12/30/2011
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)


Today was the last Friday ride for 2011 and it was just about a perfect day. It was a cool 45 when I walked out to get the paper and hardly a cloud in the sky. I still put on arm and knee warmers and long finger gloves but it didn’t feel all that cold as I headed down Palm to Florida and the parking lot where I expected to meet our cycling group. I was just a little late getting started so I got a call from Centaur to make sure we were riding today. By 8:35 there were seven of us pulling out of the parking lot onto Gilmore and down to Acacia in an attempt to work our way south on Kirby.


Ruby Tuesday decided to join us today even though T-3 was still out with a sore shoulder. Rocket was back and looked like he was going to try to stay for the whole ride. Gambler, Centaur, Hornet and Vortex rounded out the group as we moved to Cypress and out towards Johnston and finally onto Sanderson. We had to wait at the light on Sanderson and then made the dash past Stetson trying to make sure we caught the light green. Once everyone was past the driveway for Wal-Mart we settled into a steady pace towards Domenigoni.

After the initial pull on Domenigoni some of the big dogs decided to open it up a bit I decided to let them go. Ruby Tuesday stayed with me and we traded leads a few time as we continued to catch all of the lights red. Finally we rolled past Winchester and keep the pace to a reasonable cruise of between 20 and 22 all the way to Leon. Finally Ruby cracked the whip and forced me to pick it up a bit as we ran up the saddle and regrouped with the A riders and Bandit with his brother.

Once we got ready to start out again I took the time to explain the route we would be taking and telling the A group that they were free to go at their own pace because at least two of us wouldn’t be chasing them. Everyone seemed to understand and we pushed off to head down the back side of the saddle towards Lindenburger. We would be turning at the next light and heading past the Dairy and chicken ranch on Briggs.

Ruby Tuesday and I stayed with them till we turned onto Briggs and then watched the whole group start to pull away and shrink in the distance headed for Garboni. After turning west towards Antelope Ruby and I noticed two riders had broken off from the lead group. It took all the way back to Newport for Ruby and I to close with them and it turned out to be Vortex and Hornet. We rode as a group back to Lindenburger and finally to Simpson. Vortex and Hornet did most of the pulling to Winchester and we all pulled into Chris’s for coffee about 20 minutes after we formed up. As we had coffee Full Throttle stopped by to see how we were doing and a few minutes later the A group pulled up after taking a detour over the back side of Antelope to McCall.

Finally we got ready to head for home and pulled back out onto Winchester and headed north to Stowe. The group stayed together in a pace line all the way up Winchester and made the turn east on Stowe in just a few minutes. Bandit and his brother had already headed for home and Hornet left early so we were down to six riders but everyone seemed well rested and ready for the ride home.

Ruby Tuesday lead us for a while till Gambler got ready for his had pull to California and back to the east end of town. Vortex and Centaur decided to follow him and Rocket joined them while Ruby and I maintained our own pace all the way to California.

We followed at a distance till the group split up at the airport. Ruby and I followed Rocket on Stetson and I managed to catch him before he got to Sonic so we could talk till I broke off at Sanderson and Ruby and I took Johnston towards home. I stopped to check on T-3 and got home with 36 miles on the computer giving me just under 6500 miles for the year. I can only hope next year is even better for all my friends.