Kings Mountain Battlefield Ride (April 16, 2012)

A nice day out with Phil, we took the motorcycles to Kings Mountain, SC. Met up around 11:30AM at RideNow in Concord. Saw this row of Yamaha R1 motorcycles-these 1000cc in-line fours have a long history in motorcycle racing, and Yamaha in fact has a long, long history of success in roadracing (AMA and MotoGP) which continues today. Over the years some great riders (some of which I was lucky enough to see) have crossed the finish line on Yamaha motorcycles. Way back when (during my high school days) I even had one of the more legendary ones-an RD-350.     

We headed out to Kings Mountain National Battlefield, which we got to via I-85. Road construction was pretty wild with a lot of dirt being moved; both by construction equipment and by the wind which was fairly well raging. Took a tight grip on the bars and soldiered on. Pretty much an epic ride to Exit 2 in South Carolina, and a short ride to the battlefield. It was the site of a major victory by American forces over the British forces on October 7, 1780. The commander of the English was killed on the battle. Col Patrick Ferguson was buried on the field, and this is his grave. We walked the battlefield trail of some 1.5 miles while there.   

Due to the wind, decided NOT to go back via I-85, but instead took NC74/NC29 though some interesting cities and towns. That road also took us into Charlotte, NC. Being rather hungry we stopped at The Burger Company for food and beverage. Nice place, had not been there before, it is not very far from Bank of America Stadium in Uptown Charlotte. A bit on the pricy side, but the food was very good, and certainly an interesting place. There is a lot of inside dining, but with the temperature being close to 80, and especially with the wind, decided to eat inside. For the day, with some other trips I made via my bike, rode a total of 145 miles-and enjoyed every one of them, even the windy ones! It was a very damn fine day indeed!