9/27/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)




It may be fall but it sure looked like and felt like summer when I looked outside early this morning. The sky was clear and blue and the temperature was already 72 degrees as I went out to get the paper. I had to hope I hadn’t made a mistake by not starting early this week but I thought we would be getting home before things started to cook. I would have to wait and see how many were willing to come out and chance it. But I need not have worried because there were quite a few riders as intrepid as me for the start of our ride.

When I pulled into the Burger King parking lot Duramax and Mike, (The Wolf) were waiting in the shade. Ocelot pulled in to the parking lot right after me and I discovered that Gina, (Valkyrie) was inside the Burger King already. By the time we were ready to start the ride Highlander, Tax man, Sherpa, Rocket, Hit man, T-3, Attack cat and Sea Lion had joined us so we had 13 riders as we started down Gilmore.


I told however wanted to take off as an A group that they were free to take off and not wait for us if they wanted to because I wanted to limit our time on the road as much as I could with the thought of getting home before noon when I expected the heat to set in. I got out in front and pulled us from Gilmore to Acacia and Kirby where we turned south and made our normal run to Cypress.

We were still together as we rode down Cypress and it was still relatively cool. Lately we tend to make the ride to Dominagoni as a group or even when we ride out to Ramona we get to the expressway before the faster riders take off and stretch their legs. Today was no different and I expected the group to break into two parts after we got to Sanderson but today Highlander and Tax man were stuck to the leaders like a trailer.

We moved down Sanderson like and squadron of airplanes after takeoff. We made it onto the street and across Stetson without losing anyone and headed for Mustang and the high school. Rocket was leading the way and Highlander, Tax man and I were right behind him. But as we got closer to Domenigoni Attack cat and Hit man started moving up to be sure they were in position to follow if Rocket kicked it up after we made the turn west.

After the turn Rocket started to open a lead but Tax man was right on his back wheel. Attack cat came around and followed Tax man and finally Hit man chased them all down. I was thinking that Tax man must have had a great breakfast after tagging on to Rocket like he did but finally he decided to fall back with the rest of us and let the rest go. We settled into a pretty good pace line heading for Winchester road and the Domenigoni saddle. To my surprise we had Sherpa in our group and I was thinking he was just taking it easy to attack the saddle and prove how much better of a climber he was than me but that wasn’t his intention so the same group that came down Cypress together regrouped with the A group at the saddle.

We lost Rocket at Lindenburger because he had an early appointment and Attack cat left us there as well. We made it to Menifee and Florida where we lost Highlander and Tax man before we continued on to make a fast run to Nuevo and our last stop before going home. It was still less than 90 degrees as we hit Ramona expressway and we broke into two groups making the run to Sanderson. The lead group turned out to be Sherpa, Hit man, Valkyrie, Wolf, Attack cat and I. Attack cat had made a wrong turn at Lindenburger and had spent about 35 minutes running us down. Valkyrie stayed with the lead group even though we at times were running at more than 23 MPH. She is proving to be a great asset to our group and is a lot more powerful that her riding experience would lead someone to believe. We got back to Lyon in pretty quick time and headed back south towards Burger King before heading our separate way. We had regrouped on Ramona Road and were strung out a long way going down Lyon. Duramax, T-3 and Ocelot decided not to stop and Burger King and continued on passed Florida as I turned onto Latham and finished the ride with the remainder of the group.

Wolf, Sea Lion, Attack cat, Valkyrie and I stayed and talked for a while before heading our separate way. I got home with just over 40 miles on the clock and a much better than average time. Once again all I can say is I feel good about having such a great group of people to ride with, ones I can easily call friends.