8/06/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)



I was thinking about the line from Forrest Gump, “Momma says life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get”, as I rode towards the parking lot this morning. Sidewinder had stopped by the house to ride over with me and we chatted easily as we headed towards Florida. The weather was close to perfect and the route plan was a typical easy Friday ride. So if a few people showed up it could be a great day for a ride but as they say, “you never know”.

When Sidewinder and I turned into the parking lot Duramax, Surgeon and Centaur were already there waiting for us. Ocelot and Rocket pulled up as did one of the new riders, Jim. Chris and His Wife Amy pulled up about the same time as Bandit and Gambler. Les from Cycopath and Troy seemed to be the last to arrive and we got ready to leave only to have Hit man join us at the last second. We pulled out of the parking lot and down Gilmore to Acacia and then to Kirby just after 8 am.


Like finding your favorite candy in the box of chocolates I like looking back and seeing a good sized group on any of our rides. It might be just a bit more pleasing on Fridays because we tend to stay together better than most of the other days of the week. We turned off of Kirby and headed towards Johnston when Rocket took a picture of me and I noticed I was all smiles. My smile shows why some of us get up early in the mornings to get in 30 or 40 miles bike riding. For me it is the joy of riding and I love being with friends.

We made quick work of Sanderson and made the turn onto Domenigoni with no problems and no loss of riders. Once we got into a long pace line I fell back to talk with Les and we quickly watched the group open a gap on us. Once we got back in line the whole group settled into a nice easy 20MPH. But what would a Friday ride be without a flat? Yes, our friend Centaur, who missed the record flat Friday made up for it by picking up a few Goat Heads. We stopped so he could fix a flat and Sidewinder found three extra Goat Heads in Centaur’s front tire. That came back to bite him later.

I often think of these flats as a chance to watch a Tire Changing clinic. It seems as if most of the time Duramax ends up pumping up the tire still the one with the flat gets to demonstrate their own personal tire changing tactics. Centaur had the wheel off in short order and had the old tube out in just a few seconds. But it did take a few minutes to check the tire out and make sure there were no pointed objects still stuck in it to flat the new tube. For a moment it looked like Ocelot was going to pass out popcorn while the rest of us watched the demonstration.

We were off again and headed for the Domenigoni Saddle and I figured we might have to chase Sidewinder up the hill. But before we got to Leon Centaur’s front tire started to suffer from the small goat heads we had found in his front tire. Duramax and I stayed with Centaur while the rest of the group headed for the hill. It took us a few minutes to get Centaur back on the road but from what I understand Sidewinder did manage to inspire the group into a fast pace line designed to catch him before he made the top of the Saddle solo. It must be nice to have the energy a Seventeen year old sidewinder has but it will not last. After all before the end of the month he will be 18 and feeling his age, or maybe not.

We finally made it over the saddle and onto Menifee heading towards Scott Road. Rocket decided to call it a day and headed for home while the rest of us turned on Scott and made our way to Murrieta Road. Ocelot had some minor mechanical problem but soon made the corner onto Murrieta and we ended up regrouping at the AM/PM on Newport and Murrieta.

We pulled away from the AM/PM and made our way over to McCall before heading back east. The group split up into two groups once we crossed the freeway on McCall and the A group pulled away to run up over the hill. While the B group wasn’t all that far behind we still had a way t go to catch up after starting down the backside of McCall. As I got close to Menifee I noticed the group was waiting for us before Heritage. Before I got to the group I noticed Hit man had broken off and headed for home. Then as if by magic I lost Duramax. Turns out he wanted to extend his ride so he had taken Lindenburger to Domenigoni while the rest of us rode down Simpson to Chris’s.

We took a short break at Chris’s to catch our breath and relive part of the ride or talk about our week. A few had to leave a bit sooner than the rest of us because Bandit had some place he had to be. But after about 15 or 20 minutes the rest of us headed back out on Winchester to Stowe. It took a refill or two to get Centaur home because of a slow leak in his back tire by we managed to make 40 miles on this ride in pretty reasonable time. If the rest of the group had as god of a time as I did then they had a great ride as well. Even Hit man had a good time even if he tried to look angry at the break.