By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) It was another Friday and another perfect day for a ride. I know it seems as if we have more than our fair share of good riding days but in truth someone has to have them so it might as well be us. I got to the parking lot where Dragon Slayer and Digger were waiting. It quickly turned into another good group. We had a good sized solid A group with Gambler, Bulldozer, Ferret, Bandit, MacGyver and ME-109. The B group consisted of Quicksilver, Minotaur, Highlander, Dragon Slayer, Rooster, Digger, Closer and me. I figured with that kind of division we would be breaking up after Winchester. It turned out just a bit less balanced than that. We had to wait for Closer just a bit before we headed out towards Acacia.

As we moved past Florida I could see Minotaur talking with Bulldozer and I quickly realized at least two B riders would be trying to stay with the A group once we split. Dragon Slayer would leave us at Menifee and Minotaur would chase them as long as he could. I also knew that if Rooster wanted to he could stay with them as well. The ride today wasn’t long but it had several little climbs in it and Rooster can climb with some of the stronger riders. But I would learn of this later in the ride. We turned on Kirby and headed south more or less just cruising.

As we got to Cypress I took over the lead and moved us through the housing tract and out onto Johnston to get the light at Sanderson. When that light changed I took us to Stetson and started us west towards the Airport. Bulldozer and I were both riding side by side and neither one of us wanted to start the pace west towards Warren. So as often happens Minotaur took off for Warren and most of the A group pulled by me and followed him. At first Highlander went with them and I held back to keep the rest of the Bs in line. Closer took over the lead of our group and pulled us behind the quickly disappearing A group headed for California. Somewhere before the corner Dragon Slayer pulled out and Minotaur wasn’t able to close the gap. The two of them worked together to stay between us and the A group as we turned onto California they were just turning onto Stowe and the rest of the As were nowhere in sight. The Bs never caught Dragon Slayer and Minotaur and we all regrouped at Winchester Farms, except we had lost Rooster.

Gambler and Bulldozer confirmed that this would be the last regroup for the As for today and they would be leaving us after this stop. I assured them we would follow as best as we could and pick up any stragglers. I started us out onto Winchester and got us to the dump road and headed towards the Wild West bar. ME-109 stated to pull in front of me and lead the pull when several of the big dogs rolled by. As soon as Bandit pulled by I told ME-109 to go after him and watched as the rest of the As took off after them. They pulled away for the rest of us with Dragon Slayer and Minotaur on their wheel. They didn’t slow for the rise and as we came over it we saw that Minotaur has been dropped and we were closing on him. Dragon Slayer seemed to be hanging on and was nowhere to be seen even when we turned onto Leon.

Somewhere we had also lost Digger but he had already told me not to wait for him and he had a map on his Garmin. We reached Simpson and headed west and managed to close on Minotaur so that we were at Briggs when he was at Lindenburger and the rest of the As we turning on Menifee. We were close behind him when we rounded onto Menifee ourselves but we pulled over to collect Highlander before heading down to McCall. By the time we got to McCall Minotaur was out of sight. We turned and climbed Hospital Hill and dropped down onto Hillpoint to head over to Sumner and over the hill to Antelope. We worked our way to Garbani and east to Briggs only to meet up with Prosecutot as we headed back to Domenigoni and back towards the saddle. We cruised to Winchester where Prosecutor left us and headed back to Winchester Farms to get water before heading for home.

We stayed together as we got to California and made our way to Stetson and back towards Warren. I pulled us all the way back to Sanderson and then Acacia before turning us back towards Kirby. I got us through the light and onto Gilmore before getting back to the parking lot. Digger finally showed up and he was only about 5 minutes behind us. All in all it was a fun ride on a perfect day.