Half Century

5/16/2012 By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) It was supposed to be a warm and windless day and there was a request for a longer ride to help us get ready for the long Saturday ride before Memorial Day. So I posted a half century and waited to see how many would show up. I got to Burger King and Coyote was talking to Highlander, Dura Max and Ocelot. By the time Huntress arrived it was clear there would be a small group for today’s ride. Dura Max and Ocelot took a different route and only 4 of us started at 8:30.

My plan was to modify the ride a bit and take the outside route down Domenigoni and come back on the inside so we could stop by Chris’s for coffee or something cold to drink. With the predicted temperatures I was sure I would need something cold to drink by the time we got back. So we rode down Gilmore over to Kirby and up to Cypress at an easy cruise. When we got to Sanderson we changed to a left to head to Domenigoni and scooted past Stetson and Wally World.

Once on Domenigoni I pulled for about a quarter of a mile before giving it over to Highlander. He kept the pace going and pulled quite a while himself before giving it over to Huntress. Huntress picked it up a notch and took us past Warren and over the dry wash. When she pulled off we got Coyote who kept the pace going and took us all the way to Winchester. I took it briefly but Highlander decided to take it and move us closer to Leon and then let Coyote have it again. I ended up second at the saddle and got a chance to jump when Coyote downshifted. He didn’t give up however and pushed me to the top. A brief regroup and we were on our way again.

A drop down the back side of the saddle and a turn onto Lindenburger and we were heading north to McCall. Coyote didn’t let us rest much as we worked our way down Heritage to McCall and Huntress helped him push us to Menifee and north again to the AM/PM. We got to the Am/PM just as Dura Max, Ocelot and T-3 were ready to leave. We followed them to Mapes and then got in front and headed for Nuevo. I pulled most of the way to Evans and Huntress pulled most of the way to Ramona. I got back in front and started us towards the hill and Lakeview.

Coyote took the hill first and Highlander got to the top second. Huntress and I followed but caught up on the downhill. By the time we got back to the back road to Lake Paris we were in a pace line and quickly heading for Lakeview. We stopped briefly at the Valero and then headed to Nuevo and over to Central. I pulled back to Mapes and was pretty cooked as we headed over to Briggs.

I caught back up on Briggs and closed on the group at Florida and we rode together back to the dump road and headed towards Winchester. We took a break for coffee or something cold to drink at Chris’s and talked about what a good ride it had been up to this point. So far we had gone just over 40 miles at about 17.5 MPH. Not bad for a half century that we were planning on cruising. We decided to head back on Winchester to Stowe and I got dropped first thing. Still they all waited for me at Stowe and we took off for California as a group. There were no dogs today and we turned on California to drop down to Stetson.

Once on Stetson Highlander and Coyote took the point and lead us back to Warren without dropping any speed. We continued on towards the airport road and I left the group and headed for home as they made the turn. I cut over to Johnston and headed for home. I got there with 54 miles on the clock and a bit more tan than I had last week. Not bad for a half century.