By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) It may be early in January but we are having spring type weather and riding can’t get much better. Huntress and some others requested a reasonable in town ride today so I picked a simple one and yet interesting enough to keep us entertained. Backwards Soboba seemed like the right one. I got to Burger King and got some coffee and went outside to talk with Highlander and Digger. I didn’t know is it would be a large group because I had heard some of the A riders were going to ride for CAS during the CAL-Pool ride on Saturday. Still MacGyver and Bloodhound did show up as did Quicksilver and Huntress. Once Phil arrived we were about ready to head south on Gilmore to Acacia and south again on Kirby to start our day.

We kept the pace down as we headed for the railroad tracks and soon made the turn onto Cypress to head towards Johnston and Sanderson. We caught the light red and had to wait to head south once more towards Stetson. I got out front and took us to Stetson and then started towards Mustang with Bloodhound leading.

Phil and Bloodhound were way out front as we past Mustang and they made it to the light at Domenigoni before the rest of us. They turned east towards Searl and once again started to pull away. However on the grade in front of Searl Phil started to fade and I closed on Bloodhound for a pull towards State Street. Finally MacGyver past by and took over following Bloodhound onto State and towards McSweeney. I pulled out of the lead and followed the group to McSweeney and around the housing tract before regrouping back on State. Bloodhound took us down State towards the State Street Mile and I pulled around him about 100 yards before the rise. MacGyver pulled by me and paced me to the end of the segment before we turned east on Chambers and worked our way to Santa Fe and out onto Stetson.

As we moved by Girard I knew Highlander would not join us when we turned on Columbia. For some reason the ride down Crest doesn’t impress him as much as it does the rest of us. I love the old houses and the one or two horse ranches we pass on our way east. Still we would be regrouping at Fairview so we all end up at the same place anyway. We finally made it to Columbia and sure enough Highlander went straight. The rest of us worked our way over to Lake and back north towards Stetson again.

We turned once more onto Stetson and headed for Fairview with Bloodhound and MacGyver once again way out front. I was leading Huntress and Quicksilver at a pretty good clip for me. We made it to Fairview and waited till Phil and Digger caught up before heading north towards Florida. I sent Phil out front to and told him he had to start the sprint but soon Bloodhound was leading and I slowly closed with him. MacGyver was on my wheel as I dropped it into a higher gear and took off for the bridge passing Bloodhound far too wide for him to gram my wheel. MacGyver got me at the bridge and pulled ahead. However he missed a shift and I rolled by taking it to the driveway ending the sprint. Bloodhound caught us just before the stop sign. Our next regroup was just past Florida and then we were off towards Ramona and headed west into the wind. We watched MacGyver and Bloodhound pull away and then stop and wait for us at Hemet Street. We then made our way to Main and turned towards Soboba to start the run west to State. MacGyver and Bloodhound wanted to attack the segment but I needed to pull an ailing B group down Soboba at a reasonable pace. I did pretty well till right after the last little hill where Huntress past me setting up a double pass by Quicksilver. I had just enough to catch her and we pulled up to the waiting duo at the corner parking lot on State.

Now all we had to do was head back to Ramona and east to Carl’s for coffee. We headed South on State and made the left turn on Ramona to move the group back to Main and Ramona. Digger and Phil had fallen off a bit but when I went back to pull them they didn’t want my help so I rejoined Huntress, Highlander and Quicksilver as we moved back to Hemet Street and Huntress took us all the way back to Lincoln where she and Phil headed back for Burger King and the rest of us headed for Carl’s. After coffee and conversation there were only 4 of us left to head back west to Burger King. Quicksilver got a nasty flat that drove a small staple or wire sideways between the tread and casing that I simply couldn’t dig out. We booted the tire and headed for home.

Digger left us at Park while Highlander, Quicksilver and I headed over to Devonshire and then west past Yale. Quicksilver was still moving pretty quickly as we past San Jacinto and again at State. We rode together t Lyon and she blasted past me and headed for the Pep Boy’s parking lot. I said good bye at the vehicles and headed for home to take a shower and have a snack. All in all it was a good day for a ride and it sure beat the weather they are getting back east today.