6/28/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


Finally I got up and my legs weren’t sore from my attempted hike with Hit man and Huntress. I decided that I just might enjoy today’s ride even more than I have the rides last week. I had breakfast, got into my kit, put air in my tires, put the water bottles on the bike and headed out of the door. The ride to the Burger King was quiet and uneventful.

I pulled into the parking lot to see Wart had rejoined us and he was standing next to Duramax. We didn’t have long to chat before Light Saber, T-3, Cossack, Surgeon, Sidewinder, Rocket and After Burner arrived. We only had ten riders on such a beautiful day so I decided to add a few miles to our planned route. We left right at 8 am and Tax Man joined before we got to Acacia. I didn’t even notice him till we got to Cypress and made the turn towards Johnson.


I was thinking the two young riders, Sidewinder and After Burner would keep the speedsters busy and the rest of us could cruise on to State Street. But I figured wrong because no one wanted to take off and I ended up pulling all the way to the light at the Marina. We all stayed together to State Street before Rocket started to pick up the pace and Cossack had to go with him. I fell back to talk to Tax man and watched as Light Saber and Surgeon pulled away as well. As we got to Thornton I noticed Rocket as on the side of the road on his cell phone. Turns out he had to leave us and we didn’t catch up to the lead group till we got to Columbia. Cossack had the group wait for us and we continued on towards Lake Street through the Housing track.

I fell back to ride with Tax Man as we traveled down Stetson to Fairview and he left us to go home and take care of family matters as we got there. I followed everyone up Fairview until Sidewinder decided to come back and see if I was OK. I told him I was fine and we finally caught up to Duramax, T-3 and Light Saber. After about a mile Sidewinder took off and I stayed with them till we got to the white fence area and I noticed that every time we got to a bit of a climb Light Saber would pull ahead of me. I finally got to a bit of flat area and managed to pull away a bit but I had to push myself all the way to the top. I managed to get there just a few seconds before Light Saber.

The run back down to Fairview was fast but into the wind. I had to pedal all the down and managed to chase Cossack most of the way to the last little hill before he just pulled away from me. Before I made the hard left turn I managed to run off the road into the sand. It was all I could do to stay upright until I stopped and I was so relieved I hadn’t crashed that I forgot to unclip and I simply fell over in the sand and laughed at myself. I picked myself up and we all rode on to Carl’s, except Cossack who had to go home. I even tried my hand at drafting Shadow but it still doesn’t work.


We had coffee and conversation for a while and finally Afterburner had to leave so he and Sidewinder headed back for Burger King. We were glad to see Ocelot stop by after taking a break from getting her house painted and soon she left as well. In the end it was Shadow, Light Saber and I heading back to the west end of town.

All in all it was a great ride even if the wind did kick up a pit towards the end of it. Duramax and T-3 decided to do a repeat of Bautista so we didn’t get a chance to see them on the way home and I am sure they got in a lot more miles than I did. Still I got in close to 40 on an easy day with great weather. I will miss this group when I am on vacation.