By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Friday had arrived and so did the morning sun. It was clear as a bell and with no wind I knew it would be warm. I just hope it wouldn’t get too hot before we got home. I putted around a bit before getting ready to head to the parking lot and start our ride. I got to Burger King to find Digger, Brian and Minotaur waiting for me. We waited for quite a while before MacGyver and Ferret arrived followed by Bill and Huntress. Bloodhound and Barracuda rounded out our group and we headed out onto Gilmore to start our day.

Looking at the group as we turned onto Acacia they reminded me of a group of F-1 racers getting started. At least that is how they looked in their eyes. But racers or not they were willing to let Bloodhound ride off the front by himself after we turned onto Kirby and then headed west towards Johnston and Sanderson through the housing tract on Cypress. There was some construction on Johnston and when we turned onto Sanderson traffic seemed rather light. That was until we got to the railroad tracks and wanted to move left to make the turn on Wentworth. A small pickup piloted by a small man took umbrage with us being in “his” lane and sounded the horn and signaled his I Q as he went buy with his transmission slipping and engine sounding like he should be going three time faster than he was. But we made the turn and headed to the airport road.

The ride out onto Stetson was just a bit tentative but soon Bloodhound has us rolling along at 20 MPH and everyone was hanging on quite well. We had to slow down at Warren but it wasn’t long before Bloodhound took the lead again. This time no one was letting him run free and I pulled onto his back wheel and followed him all the way to California to head south. The whole group lined up behind him and zeroed in on Stowe where the real run starts.

As we were headed west again I stayed steady behind Bloodhound and set up as much draft as I could for the rest of the group till we were close to the rise and drop off heading to the parking lot. MacGyver, Ferret, Brian came rolling by and Bloodhound tried to grab a wheel. I decided to hold my pace to save my efforts for later and watched as Bloodhound was left in Limbo chasing the group ahead of him and never getting completely in their draft. We all got to the Winchester parking lot for a regroup and a water check.

When we got started again I got out onto Winchester first with Bloodhound on my wheel and the rest of the group got hung up at the stop sign. Bloodhound and I were more or less all alone as we approached Grand and he shouted that we should make a run for it so that MacGyver and Ferret would have to turn up the wick to catch us. About then the energy from my breakfast must have kicked in and I pulled like a tractor trailer all the way to the Wild West arena before Bloodhound took over and pulled us to the rise and then Leon. We had managed to stay out front all the way to Leon and parked in the shade to wait for another regroup. Once back on our way Bloodhound and MacGyver led us to Simpson and all the way down to Menifee before heading north to McCall. Once on McCall I found myself chasing MacGyver through the light at the School and I was in the wrong gear. I blew up about halfway up the hill and had to follow MacGyver, Barracuda, Bill and Brian to the Chevron Station, Bloodhound and Ferret were already there. We regrouped and headed west on McCall towards the end of the road.

The group didn’t slow much as we headed south towards Honeyrun and then to LaLadera to move to Normandy. I started to conserve energy on LaLadera knowing that once we got to Railroad Canyon the climb was going to be a free for all. Most of the climbers were lined up in front of me with Bloodhound leading the way and Brian on his wheel. I had to keep an eye on MacGyver and Ferret because they both climb better than me so I couldn’t attack too early or they would simply run me down and drop me before the top of the first climb. At the start of the climb I did seem to pick the right gear, for me, and got to the top of the climb first and to the next stop light first. MacGyver blasted by me just before we made the turn at the Stater Brothers parking lot and regrouped once more letting Huntress, Bloodhound and Digger get a head start heading towards Murrieta Road.

We somehow got separated from Digger as we turned onto Murrieta and again on Holland to get over to Haun and head back to Newport. The plan was to stop for a water refill at Jack in the Box and then head home. It was getting hot and we felt it was best to take as short of a break as we could. Digger must have passed us at Antelope and we didn’t catch him as we headed back towards Winchester. It turns out he had cut over to Winchester Farms and we had decided on staying on Domenigoni to get home as quickly as we could. But we didn’t get back to the dry wash before Brian had a flat. Minotaur assisted in the tire change while the rest of us waited in the only shade we could find.

Once we were back on our way it didn’t take long before we were split up again. I fell back to pick up Huntress and pull her back to the front group. Digger had stopped at Winchester farms so he was on a different road heading home and by the time I got to Sanderson Huntress and Minotaur had caught me. Brian was once again stranded because of a bad tire and Minotaur had to ride back to Burger King to get his truck to go back and pick him up. I stayed with Huntress as he rode to pick up her truck at the glass shop and we say Digger on Gilmore and Latham. After dropping off Huntress I headed for home for a hot and then tepid shower before lunch. It was a rather quick 48 miles for me but one I enjoyed immensely.