By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) Here it was on a Monday, the first day of or start time change and the third day of our predicted heat wave. I got up about a half of an hour early and headed to the bike shop only to find Digger and Earth Dog waiting. We all waited till 8am to see if anyone was going to join us but no one did so we headed out onto Lyon and turned to Acacia to get the ride on the way. It was a bit cooler than I expected and I followed Earth Dog onto Acacia and followed part way to Kirby before I took the lead and got us into the turn lane just as the light turned green letting us make the turn south on Kirby heading towards Cypress. I pulled us onto Cypress and headed for Johnston with Digger and Earth Dog behind me.

I guess my ride Friday made me feel I could push right from the start today so I did pull from the light on Sanderson and Johnston all the way to Domenigoni and started the pull west towards Warren. Earth Dog took over and pulled till we got to Warren and I took it back till we got over the dry wash and headed for Winchester. We dropped Digger on the rise at the dry wash and pulled away into the wind all the way to Winchester. Earth Dog stopped to wait for Digger and I stopped a few yards in front to wait as well. Digger rolled right by us and I started the chase first. I followed him for a while till the wind got to him and I headed for Leon while Earth Dog closed on him. I crested the saddle about 200 yards in front of Digger and Earth Dog and stopped at the gas station on Menifee to wait for them. We took a short break before heading back out onto Menifee and south towards Holland and Revive.

We crested Revive and I stopped to wait for Digger while Earth Dog moved on to Scott. Once I had Digger in tow I pulled him to Scott where Earth Dog was waiting. We headed west towards Antelope and the overpass heading to Haun. Earth Dog beat us to Haun and waited for Digger as did I. Digger rolled by us and Earth Dog chased him down and passed him. I caught up to Digger and then pulled him all the way back to Holland as we headed towards Newport and the turn west. We were pretty lucky so far in that it wasn’t as hot as we expected but with the exception of a few yards on Haun the wind had been in our face all morning. We made it to Newport and headed for Bradley and headed north only to get hit in the face by the wind. At least we were thinking that once we turned east we would get a tail wind.

Earth Dog pulled me up “Golf cart racing” on Bradley and most of the way to McCall before we turned east. To our surprise the wind was in our face again. It was blowing from the west on Domenigoni and now it was blowing from the east on McCall. I followed Earth Dog to Hospital hill and to the top where I waited for Digger. While waiting Socrates and some of his friends pulled upon one of their rides and we talked till Digger joined us. Digger and I dropped off of Hospital hill and headed for Menifee and the road west on McCall. When we got to Briggs we decided to turn south to Simpson thinking we would get a tail wind considering we had a head wind on Bradley. We had no such luck on the tail wind and had wind in the face all the way to Simpson and the turn east. We started with a tail wind but by Leon we had it in the face once more. I was thinking we should get some relief on Winchester but that wasn’t the case either so we rode to Winchester Farms and took a break. We waited till the wind shifted again and came from the west before heading east on Stowe. We were pretty lucky in that we got to California without it switching again. We didn’t have much of an assist on Stetson as we rode to Cawston and cut over to Sanderson to head north towards Lowes.

At least we were able to stay together to Lowes and ride around the back of the store to Acacia before heading back to Kirby and the light there. Earth Dog led us back to the Bike shop where I checked in briefly before heading for home and a hot shower. I downed a tall protein smoothie before my shower. Once I got out of the shower I felt a nap coming on so not having a good reason not to take one I crawled into bed a took a two hour snooze.