By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) When I looked outside this morning the sky had a slight overcast hue to it and a very light breeze. I had plotted a medium ride with a little climbing and I knew Quicksilver would be looking forward to it. In fact I expected both of the Bling Team to be there today. I left for the parking lot looking forward to the ride. When I pulled up to Burger King I noticed Digger, Dragon Slayer and Bloodhound waiting. They were followed by Highlander and Doug and Noah, the rider from last summer. Surgeon, Huntress and Quicksilver arrived just before Minotaur and Pirate and we had a full house to head out with.

We took the normal circuitous routed on Gilmore and Acacia to get to Kirby and head south towards the Railroad tracks and the turn on Cypress. At least this time we knew the sink hole had been fixed and we would have no sidewalk detours to get us to Johnston. What surprised me was I was well back in the pack and I hadn’t been loafing along as we got to Sanderson. I was three back as we turned towards Stetson and slowly moved forward in case Dragon Slayer and I made the light green at Mustang.

We started to ramp up for the Mustang to Domenigoni segment and at first it looked like we were going to make the light. The light turned red just before we got there so the segment was more or less a non issue after we started up again. Our next goal was to simply make the turn on Domenigoni and head for the saddle. My plan was to take it easy and save all my matches for Goetz and at first that is just what I did. But as we closed on Warren I got in a lead group with Bloodhound, Dragon Slayer and Pirate. We picked up the pace quite a bit and soon the rest of the group started falling off. By Winchester the lead group was moving quite a bit faster than the chase group and we were taking turns working our way to the saddle. It was my bad luck to have the lead at the foot of the saddle and somehow I managed to hold off the other leaders to the fence where Bloodhound finally got by me.

We decided to make a water stop at Carl’s on Murrieta s we dropped off of the saddle and headed for Lindenburger and Quicksilver was one of the first off of the hill. Some of the group got caught at Menifee but they were closing on the rest of us by the time we got to Antelope. Highlander caught the light perfect and was one of the first over the freeway and to the light at Haun. We were back in a big pack by Bradley and were lining up for a sprint to Carl’s by the next light. I followed on Bloodhounds wheel and came out about one hundred yards before the Carl’s driveway. What I didn’t know was Dragon Slayer was on my wheel and sling shot by me and beat me to the driveway. We rehydrated before heading west on Newport and Surgeon went north on Murrieta while we headed for Goetz. We did see D’Artagnon driving by just before reaching Goetz and heading north.

Highlander left us at Normandy and I decided to give chase to the fleeing Bloodhound and Doug. I started out a bit slower that I should have and soon Pirate and Noah past me only to get caught in the next two climbs. Pirate was pulled in just before the Mini mart Noah was out of spin by the Elks Club. The trouble was I was low on matches and simply couldn’t force myself into pushing to catch Doug or Bloodhound. I got to Ethanac about 10 seconds after Doug and Bloodhound.

Once we were back on the road we headed for Murrieta and south towards the memorial park to turn east. We stopped to look at the new walls they put up. One for Military Veterans.

There was another for police and fire heroes.

It is good to see some still honor service to others despite what the media would have us believe. As soon as I finished taking pictures like a tourist we were back on our way to head east towards Bradley so we could turn on McCall.

We were running a bit fast so we headed east on McCall to Hospital hill and picked up Highlander before dropping down to Heritage and heading over to Lindenburger. We turned onto Simpson and slowly started a pace line building speed heading to Leon. Bloodhound had left us and was halfway to Winchester when we reached Leon and Dragon Slayer took the lead. As the speed increased the line started to break and I told Dragon Slayer to take it down one. He thought I meant shift into a smaller gear and pulled away. Minotaur pulled around me and worked with Dragon Slayer all the way to Winchester where we joined them and headed for Stowe and a quick cold drink. Some left almost as soon as we got there but a few of us stayed and talked.

They waited till I finished my large cold drink and then we headed east on Stowe to make a run at California. While most wanted us to cruise home Dragon Slayer couldn’t help himself and by increasing speed like someone trying to boil a frog he had us back up to Speed on California and all the way down to Stetson.

We worked our way to warren and then the airport road before heading back to Sanderson and heading north. Because of the construction we took the lane and made our way to Lowes. It was a quick trip around the back side of Lowes to Acacia and then to Gilmore before we got back to Burger King and watched some of the riders load up their cars. I headed for home and even got there a bit early to fix lunch and then enjoy a hot shower before down loading the pictures and my Garmin.