannondale and he had a new rider, Darin, on his fast fighter Lightspeed with him. Highlander on a Trek was flanked by his flight team with Sidewinder on a totally restored classic Mayata and Taxman on his Red and Black Jamis. Duramax motored along on his pristine Giant and Hit man was on a swept wing Specialized Tarmac. Just like a squadron of planes we took on a sortie that would end up on the east side of town. The first leg was heading across town towards Domenigoni.

We had the throttles set and cruised due south on Sanderson as a group and much like pilots with early radios had a few friendly conversations asking about how our weekends went and renewing friendships with returning friends. As we banked left onto Domenigoni Wart developed engine problems after the light and fell back while the rest of the squadron continued on towards State Street. We slowed a bit at the marina entrance but soon were back up to speed and banked North onto State Street. At that point wart was back on the tail end of the group so we picked up the speed a bit as we closed on our first strafing run, mini-sprint, about ¼ mile before Chambers. Hitman, Sidewinder and I attacked the rise together with Sidewinder taking the lead as we turned onto Chambers. We settled into cruise mode again as we flew passed the golf course and finally onto Stetson and heading into the sun. We made an exploratory cruise through the neighborhoods bordering Crest drive and finally over to Lake and a run up to Stetson again.

Hitman, Sidewinder, and Darin increased throttle all the way to Fairview and then banked South again to and through the housing tract at Citrus View. We circled till we had regrouped and headed back North on Fairview where Highlander was waiting after a wardrobe change on Stetson. Hitman pulled us most of the way to the little overpass just before Mayberry where Sidewinder started the second strafing run only to fall prey to a dive from above and behind as I opened the throttle and swooped by.

Once on Florida Hitman took off and Sidewinder and Darin went with him. I grouped up with Highlander and Taxman Sam and Duramax flew drag and Wart turned back to Carl’s for refueling. We came up on a Casey Jones before we got to Cranston station where we landed and checked out charts.



The flight back down Florida was pretty fast and we split up at Fairview with some going North and some continuing West till we landed back at Carl’s. After coffee and other refreshments the group that was left took off for the flight home. Sidewinder, Highlander, Taxman, Darin, Duramax and I cruised east on Lincoln till Duramax dipped a wing and headed home. The rest of our flight made in back to Burger King feeling pretty good after a successful mission. Well at least we all seemed to have had a good time and looked like we still have a few miles left in us after a quick 33.5 mile loop.