By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) It was another cold day and another chance for me to see how my fitness is coming along. I am getting up to 40 miles pretty easily but I can’t always stay with the group for the whole ride. Today was one of those rides where I could push a little and see how much I had in the tank by the end of the day. I headed for Burger king with all of that in my mind. Once again I was dressed like someone getting ready for the Iditarod sled race and met up with a small grouped dressed much the same way. Dragon Slayer and ME-109 arrived right after me and we talked till Highlander and Earth Dog arrived. We discussed the fact that Burger King would be closed for at least two weeks and we would have to meet at the Hemet Bike shop if we wanted coffee and a place to use the bathroom. We talked over the route we were planning and headed out to start our day. I followed Dragon Slayer to Acacia and we made our way to Kirby and turned south. I did pull a bit down to Cypress and turned west with Highlander headed towards Johnston. A truck tried to run us down by blowing the stop sign on Johnston but we fell in behind him and stopped at the light on Sanderson. Once across the street we moved onto Industrial and then Cawston before jumping onto Stetson where I managed to pull us to Warren before giving the lead to Dragon Slayer and watching ME-109 take off on us. Dragon Slayer made a monster pull to California and then to Stowe for the speed run to Winchester Farms. It was a great pace line and I still had some energy left over as we made it to the parking lot and regrouped.

Once it was time to get back on the road I once again managed to pull us all the way to the dump road and at least started west towards Leon. As we got close to the Rodeo Arena Me-109 and Dragon Slayer kicked it up a bit. We got to the rise and we were all together till ME-109 made a wrong turn at Leon and we sort of soft pedaled till he caught us and took us to Briggs and headed north. We stayed in a tight bunch all the way to the High School and Florida where we were lucky to catch a line of cars sitting at the light. The cars tripped the light and we scooted over Florida and headed for the elementary school and the stop sign. Highlander and Earth Dog fell off a bit at the light but Highlander was back in line as we turned west on Mapes and headed towards Menifee. We all stopped at the sign on Menifee and got a quick jump between cars as we headed south on Menifee. Once again ME-109 jumped on it and Dragon Slayer started to pull Highlander and I after him. Earth Dog seemed out of gas heading towards Florida and the AM/PM. ME-109 and Dragon Slayer waited for us after the light and we all headed towards McCall after the regroup. Once again we lost Earth Dog and Highlander went back to pick him up while we waited for him at McCall right after the light. Once we were all back together again everyone made a run at Hospital Hill and I started out last. I started to push the hill a bit but decided to spin it out and crested with rested legs before dropping down the front side with Highlander and to regroup at the gas station on Bradley. When we were back on the road we quickly made our way to Murrieta and caught the light red. We all took off for the top of the grade and I crested with Dragon Slayer and ME-109 followed by Highlander and Earth Dog. We hurried to Cherry Hill and headed back to Bradley to start the run to Newport. ME-109 took us left on Newport and towards Haun where we caught a massive line of traffic heading for the construction at the freeway overpass. We crossed over the hill and dropped down to Jack in the Box for a coffee break.

At least it was warm inside but it didn’t cause me to head for home without my jacket on. We got back on the road and headed east over Antelope and towards Menifee. We must have caught every light red all the way to Laguna Vista. We broke up a bit heading over the saddle and I waited for Highlander at the top of the hill by the ghost bike. We joined Dragon Slayer and ME-109 on the downhill side only to see Earth Dog was almost all the way to Leon. WE hooked up in a pace line and chased Earth Dog about halfway to Winchester where ME-109 took off for the dry wash. We had Earth dog with us as we headed for the dry wash ourselves and soon past Warren and headed for Sanderson in one long pull by Dragon Slayer. We made the turn north on Sanderson and made it to Lowes before cutting over to Acacia and heading back to Kirby. It was a short run to Gilmore where I got ready to leave and head for the bike shop to make arrangements for the stop on Friday. After a short discussion I headed for home and lunch. It was all in all a good ride.