By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Wednesday was looking a lot like Monday weather wise when I got up. I knew we would be down a few riders because of vacations and training schedules but I didn”t know how many would be missing. I got dressed and headed for the parking lot after breakfast and stretching. I arrived first and waited till Minotaur and Martin arrived. We were standing around talking when Closer and Gambler rode up followed by MacGyver on a new ride. Highlander and Tax Man pulled up about the same time as Dragon Slayer and we were just about ready to hit the road. I had no idea how the ride was going to shake out but I knew I had come to play as we pulled out onto Gilmore and headed for Acacia.

I was still a bit under powered as we pulled out onto Acacia and headed for Kirby and had mentioned to Dragon Slayer that I wasn’t up to pulling much today and he would have to take the lead spot. However I did pull from acacia to Kirby and from Kirby to Cypress where I chatted a bit with Highlander about the wind patterns being very close to what Monday’s was and how tired that condition had made me. We rode together to Johnston and waited at the light on Sanderson before heading south to Stetson and beyond Wally World.

Dragon Slayer did take the lead from there and Martin joined him as we headed for Mustang and then Domenigoni and west. As I had thought I was not up to speed so I took a very short pull before dropping back to the tail end of the group. Gambler and MacGyver moved to the front to take over from Dragon Slayer and we formed a double pace line. I ended up in the third rank as we got to Warren and we stayed that way over the dry wash and headed for Winchester. The pace kicked up and Tax Man fell back a bit and Highlander went back to pull him back to the group. The lead group started to separate as Gambler took things up another notch at Leon and I found myself in the forth slot heading for the bottom of the saddle. I wasn’t sure I could hold on to the top so I got out of the saddle and sprinted to the top for the regroup basically taking advantage of Gambler’s great lead out.

As we dropped down off of the Saddle Highlander and Tax Man turned at Lindenburger while we all headed for Menifee. Minotaur had to stop and check out Iphone we say lying in the street but he found it to be broken beyond repair and followed us to Menifee when we turned north. MacGyver led us up to Simpson and down to McCall where we all more or less regrouped and headed for the AM/PM to join Highlander and Tax Man.

Dragon Slayer pulled us all the way to the AM/PM where we joined Tax Man and Highlander and took a short break. Highlander and Tax Man were planning on taking a short cut on Nuevo to Lakview while we turned on Nuevo and headed towards Evans to make our way to Ramona and head for home. We pulled out onto Menifee together and Gambler started the pull north and slowly picked us up to 20mph or so. I was hanging on pretty well as we crested the rise and headed for the Nursery where I missed a shift and dropped my chain. While I slowly back pedaled the group left me and I had to chase them as well as I could all the way to Nuevo and then to Dunlop and finally to Orange before rounding the corner onto Evans where the group was waiting for me. We decided to ride up to Rider and head east to Ramona and the first of the rollers heading to Lakeview. I crossed the rollers third after Martin and Gambler but was caught by MacGyver before I could make it to Lakeview where we regrouped and Dragon slayer went home.

Once we were ready to go I started us on the way to Hansen and after about a quarter of a mile Gambler took over and started the pull for home. We had left a bit before Minotaur was ready and I didn’t notice he hadn’t hooked up on the back of the pace line so we pulled away pretty steadily. By the time we got to Bridge we couldn’t even see Minotaur and we had not closed in on Highlander, Tax Man and Closer. MacGyver pulled us from Warren to Sanderson. Gambler stayed on Ramona as we turned south and cut over to Lyon to head for home ourselves.

MacGyver started us south and Martin helped till we got to Cottonwood. I pulled till we got to Seventh and MacGyver took over again and got us down to Devonshire where he left us to head for his house. Minotaur and I rode back to Burger King and noticed no one was still there so we headed for home ourselves and I got home by noon just about as tired as I have ever been but satisfied with the effort I had put out. It was a great day for a ride.