4/16/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca

The day started out with some overcast but it was warm. The plan was to have a short easy ride so the people riding the Century Saturday wouldn’t get too tired. That was the plan but it remained to be seen if that plan would work out. We didn’t have a large group but by 9am there were 10 of us. Once we turned onto Kirby the whole group looked like they were in Cruise mode.

We traveled up Kirby and over to Johnson and finally South on Sanderson towards the High School. It still seemed as if everyone was content on keeping the pace down as we turned west on Mustang with Parky leading us through the houses where we were joined by Casey Jones. Casey seems to be in more of a hurry than the rest of us but at least he held back while we rounded the neighborhood and came back out on Sanderson.

As we turned onto Domenigoni heading towards State Street Rocket started to pick up the pace with the intent of riding up to the marina while the rest of us continued on to State and then over to Mcsweeney. At first I thought Sidewinder and Highlander were going to go with him but it turned out that Cossack, Sidewinder, Casey Jones, and Gambler were the ones that followed while Highlander, T-3, Duramax, Jose, Beowulf and I rode up to Mcsweeney.

After regrouping back on State Street we continued our casual pace till Casey Jones took off on his own and made it through the light at Domenigoni and Sidewinder, Rocket and I sprinted down the road in pursuit till we realized that we were wearing ourselves out on what was supposed to be an easy ride. So we pulled up at Thornton and Buena Vista and regrouped again. But the time we got to Columbia a Pickup truck pulled up next to us and a new rider, Jeff, told us he had missed us at Burger King and followed our route to catch up. We waited while he geared up and he joined us as we worked our way over to Lake Street. I was very impressed that Jose had stayed with us pretty much all the way. For the second time out on his road bike he is doing pretty well.

Once we turned onto Stetson it was a short ride east to Fairview and the run north towards Florida. Beowulf was heading for home and that started the second sprint of the day with a group running at close to 30 all the way to Mulberry. Some of us turned on Florida and some rode around to Mountain and back down Ramona before coming back to Carl’s. We saw Casey Jones leaving just as we pulled up and some of us stopped for coffee and some went home. A few of us rode back together down Lincoln and home with Sidewinder demonstrating his youthful flexibility and energy. Some of us can just barely remember when we were so young.

I rode most of the way home with T-3 and Sidewinder and Highlander rode back to Burger King to drive home. Looking at my computer I could see I just had 30 miles on the clock as I parked the bike. Yet it was a joyful 30 miles with good friends and on a good easy day. The only regret I had was I discovered my digital camera gave up the ghost somewhere on the ride and I had to use my cell phone for the last picture or two. I guess the picture quality will be a little reduced till I can afford a new Camera or a better phone. But I will still attempt to keep the pictures coming.