11/26/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

I looked outside this morning and it was clear and the sun was out with that beautiful Robin’s egg blue. I walked out to get the paper and I discovered it was also pretty cold. I looked at the thermometer when I got back inside and it was 34 degrees at my house. I knew it was supposed to warm up today and I also knew I would be out long enough that we should still be riding when it did. All I had to do was dress just heavy enough for the start of the ride but not too heavy for the end.

I knew I had a lot of thanksgiving to work off so I had a longer ride planned for today. I was pleased to see Dura-max and Ocelot waiting for me as I got to Burger King. Double Time, Gambler and Metric Man pulled up and started unloading their bikes and Cossack, Shock wave and Double Shot pulled up just before we were ready to leave. It was 8:30 so we took off down Gilmore then over to Kirby and finally turned onto Cypress.


After we turned onto Sanderson I knew it was going to be all I could do just to hang on because my legs were tight and sore. It was another one of those days when I had the lungs but not the legs. After we made it to Domenigoni and started west the group broke in two and I found myself in the middle of the group with Cossack, Double Shot, Shock Wave, Gambler and Metric Man. I even managed to take a pull just before we started up the saddle and Metric Man waited for me as we rode together over the hill and down to Lindenburger.
We lost Double Shot and Gambler at Simpson and waited till Dura-max and his group caught up on Heritage. We slowed things down a bit till we got to McCall and made the turn towards Menifee. We stayed together as we turned North on Menifee and made one last quick stop at the Arco station before getting back on Menifee and heading for Nuevo.

We lost Metric Man at Nuevo so the rest of us turned towards Evans and then up to Ramona before coming back to the Lake entrance road. The wind started to pick up a bit but we didn’t notice it all that much as we headed for the Dam at Lake Parris. Once up the hill we turned towards the Marina and took another break for some hot coffee. Dura-max Ocelot and Double time left first so that Cossack, Shock wave and I could give chase around the lake. We caught them just before getting to the back gate of the Lake and headed home on Ramona. Now the wind hit us right in the face and fought us every inch of the way back to Warren where Ocelot picked up a bolt and flatted. She didn’t take long to fix the flat once we got a good tube for her and we were back on the road in less than 15 minutes. We rode back into town and split up at Latham and went our separate ways home. I got home with 53 miles on the computer and legs like stuffed sausage skins but it was a good day for a ride. It was a good day to be with friends and a beautiful day to be in Southern California.