8/09/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)



If a Monday ever started out closer to perfect. Clear and cool with no wind is about as good as it gets. So after a cup of coffee and some toast and peanut butter I started to get dressed looking forward to a good bike ride and a good time with friends. By 7:30 I was heading towards Burger King. I got to the parking lot right after Duramax. By 8 am there were only 7 of us and Afterburner was as eager as a puppy to get started. So we were off and headed down Gilmore right at 8am.


We made the light at Acacia and Kirby and took off for the shortcut to Johnston. As I looked behind me I noticed the group had the sun at their backs. It was a bit like looking at five fighter planes attacking out of the sun. Lucky for me they didn’t have machine guns. We made it to the turn on Johnston and to the stop light at Sanderson and when I looked back and we had been joined by Casey Jones. It was a good sized group and everyone seemed pretty strong for a Monday morning. We made short work of Sanderson and made the turn at Domenigoni heading west. We made the turn at Warren and rode passed the horse ranches.

True to form once we were back on Domenigoni heading east Afterburner took off, as I told him he could, and for a while Rocket and Cossack followed him. I was in no hurry and had planned on a steady pace till we got to the hill going up to the marina. As I was planning this part of the ride in my head Casey Jones passed me and caught up to Afterburner. The rest of us followed about 100 yards back and finally watched as Casey Jones, Rocket, Afterburner and Cossack made the turn off of Domenigoni. They were all passed the Museum by the time I got to the first stop sign. I made the turn towards the first part of the hill and put my head down for the attempted spin up the Hill. I wasn’t able to catch Rocket, Cossack or Afterburner but I still had a good run before we regrouped at the bottom of the hill coming back down.

The run to McSweaney was another quick run and we regrouped once more before heading North on State Street. Casey Jones picked up the pace as we got closer to Chambers and Cossack, Rocket and Afterburner took up the challenge and passed me and Casey. I made an effort to catch the draft but my legs hadn’t recovered enough from going up the hill so I backed off. Casey re-passed me and caught up to the front three. We made a small regroup at Thornton and Casey decided to take off on his own. We didn’t see him again till we got to Florida.

Rocket had to break off by the time we got to Girard so the 6 of us continued on to Columbia and then down Crest and over to Lake. We stretched out a bit on Stetson before heading North on Fairview and finally east again on Florida. Before we could get to the Ranger Station we saw Casey Jones heading back west but we thought he would stop and wait for us at Carl’s. We regrouped at the ranger station and were pleased to see that Tax Man was once again with us. He has completed the last two rides with us and seems stronger each time.

Hit man left us before we got back to Carl’s because he had an appointment and Casey Jones wasn’t there when we got there so only 5 were left by the time we had coffee. We talked about the ride and how much we enjoy riding together. Today’s ride was just about perfect and at the perfect recovery pace. Some of us have to save something for the ride on Tuesday afternoon. For those that want to get a real work out a quick run up Bautista after dinner gets your blood flowing. Afterburner left first and I ended up riding home with Cossack. I didn’t get quite as many miles as I thought I would, only a bit more than 36, but for a ride east with a hill tossed in it was a good ride.