2/28/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


The rain was gone and it was clear when I got up to look outside this morning. I felt good and by the time I got dressed and started towards the parking lot I was relatively warm. The only question I had was how many people would join me. I almost hate to admit it but I believe I enjoy being out with the people of or group as much if not more than I do riding.

As I pulled into the parking lot I was surprised to see Sea Lion talking to Wolf. It turns out Sea Lion wasn’t going to join us but he wanted to stop by and let us know he is healing well and is looking forward to joining us once he is released to do so. By 8:30 we had all visited with him and wished him well as we got ready to leave Burger King and head out to Latham. At that point we made up a pack of eight riders.


We quickly made it out to Lyon and headed north towards Ramona. It was cool but warmer than it had been in several days and the sky was a beautiful blue as we rode past Devonshire and then Menlo. There seemed to be a eagerness that I hadn’t noticed in days and it seemed to have infected the whole group. As we got close to Cottonwood Blood Hound pulled for a while and the rest of the group started to bunch up into a pretty good pace line.

I took the lead again as we turned towards Sanderson and pulled till we got to the light and Sanderson and Ramona. After making the turn the speed picked up a bit but the pack held to together pretty well all the way to Bridge Street. We did pretty good until Centaur started feeling frisky and pulled around to kick up the pace two or three MPH. By the time we rotated through the group had split in half. Somehow I managed to hold onto the front half and cruised with the group all the way to Nuevo. We regrouped at the gas station and headed out towards Nuevo road.

By the time we got to Menifee the front group had outpaced the rear group by several hundred yards. Highlander, T-3 and I took Mapes to Brigg and the lead group went all the way to Simpson. We got to Chris’s after Bloodhound, Rocket, D’Artagnon Wolf and Centaur. T-3 didn’t stop so we were down to seven but we had a short stop for coffee and conversation before heading back out to Winchester and up to Stowe.

Once we were headed towards California the pace settled into a pretty constant twenty-one and we were pulled along with an ever so slight tail wind. I am not sure how everyone else felt but I was feeling pretty good and was pretty sure I could keep up the pace all the way back to the airport or even Sanderson if we all went that far.

We lost Rocket and D’Artagnon as we turned towards Hemet Ryan Airport and we all cruised past Hanger 1 on our way to Sanderson. I wasn’t a long ride or a real hard ride but it was a very enjoyable ride. It was one of those rides that lets you know that the people you are with are more than just fellow riders or competitors but people you can call friends. People you can count on and enjoy being with. Think about it how could you not enjoy 38 miles with people like that and weather like what we had today?