3/04/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


When I looked outside my front window this morning it was about all I could do to see across my street. It wasn’t too cold but it was foggy and I wasn’t sure if it would burn off. Still as the morning went on it started to clear enough that I thought I could make the ride with leg warmers and a long sleeve jersey. I wasn’t quite as sure as I rode down the street to meet up with the group; it seemed a bit cooler than I had planned.

It was good to see Dura-max waiting for me when I pulled up and I noticed both Blood Hound and Centaur unloading their vehicles as I parked by bike. Highlander pulled into the parking lot a few minutes later by Traveler, D’Artagnon and Rocket. Huntress and Raptor got there about the same time. By 8:30 we would head for Sun City and hope to meet up with Raptor and traveler at Chris’s for coffee


Everyone seemed to be feeling good this morning as we quickly made it onto Kirby and then turned and moved quickly down Cypress and out onto Johnston. We had to wait a bit at the light on Sanderson before heading past Stetson and we were still rolling along at a good clip. It seemed to me that I was going to have a hard time just keeping up with the group today because everyone seemed warmed up well before we got to Mustang and Huntress had one of those hungry looks in her eyes that let me know she had every intention of running right over me the first chance she got.

I got in front and pulled all the way past Warren to the river overpass and gave up the lead. We stayed together as a pack and Huntress pulled us to Winchester where Dura-max then Centaur took over to pull us to Leon where D’Artagnon made a break for the saddle. I tried to give chase but he was just too strong for me and Rocket managed to kick in the retro rockets to pass us both before the top of the saddle. We stopped and regrouped before heading to Menifee to make the turn towards Scott Road. We crested the hill after Holland and regrouped once more.

Once we made the turn onto Scott it was just a short trip over to Hawn and a sign that the street was under construction. However we didn’t run into any construction crews so we hurried down Hawn to Newport were we met up with Quick-sticks and a stop at the Circle K for little stop. It was then time to ride off to Bradley and over to McCall for another regroup before heading over the hill and through the Housing track and back out onto Simpson.

Blood Hound, Centaur and D’Artagnon picked up the pace a bit heading for Leon and the rest of us watched as they pulled away. They were two or three hundred yards ahead of us as we turned onto Leon and more or less disappeared by the time we got to the dump road. As we rounded the corner onto the dump road Huntress and the rest of our group lined up behind me and started to jockey for position to make the run down the rise and out to Winchester. Huntress and Highlander were stuck to my back wheel like a shadow and there didn’t seem to be anything I could do about it.

I would like to say it was a surprise to see Huntress pull around me but it wasn’t. It was just that she did it so easily. It was everything I could do to close in onto her back wheel before she ran away to Winchester. Luckily we didn’t have far to go before we got to Chris’s for coffee and conversation.

After a few minutes we were back on the road heading to Stowe. There were still a few of us riding back to Burger King after Quick-Sticks headed home on Winchester.


It wasn’t long before we were back on Stetson and heading to Warren once again. Blood hound passed me and I drafted him all the way to Warren from California and then I got back in front till we turned towards the airport and slowed down or cooled down as we worked our way back to Sanderson. D’Artagnon looked about as fresh at this point as he did at the start of the ride.

Once back on Sanderson and heading north we were still moving pretty quick as we got closer to Lowes. We all turned through the parking lot and around the back of the store before exiting back out onto Acacia and finally catching the light at Kirby. As we pulled away at the light Highlander blasted past us showing some extra energy some of us simply didn’t have this late in the ride. Most of us turned onto Gilmore and D’Artagnon continued on Acacia towards home. I stayed with the last of the group till they got back to their vehicles before heading home by myself. I managed to get in just over 42 miles at just a bit over 2 hours with people I like riding with. What is not to like about that?