"Boogity, boogity, boogity, let's go racing boys and girls!"

We planned Greensboro, NC as a strategic stopover. You see Guilford Courthouse National Military Park is not open on Mondays, thus we needed to stay near by so that we could pick up first thing this morning. Guilford Courthouse is the only National Park location in North Carolina that we will be picking up thus it is crucial for the state count of 25 for the Iron Butt National Park Tour.

I don't believe I have explained the IBA National Park Tour. It's simple 50 National Park locations in at least 25 states in 1 year. As proof that you were at the park, one must get the Cancellation Stamp at the Visitor Centers. Be warned these stamps, which I call INK, are addictive. An invaluable resource for planning your tour is Parkstamps.org or just visiting the National Parks for just the pleasure of it.

The Ink



Grabbed this monument as a Veteran Memorial at Guilford while we road around the park. We also watched the video at the Visitor Center, which gives you a great perspective about the park. (oh that circle around the Spyder is to insure the scorer for Americana Tour see that the motorcycle was in the picture)




Next stop was Salisbury, NC for the Rowan County Court House and a mural, called Crossroads - Past into Present. Salisbury is the home to famed North Carolina soft drink, Cheerwine, regional supermarket Food Lion, and the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. It is one of only two cities in North Carolina to have gigabit capacity through its municipally-owned broadband system Fibrant (thank you Wikipedia)





This wasn't a planned stop, but works for Something Cool. Not sure the neon is working, but like Diners I am a sucker for neon lights.



The Americana Tour is all about America. The next stop doesn't get anymore American than this. Located in Kannapolis, NC the hometown of Dale Earnhardt and family.



One of Dale's stop as well, Charlotte Motor Speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the Charlotte area.

I was hoping to get together with a childhood, teenage, graduated, swam with and went to school in Ohio friend of mind John Weller. I haven't seen John since probably 1989 some 27 years ago. Unfortunately we played telephone tag and we had passed the opportunity. I am sure we will catch up within the next year or 2.





Crystal's best Danica Patrick pose.



Crossing into South Carolina



Coming out of Charlotte, we picked up US 21 which crosses Fishing Creek Lake with a great view of Fishing Creek Hydro Dam. The dam was built in 1916 by Southern Power Company which became Duke Energy. Once across the dam we headed down SC97 into Camden. These 2 pieces of road were great riding roads.



Picked up the Springdale Race Course for the Racetrack capture in South Carolina before heading to Camdend Revolutionary War Site in Camden. Interesting place. We were here back in 2009 and they were trying to become under the auspices of the National Park Service. They still are, however they are an affiliated site right now. There were 2 women in the visitor center. One appeared to be training the other one, since she explained and showed the other one where the Cancellation Stamp was. The trainer was dressed in jeans and a Tshirt. The trainee was dressed to the nines, gold jewelry on her arms and neck, hair all done up. It was just the stark contrast between the two, why I bring this up. No pictures thou.

Knocked off Court Houses for South Carolina with Sumter County Court House in South Sumter. Sumter is home to Shaw Air Force Base, headquarters of the United States Army Central, 9th Air Force, the 20th Fighter Wing and many other tenant units. Since World War II it has been a major source of federal and civilian employment in the area.



In Tubeville the Swamp Fox Mural can be found painted on the side of a very small Post Office. This is another small town with a population of 766. When the town was first settled back in the late 1800's, the surrounding area was nothing but pine trees, perfect place to distill turpentine. At least that is what they told the revenue agents.



Between Tubeville and Lake City our next stop we traveled along US 376. It was striking in the number of abandoned homes along this stretch. The homes were mainly concrete block homes, but a few wooden structures as well. Sitting right on the highway with the vegetation grown up, some roofs collapsed. What was so unusual mixed right in with these homes would be a patch of green green grass with a newly built mansion sitting back for the highway and then turn to more abandoned homes. Now one of these mansions I can see, but there were multiple instances of this.

In Lake City we picked up 2 places for the Americana Tour, Ronald McNair memorial and a mural. Ronald McNair was born in Lake City and was one of the 7 astronauts that died when the Space Shuttle Challenger that blew up in 1986.





Just around 370 miles for the day. Mt Pleasant is home for the next 2 days, while we take advantage of the sites in Charleston and area. We stayed at one of the newly remodeled Red Roof Inns, which was very nice.