We dodged some light rain, prepped the Invader for travel, dumped the tanks and departed Kings Mountain and drove NE on I-85 to Concord, North Carolina. Our first stop was Golden Gait Trailers to have the damage to the awning assessed by someone less ignorant than me, which is almost everyone. We were directed to a guy named Ron Ulp, who was quite sharp. He surveyed the awning for damage and informed us that we needed new support arms and a new fabric section and informed us that we could probably get the whole thing fixed like new for a mere $1300.
I asked if I could get the wrecked awning removed from the trailer so I could continue on the trip and return once all the parts were available at Golden Gait’s very nice facility and he said that was possible, but not today. Tomorrow was the first opening he had to get into the shop so we agreed and then drove Charlotte and the Invader about 5 miles back down the road where we pulled into a park surprisingly called Charlotte Motor Speedway. It is actually across a street and a big parking lot from the Speedway but it is right next to the Steve Kinser dirt track and the zMax drag strip that all seem to be part of the same complex.
After setting up, Peg and I heard some rather loud motor noises coming from the direction of the Speedway. We attempted to drive to some road surrounding the track but the only route to where we thought we could see was a road into a landfill which was gated and locked. We resorted to driving in the main entrance to the track and drove around to the backstretch where we miraculously found an open gate and were able to drive right up to the backstretch fence. Four or five stock cars were out on the track testing, I guess. They make a great motor noise and I was delighted to see some stock cars running since during our travels since June ’14 I have only seen one race, a very meager amount for a NASCAR fan.
About dark it started to rain and pretty much stayed at it until I went to sleep around 11:00 PM.