By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I watched the wind patterns all day Tuesday and thought that if Wednesday was the same pattern we should change the ride from north up Lambs Canyon to west to Goetz hill on the short side. The original plan was for a long run down Ramona and then we would have the wind at our back from Perris all the way to Newport Road. When I got up this morning it was still windy but not as bad as Tuesday so I headed for Burger king ready to do the ride even if I had to do it all by myself. I pulled up to the parking lot and was the only one there. I got coffee and by 8:30 I was still the only one there. By 8:45 I was thinking it was going to be a lonely ride when Quicksilver arrived. She was by no means sure she wanted to attempt a long ride on a windy day. As we talked about it MacGyver, Minotaur and Rooster rode up. Quicksilver decided to give it a try if we shortened the ride a bit so I agreed and we headed down Gilmore and headed for Acacia.

The ride to Acacia was about as easy as it gets and the turn west proved to us it was going to be a memorable ride. In fact as we made the turn at the light on Kirby we were hitting 19 mph with little or no effort. In fact Quicksilver had commented that she hardly had to pedal to get us to Cypress. Once we turned onto Cypress we were really moving as we headed to Johnston. I could tell I might not get many pictures because taking a hand off of the bars was not the best idea in such a wind as was demonstrated as I turned into the wind on Sanderson and headed to Wentworth. We could hardly see the traffic on Sanderson as we got ready for the next turn west and headed for the airport. But once we did make the turn we easily made our way towards Stetson.

Once out on Stetson and heading west again I took the lead and got us to Warren before changing places with McGyver and making our way to California. I had us slow down to get everyone in line so we could take Stowe together but the rest of the group couldn’t match MacGyvers acceleration and soon we had gapped the group and were heading for the old barn. I took my turn at the front before swallowing a mouth full of dust off of one of the fields and feeling like I had clogged a carburetor. I held on as best as I could but lost the draft just before the barn. I pulled in behind him at Winchester Farms and waited till we had a chance to regroup and down a snack. Finally we headed down Winchester to get to Grand and head west again. The plan was to get to Leon and jog over to Simpson the make our way to McCall.

We rounded the corner onto Menifee and made it to McCall separated into groups of two, two and one. Once we were all back together we attacked the back side of Hospital hill and drop down to the gas station on Bradley for another regroup. Our next stop was Murrieta and the turn into the wind heading for Ethernic. Once again we were all together heading to Goetz and the light where we would turn left. The first half of the climb was going well and I pulled as hard as I could till things kicked up closer to 8 percent when MacGyver and Rooster pulled around me and headed for the top. At the top I waited for Quicksilver as Rooster went back to look for Minotaur. I checked my messages and discovered I had to get home to move my travel trailer due to the wind knocking down a wall were we store it so I left the group with MacGyver and headed for home. The ride back on Newport was a killer with the wind seeming to be in my face all the way to Lindenburger. I took a chance and headed over to Simpson and it seemed a bit better. Pushing my luck I took Leon to Grand and things only got worse. The turn onto Winchester almost slowed me to a stop as I dropped into my small ring and headed for Stowe. Stowe was fine till I got to the open space past the barn and it got better as I entered the wind shadow of the last little section of hills. California was just as bad as Winchester and Stetson seemed like a relief until I crossed Warren where the wind seemed to change and tried to drive me into the dirt. My next mistake was taking the airport road. Yes there was less traffic but when I pulled onto Wentworth it was like getting sand blasted. I couldn’t see the light at Sanderson when I got there and had to stop at the corner and wait till the dust cleared a bit before heading to Johnston and home. When I walked in the door of my house my wife said I looked like someone from the Africa Corps as I removed my glasses and headed for the shower. Dirt rolled off of me for three or four minutes before I started to feel clean. In fact I took a brush to my legs to clean off what might have looked to some people as a tan. It was a hard ride but worth doing, at least once just for the experience.