By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) There were some very good reasons to look forward to riding today. The weather wizards said it was going to be one of the warmest days of the weak. We were also going to get two of our riders back from sick leave and there would be little or no wind. Now all I needed was t get to Burger King and see who would be joining me. Digger was already there when I pulled up and there were two new riders waiting with him. I had met them at the Hemet bike shop and was glad they decided to join us. Bloodhound arrived as did Highlander and Quicksilver. Mantis and Tate, (Newsboy) arrived as well. Dragon Slayer and Rob were with us as well plus Daredevil making it a pretty good sized group for a winter ride, at least winter for this area. We pulled out of the Burger King parking lot and headed for Lyon and made the turn towards Ramona.

We moved north rather quickly and were soon rolling by Fruitvale and headed for the light at Esplanade. I found it pretty easy going at first at least till Daredevil rolled by with Bloodhound and Dragon Slayer in Tow. I keep the rest of the group in mind and continued the pull till we got to Ramona Boulevard and headed west.

I kept us at a easy but reasonable pace as we moved to Sanderson and watched the faster three rides make the light at Sanderson and Ramona Expressway. They waited for us around the corner and Bloodhound began the pull west. We stayed together reasonable well most of the way to Warren before the two new riders, Alex and Akaria began to lose the draft so I went back to get them as the main group move away. By Bridge street Digger seemed to lose the draft and was only about 75 yards ahead of us. Things stayed that way till we got about halfway to the light at Hansen and I pulled the other two up to Digger so we could all pull into the Valero station together.

As we got ready to head south on Lakeview Dragon Slayer told us he was heading for home. He had already done the trip from Lakeview to Burger King to start with so he wasn’t going to miss out on many miles. I took us out onto Lakeview and pulled till Dragon Slayer left us at the stop sign. I took us to the Elementary school and Bloodhound took us to Nuevo and then over to Central and towards Menifee.

We started to string out quite a bit once we were on Menifee and I stayed with Alex till we caught up to Highlander and Digger and then I started to follow Newsboy as he closed in on Quicksilver. We made it over the rise and past the Nursery to close on Mantis. Once by him I worked with Newsboy till we tagged up to Bloodhound, Daredevil and Rob. We all made it through the light on Florida and waited till the group caught up across from the AM/PM.

We decided to go straight south on Menifee all the way to Simpson giving Quicksilver and Newsboy one more little climb to try and tire me out on. Daredevil started us out and slowly but surely had us up to speed and headed for McCall. Once we started through the intersection Quicksilver hooked up onto Daredevil’s back wheel and was stuck like glue as he started the push up the grade. I took off after her and waited till she shifted before I jumped out and tried to pass Daredevil. I was unsuccessful getting by Daredevil but it did shake Quicksilver loose and let me slot in and follow him to the stop sign before heading east on Simpson. Bloodhound wasn’t with us because he left before we did back at the AM/PM but Newsboy and Daredevil did move away from us as we headed for Leon. Quicksilver pulled the rest of us by Leon and I took over somewhere into the trees.

We were headed to Winchester so we could head north towards Stowe and coffee. Quicksilver wasn’t going to be able to join us because she had to get back to pick up her kids and Daredevil offered to ride back with her while the rest of us stopped at Winchester Market. After some coffee and conversation we were ready to head for home by going east on Stowe and making our way to California. Digger took us most of the way till we started up the ever so slight of a grade and I got us to California. Rob took us to Stetson and we headed to Warren with everyone in tow. We turned onto the Airport road and somehow dropped Digger. We soft pedaled to Wentworth and stopped, except for Highlander, and rode together to Sanderson and then Lowes. All we had left was to make it to Gilmore and the parking lot.

I left the group at Florida and headed to Hemet Bikes just in front of Mantis and Newsboy. We talked for a while before I headed for home and a hot shower. It turned out to be a pretty well attended and easy ride to Nuevo and back and I think I enjoyed every mile of it.