5/24/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca.


Yesterday was overcast all day and it even rained a little bit. I didn’t know what to expect when I opened the drapes this morning. What I got was very pleasing, clear skies and the promise of warmer weather by the rides end. I still put on arm warmers and leg warmers but that was more of a precaution than anything else. I left the house right at 7:30 am heading for Burger King and I ended up getting there first. As I waited for riders to arrive I wondered if the ride I had picked would be challenging enough for everyone.

Right after Duramax pulled up a new rider, Kathryn, pulled into the parking lot. We were expecting her and had talked to her on the group site several times. She came over and introduced herself and then went back to unload her bike. Rocket, Oso Rojo, GT-40, Hit man, Sidewider and Raptor showed up. Raptor showed up with a relative from Northern California, Brian and we were ready to go. Not all of us made it through the light at Kirby but we weren’t split that far apart.


The fun started as we turned onto Domenigoni and the A riders started to pick up the pace. Kathryn was just learning to draft so we were at the back of the pack just trying to hold on. We did manage to catch everyone as we reversed course at Warren and I took some passed the Horse property and Rocket took the rest back down Domenigoni. We came out onto Domenigoni with a lot of distance to make up. Duramax, Kathryn, Hit man and I could just see the rest of the group racing down the road heading for the road that turned towards the Marina. I figured that Rocket, Brian and Sidewinder would make short work of the Marina hill and I was hoping to do better than I normally do as well. Then I discovered that this would be Kathryn’s first run up the Marina hill. At least she was game and some of us were there to see her reach the top and looking like she had energy to spare.

I noticed that we had picked up Powersurge somewhere on the hill and received a call from Bounty Hunter asking where we were and making plans to join us. We rode back down the hill and regrouped in front of the Museum before heading back out to Domenigoni and over to State Street. Our groups were a bit more even now with five on the lead group and five in the second group. Somewhere between the Marina and McSweeney Oso Rojo but we regrouped on State and waited for Bounty Hunter to join us.

We make quick work of State Street and soon we turned onto Stetson and made the run to Columbia and over to Crest Street. We all stayed pretty close together as we turned onto Fairview and slowly Brian and Rocket pulled away from us heading to the Ranger Station. Once we were all collected at the turnaround point we caught our breath for a minute or two before making a mad dash back down to Carl’s. I am not sure but we may have set some kind of record because the average speed must have been close to 27 MPH for the lead riders.

We had a great time visiting and talking over coffee. We had about 6 riders heading back towards Burger King but we lost Duramax at Park as he headed for home. Powersurge, GT-40, Kathryn, Hit man and I rode back to Burger King together and all but Powersurge stopped to make sure Kathryn made it back to her car. It turned out to be a good day and a good 39 mile ride. Kathryn even proved herself a real cyclist by shedding a little blood before going home. We will never tell how she got it but a wound while cycling is a wound while cycling so she has earned her status.

5/24/2010