8/15/2012 By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) What a great morning it was as I walked outside and got ready to ride down to Burger King and meet with friends for a short ride south and east today. All in all I was feeling pretty strong and rested even after the hot rides we have been having for the last few weeks. When I arrived at the parking lot at first I thought I was the only one there but then I noticed Ocelot and Dura Max were parked by the restaurant windows while I headed for the shade of the trees. People started to trickle is till Surgeon, Highlander, Huntress, Gambler and a new rider names Richard made up the group. We headed south almost right at 8am. It only took us a few minutes to make it to Kirby.

We didn’t waste much time getting to the housing tract and working our way to Sanderson to head south once again. Highlander spent the time bringing Richard up to speed on how the group works as we made our way past Mustang and onto the light on Domenigoni. As we headed east towards State Street I gave the group the option of running up to the marina before we headed to Cactus Valley. Gambler said he was interested and he started to pull away. Before I knew it Huntress past me and started to pull away with Gambler. However when Gambler turned towards the Marina Huntress stayed on Domenigoni and continued pulling away from us. The rest of the group seemed content to let her go so I decided it was up to me to give chase but I didn’t catch her till she was all the way past the turn at State Street and I followed he to the little rise by Sherpa’s old house just before the golf course.

The problem riding with Huntress is you always know she is back there just waiting to come roaring past you when you least expect it. With the long pull to Sage Street I knew I would be at a disadvantage on the first little hill leading into Cactus Valley. I could almost feel Huntress picking up speed as I closed in on Sage so I hit the hill as hard as I could to keep her from running over me before it flattened out. I had a bit of a gap cresting the hill first so I felt I could back down and as I did Surgeon came rolling over the hill and joined me just before we regrouped and the end of the paved road. As soon as Gambler joined us we headed back towards State to continue our ride north and then east.

As we got close to Sage I got a chance to take it easy on the long fast downhill till we got back to the horse ranches where Gambler finally caught me. I stayed with him till we rounded onto State and even managed to stay with him halfway to Newport in a sprint before deciding I would have to burn too many matches if I went all the way to McSweeney. No sooner did I back down that Huntress took up the chase. As we turned into the housing tract Highlander pulled up and I noticed Richard wasn’t with him. I turned back only see he had missed the turn and headed towards Domenigoni. I gave chase but didn’t catch him till just before the light where we waited for everyone to regroup. Gambler took a run at the State Street TT but no one followed and we all caught him after he slowed down on Chambers as we headed for Thornton and Santa Fe.

Huntress and Surgeon took us down Stetson and straight past Columbia so the rest of us followed and rode past the High School and out past Lake towards Fairview. Once again Huntress, Surgeon and Highlander were well out in front as the rest of us followed except for Gambler who made a quick turn on Lake to add some distance. Huntress was the first to round the corner at Fairview and head south towards Wilson Mesa. She was also the first to get up the hill and around the houses before we all regrouped before the ride back to Florida.

The ride back off of Wilson flats can be a fast one and today proved to be no different. Soon Gambler came flying by and I once again gave chase. I simply didn’t have the lungs to hold on much past Stetson and thinking Highlander was right behind me I backed down to a pace I felt I could hold all the way to Florida. I was at least a quarter of a mile behind Gambler by the time we caught the light at Florida and we rode together down to Carl’s for some conversation and hydration before heading for home on Lincoln.

Gambler doesn’t live far from Carl’s so he left us first while we continued on back past Lake and west. Surgeon and Dura Max were going to leave us at Park Street while the rest of us continued on to try and make the jog onto Devonshire. We couldn’t make our normal left and right because of construction work but we only had to ride a few block more before we could drop down from Park to Devonshire and continue on west.

It didn’t take us long to get back to Santa Fe and then down to Latham. By that time in was Just Highlander, Richard and I and like most times Highlander was pushing to pace to get back to the cars. I stopped at Palm where Richard split off for home to get his phone number and e-mail to add him to our mailing list and then hurried on to say good bye to Huntress and Highlander at Burger King. I got home about 15 minutes later and felt pretty good even if it did get into the mid 90s today.