Another great day

By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)   We had such a good ride Wednesday and the weather was so nice I could only expect the same from today. The weather was about the same when I left home but the cloud layer seemed a bit deeper. It seemed like a good idea t wear arm and knee warmers so as I left the house I put some on and headed to Burger King for coffee. At first it looked like we would have a extremely small group with just Digger, Dura Max, Bloodhound and me. But soon Sea Lion, D'Artagnon, Highlander and Barracuda arrived. Ranger arrived down from Beaumont just as Huntress pulled up. It seemed like a good number for a rather cool Friday. Right at 8am we headed south on Gilmore and west on Acacia and south again on Kirby.

Once again I was a bit concerned about Bloodhound setting an early fast pace. But I was determined not to chase him even if he faded into the distance one we got to Domenigoni. I wanted to hold the group together if at all possible and so as Bloodhound started around the corner onto Cypress I was content to fall back. Then just as we rounded the corner ourselves I noticed Shadow was waiting on the side of the road to join us heading to Johnston and Sanderson. As I expected we got the light red on Sanderson but were soon headed south again after the light changed.

Slowly the pace picked up and I ended up on Bloodhound's wheel as we past Mustang and then turned West on Domenigoni. I backed down a bit and started to set an easy pace when Highlander jumped around me taking most of the group with him. I kept falling back and riders kept passing me so I knew my desire to have a nice easy recovery ride just rode off into the west with me riding sweep. Sea Lion fell back to help me pull my small group and we did manage to catch the larger one at Warren but soon lost them again and watched them fade into the fog that was what we could see of Winchester. We didn't catch them again till we regrouped at the saddle.

A little food and a little water and we were ready to drop off of the saddle and head west again. I followed Bloodhound down to Lindenburger and then past Laguna Vista. For a change traffic was pretty light as we got close to Menifee and we were able to get into the left turn lane with little of no problems. I was a bit surprised to see Highlander and Ranger up front following Bloodhound but there they were and Huntress was right behind me. I didn't see much of a reason to attack the hill after Holland but still I hit it reasonably hard and managed to get to the top just before Barracuda ran me down. Shadow had already crested the hill first and was refilling his front tire with air by the time I got to him. We made a short regroup at the turnout after the top of the hill and then headed for Garboni and then Scott.

Once we to my surprise rather than Bloodhound catching my wheel it was Highlander. Not only did he have my wheel he looked like he wanted to pass. I kept up the pressure till we came to the rise and I pushed again and this time managed to separate myself from him. After about 100 yards I shut it down only to have Shadow and some other ride by me. I let a small group form behind me and then fell in with Highlander, Huntress, Digger, Sea Lion and Dura Max heading to Antelope. Highlander made it to Haun first but Huntress started us north towards Holland. She pulled pretty strong till I took over and then Sea Lion took a turn only giving it back to me for the last quarter mile. We regrouped to only to find Shadow once again filling his tire with air. We decided to ride to the circle K on Newport and get the tire fixed. Once that was taken care of we were out and on our way to Bradley and north again. It was a quick trip on Bradley to McCall and believe it or not it was almost as quick on McCall to the top of Hospital Hill. A quick regroup and we were down off of the hill and onto Heritage heading south.

We got down to Lindenburgr and got ready to head east on Simpson when Bloodhound and Ranger left us to got practice sprints on Domenigoni. Barracuda took the faster part of the remaining group and headed for Winchester. I brought the smaller group with me. Dura Max stayed on Simpson when e turned on Winchester so we said our good byes and headed to Winchester Market for coffee. It never really warmed up as we talked so it was back on the road and east for us again.

We didn't exactly waste any time getting to California nor did we slouch any getting to Stetson. But the clouds were just starting to burn off as we got back to Warren. By the time we were back to the Airport road D'Artagnon left us and headed for home as the rest of us worked our way to Sanderson and then North towards Lowes. Highlander was still riding strong and started us around the building before we came back out onto Acacia.

There wasn't much left after Acacia and we quickly rolled up to the light at Kirby and then to the corner at Gilmore. Highlander was first to the light on Florida but it turned red before he could cross the rest of us caught up with him. We all pulled into the parking lot, except Digger and had a short visit before Huntress and I headed east together. I stayed with her till we got to State Street and then headed for home myself. The clouds finally burned off just as I got to my house. All in all it was a pretty good day.