By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) I started out feeling a lot better today than I did Wednesday. I was honestly surprised my legs were as strong as they felt. I had one small pain in my right quadriceps but I believed it would work itself out during the ride so I had breakfast and got dressed for a fun fill Friday ride. I got to the parking lot just before Dragon Slayer and got some coffee while we waited for the other riders. As people started pulling in I could see we were going to have a strong A group and a small B group. Bloodhound, Gambler, Bulldozer, MacGyver and Ferret pulled up with Minotaur. Highlander and Dan arrived about the same time as Brian followed by Quicksilver. Right at 9am we pulled out onto Gilmore and headed down to Acacia and over to Kirby to get started on a westerly ride.

For a change Bloodhound wasn’t flying away from us and we were following pretty close behind him as we crossed over the railroad tracks and turned right onto Cypress and head west towards Johnston. Bloodhound led us through the housing tract and onto Johnston where for a change we got the light on Sanderson Greed so he could start us south towards Stetson and Wally World. He continued to lead us south till he got caught at the light on Thornton. We were all pretty close behind at Mustang heading for Domenigoni.

As we made the turn on Domenigoni Bloodhound took a big lead that we had to slowly try and pull in. After the rise Ferret pulled to the front and pulled a few of us up to Bloodhound at Warren. I was sitting in the third slot as we headed for the dry wash and Highlander was right behind me with Quicksilver in tow. In fact at Warren just about everyone was with the lead group as we rolled down the backside of the dry wash. Ferret had us cruising at about 27 as we headed for Winchester and somewhere between the dry wash and there we lost part of the group. The four leaders were Ferret, Bloodhound, Brian and me. We were going fine as we got by Winchester and soon were run down by Bulldozer. He pulled in front and held the pace at 26 till giving the lead back to Bloodhound and then Brian . At Leon Bulldozer blew by again with Bloodhound and Ferret in tow and any cohesiveness the break had fell apart spreading us out over about an eighth of a mile. We all regrouped at the top of the saddle and waited for everyone else. Once everyone was collected we dropped down the saddle and headed for Menifee to turn towards the park and make a nature stop. Once back on the road Bloodhound left us and I started to chase him the Holland and Revival.

I closed about half of the distance to Bloodhound and looked back to see Ferret closing rapidly on me. I had enough of a lead to get to the stop sign first but I stopped to collect the stragglers and the A group did not. Once Highlander and Quicksilver were with me we chased Minotaur and Dan south towards Scott. Quicksilver pulled us up to Scott and headed us to Antelope. Highlander decided to call it a day and decided to break off once we got to Haun. Quicksilver and I caught Minotaur and she stayed with us all the way up Scott to Murrieta where we found Dan waiting. We headed north towards Holland before turning North West and working our way towards Railroad canyon. I got a pretty big jump on my group and slowed a bit at the first stop light only to have Quicksilver pull up to me and tell me to head on so she could draft me. We got to Railroad canyon to meet the A group and both Minotaur and I had flats. The group was running short on time so they left the four of us and headed for home. Don and Quicksliver started back east towards the Fire station only to have to stop again when Minotaur had a second flat. Quicksilver was running short of time so she started east just before we finished changing the tire and we chased as best as we could expecting to catch her by Murrieta. Minotaur got a third flat and we were finished as far as a chase was concerned. Once we were down to our last tube I pulled a very tired looking Minotaur back Murrieta and then to Winchester having to slow at almost any hint of a hill. Minotaur hard worked out on Thursday and was suffering for it today. I was still feeling good and set cruise control on 20 and headed for first warren and then Sanderson to make the last big turn for home.

I decided to head back to Acacia just in case Dan or Quicksilver were stuck along the way. They weren’t stuck so I headed back east on Acacia only stopping to buy some extra tubes before heading home for lunch and a hot shower. All in all it had been a good ride. I got to play on Domenigoni going out and help a friend coming home. What more can someone ask for?