By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I felt pretty rested as I rolled out of bed this morning. I turned on the coffee and made breakfast before getting ready for an easy Monday ride. I decided on my old Peugeot Jersey and hat before heading to Burger King to meet with the club. Once again Digger and Dragon Slayer were already there and Bloodhound got there at the same time as I did. Highlander and Bulldozer arrived followed by Surgeon and Tax Man. Pony Express got there just before my friend Metric Man and Quicksilver. There was nothing left to do but head out onto Latham and over to Lyon to start out trip south.

At first I think I had Quicksliver confused because she was expecting a ride west and we were going first south and then east. After we crossed Acacia and headed for Whittier I noticed she was moving up on me and I could see questioning in her eyes. As we past Johnston she finally pulled up next to me and asked just where we were going. As we turned on Thornton I told her we were headed for State Street t get in a long run on Domenigoni.

She seemed satisfied with my answer and took the lead as we got ready to turn on Domenigoni and start west. Bloodhound got back in front and Highlander pulled up on my wheel as we headed for Searl. Once over the small hump at Searl Metric Man passed us and closed on Bloodhound only to have Bulldozer pull up and drag the rest of us up the both Metric Man and Bloodhound. Bloodhound pulled us almost all the way to Warren before Bulldozer took us again. By Winchester Bloodhound had the lead and he pulled us all the way to the saddle only to fall prey to a four man sprint to the top that even caught me off guard.

Once Digger had joined us we dropped off the saddle and towards Lindenburger. Quicksilver beat me down the hill but backed off at the light where Highlander, Digger and Tax Man were in the lead. We quickly moved on to the turn at Laguna Vista and headed for Newport to cut back east.

After turning south on Briggs Bloodhound, Tax Man and Highlander were up front and I had Bulldozer cruise by me heading for Bloodhound. I bummed a ride on Bulldozer’s back wheel and soon we had closed on Bloodhound and put a small gap on Tax Man. Still I could see Dragon Slayer moving up so I made a run for Garboni and Bulldozer let me so I got to the corner first and headed west. They didn’t let me get away with that twice however and Dragon Slayer jumped me just before Menifee. We split up a bit when Bulldozer had to head to Jack in the Box to refill his water bottle but we joined up again to ride to Lindenburger again. I tried to draft a SUV as it turned on Lindenburger and got to the housing tract before Bloodhound caught me. We almost got to Simpson when Bulldozer and Dragon Slayer caught us as we turned east on Simpson. We formed a rotating pace line and took it all the way to Winchester before heading to Winchester Farms for coffee and conversation. Bloodhound left first and the rest of us followed a few minutes later.

As we moved east on Stowe heading for California I was surprised how quickly everyone was moving considering how many of us were nursing sore legs. I had a thigh compression sleeve on, Dragon Slayer had sore legs from playing baseball and Metric Man had a pulled hamstring from running. Still my average speed was one of my better ones as we made our way back to Warren where Surgeon headed for home. I got us back to the airport road and over to Sanderson before heading north to Lowes.

We moved around the back side of Lowes and out onto Acacia before heading east to Kirby and then to Gilmore to go back to Burger King. Tax Man got back to the parking lot first where we all chatted for a few minutes before heading for home or to lunch. I was surprised at how fast this ride had been considering there were very few sprints and the group more or less stayed together most of the time. But what I wasn’t surprised about was how much fun we had as a group. As they say, “ a good day was had by all.”