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Showing posts from April, 2017

Planes, Bikes and Bar-B-Que

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Sunday, April 2, 2017 This is not the first time I have hopped on the bike and rode to an airport to have a meal. While airplanes and meals have mixed for a lot of years, the general opinion is they have not done well. Mostly when those meals are served in mid flight. Luckily for us, we were headed for the Pik & Pig in Carthage, North Carolina, a very grounded Bar-B-Que Joint. The day began with a quick fill up at our local Sunoco Gas Station. Then we headed south down Highway 200, also known as Central Avenue. Near the center of the town of Locust, we turn left onto Highways 24/27. We made our way east out of town. Pless Mill Road is just beyond the edge of town, and we take a right to wind our way south and to Hilltop Road. This spills us out to Highway 205, which we take south into Oakboro. We take another left in town onto Aquadale Road, headed for the town of the same name on a road also know as State Road 138. In the little berg of Aquadale, we make a jog

Passport Ride: South Mountain State Park

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Originally Published in Southeastern Rider Magazine, April 2017 This is the second in a series of articles of my, and my favorite riding partner’s, trips to fill up our North Carolina State Park Passport. We started by cutting through the warm, August morning air, heading north out of Locust, North Carolina. Central Avenue, also known as 200, is a road we travel often to get to Concord, the nearest urban area with everything we need, and a lot more. Above us was a thin cloud cover, but the sun was already working on burning that thin layer off. We would be left with blue sky, the color Carolina is famous for having. The clearing would last for most of the day. Central Avenue ends by merging into 601, continuing us north, and into the Charlotte suburb. Next was the ramp to Highway 73, which began our trip west. We had to do this jockeying around, or go straight through the Queen’s City. Also known as Davidson Highway, 73 has spots where it feels like a highway, but most of