5/9/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


No matter what we hear it just didn’t seem like spring today. It was cold and windy and reminded me of winter. The sky was cloudy and it gave no indication it was going to burn off anytime during the day. Still there were ten of us as we pulled out onto Gilmore heading for Acacia.


It was obvious that this was not going to be one of our faster rides because Gilmore was running right into the teeth of the wind. The hope was that once we were on Acacia it would get easier and to a degree it was. But it wasn’t a ninety degree side wind it was a slightly quartering wind just in front of our left shoulder. It was almost a relief to catch the light red at Kirby. The ride up Kirby was a repeat of the one on Gilmore and once again we were running directly into the wind. Once we turned onto Cypress we did get some relief but we could tell we would be fighting the wind all day.

We worked our way over to Sanderson and then north to Wentworth and then east once again past the airport. We took great care to avoid the cut in the cement where Centaur went down two weeks ago. Once we got past that hazard we were back out onto Stetson and heading east again towards Warren Road. I didn’t know how long we were going to keep the two groups together and the A group was the biggest part of the group today. Gambler, Cossack, Bandit, Blood Hound, Wolf and a new rider Jake soon past me and I fell back to lead the B group towards California.

We watched as the A group took off towards Stowe and followed a respectful distance all the way to and then caught up with them as we regrouped on Stowe and Winchester. By the time we got to Winchester I could the wind had been taking its toll on the B group and told the A group to go on and we would meet up again when we got all the way back to Carl’s. Still Tax Man bailed out on Winchester when we turned onto 9th. We moved on to Leon and turned on Simpson for the run to Lindenburger. We say Jake heading for home as we headed for Domenigoni. At least the ride down Domenigoni east was easier than it had been up to that point.

We managed to regroup at the entrance to the marina and three of the A group headed for the climb while I took Cossack, Blood Hound, Wolf, Highlander and T-3 towards State before heading towards Carl’s. Blood Hound flatted and Cossack stopped to assist him before we continued on to Stetson. Highlander and T-3 broke off and T-3 headed for home. Highlander met us at Carl’s for coffee and conversation and five of us started for home on Lincoln to Park and then Devonshire.


As we got back to Burger King Highlander left us to ride home. I talked with Cossack and Wolf after we got back to the vehicles and because of the cold I took off for home a little sooner than I normally would. I got back home with 43 miles on the clock and more or less exhausted. Rather than my normal recovery drink I decided on a nap and I should have tried the recovery drink because I was still tired when I got up. Still even with the wind and cold it was a great time to spend with friends.