What is in your backyard?

[Big IV]

http://www.roadrunner.travel/
I was sitting with my Dad for a while. He has a nice stack of motorcycle magazines beside of the couch. He subscribes. I mooch. Go figure.

One of the mags that I hadn't seen for quite some time was Road Runner. It is a fun magazine. I especially like how it puts maps and info in the back of the mag on card stock that can be punched out and slipped into a map sleeve. That is nice. The magazine focuses on real riding overall.

One of the questions that it asked stuck with me, "What is in your backyard?"  I have always wanted to contribute to motorcycle mags (have in the past on occasion for other more local mags). I'm not doing much touring anymore. My focus is on the job, the house payment, and the PhD.  Reading the posts and ride reports from this board I think a few of you could show off what is in your back yard and share with the RoadRunner folks.

Go grab a copy of the mag from the newstands and check it out.
OR
http://www.roadrunner.travel/#
Check the About Us section of their website.

[junior]

i'll tell you whats in my back yard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! snow and alot of it

[Dag]

Some white stuff and a Valkyrie.

[Big IV]

Our snow is melting leaving behind a rich  mud where my clay and wispy grass usually resides.  The front yard still has snow.

[junior]

my yankee grandad used to call it poor mans fertilizer

[hubcapsc]

My uncle Dan sent me a picture, just today, of what is
in his yard (this looks more like his whole neighborhood)...

[flatsixrider]

The Cherokee Foothills National Scenic Highway (S.C. 11) winds its way through the northwest corner of South Carolina. Following the southernmost peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the route is surrounded with peach orchards, quaint villages, and parks. It is an ideal alternative to Interstate 85 and has been featured by such publications as National Geographic, Rand McNally and Southern Living.

The current highway was once part of the "Cherokee Path" or "Keowee Path," this road was the route used by the Cherokee Indians and the English and French fur traders and stretched from Tennessee to Charleston, South Carolina. This National Scenic Byway winds its way through The Upstate and passes through some towns, such as Walhalla, Marietta, Campobello, Chesnee, and Gaffney. Echoes of the area's Cherokee heritage can still be heard in places and river names like Seneca, Savannah, Keowee, Jocassee, Enoree, Toxaway, Tugaloo, Tokena, and Eastatoee.

In the city of Gaffney, east of I-85, S.C. 11 is known as "Floyd Baker Boulevard," which is a well-known street name in The Upstate. This section of Highway 11 is a vast contrast to the rest of the route. At this point the highway becomes heavily congested and developed. Gaffney is also the biggest town along the route.

Route description

Highway 11 begins as an intersection off Interstate 85 in southern Oconee County, 0.6 mi (1 km) from the South Carolina and Georgia border.

[flatsixrider]

anyone else? 

[3fan4life]

That's a good question.

All of us have things in our backyards (stomping grounds) that we take for granted.

Someone posted about making a Google Map of things to see and rides to take in their state.

This sounds like a good idea!

Kinda like a roadmap of all the good rides and neat things to see in your "Backyard".

Here's a few of the things in my "Backyard":


















Weather man is forecasting a high of 75 on SAT and SUN, Guess I'll have to go play in the "backyard".

[Scott in Ok]

This picture needs to be blown up and framed!  Sweet shot bro!  (Its in the featured photos this month by the way)



-Scott

[Gryphon Rider]

[Brad]

[Brad]

[Black Dog]

The air was getting chilly, the leaves had fallen.  This was my last ride of the season, maybe 3 years ago. 

A quick stop on the westerntern shore of Lake Michigan in front of the Milwaukee Art Museum, called the 'Calatrava', after the man who designed it.



Then, following some small roads along the lake, another stop in Port Washingtons harbor.  A hot bed of sport fishing boats during the summer months.



Then, something that is really 'in' my back yard, the Bark River.  My house is on the banks of the same river, maybe a mile further past where we took this pic.



Black Dog

[R J]

About all that is in my back yard is the Freedom Rock and my 20X30 garage for the toys......     >

[3fan4life]

This picture needs to be blown up and framed!  Sweet shot bro!  (Its in the featured photos this month by the way)


-Scott

Thank You.

Of course it's hard to take a bad PIC with such a scenic backdrop.

[fiddle mike]

Snoopy's Restaurant deck and pier on the Intracoastal Waterway.


Mirador on Corpus Christi's  bay front.


Escondido Creek in Dick Kleberg Park, Kingsville, TX

[Big IV]

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Belmont,NC&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-Address&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ACAW&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=-QeySZq8KtC5twfQ-rC7Bw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=image



www.cityofbelmont.org


Belmont, NC is in my backyard.  The town was originally a train station with no name. When the monastery was founded, the prime-Abbot did not like the fact that the town was being called Garibaldi, after the drunk man who ran the trainstation, Garibaldi's station.  The Abbot pushed to have the name changed and made offical: Belmont, beautiful mountain.

Belmont is nestled in the heart of the piedmont, west of Charlotte.  Belmont is the eastern most city in Gaston County, and neighbors Charlotte-Meck along the river.  The town is modest and small.  It boasts a quaint downtown which is ideal for walking and exploring.  They have struggled to keep downtown alive and viable through the expansion along the highway.  The locals fought bringing a Walmart to town.  They finally voted to allow the Walmart, but it had to be correct to the architecture of the area and the college/monastery at Belmont Abbey. It is the first architecturally correct Walmart to be built (a trend which Wally world is now using across the nation for newest stores).


The cities moto is still: City of Diversified Textiles.  The textile mills have been closed (Stowe Mill shut down yesterday).  The textile college which was designed and developed to keep textile workers marketable has closed down in disgrace (large embezzelment scandal) and the property has been taken over by Gaston College.  Despite the changes Belmont struggles to survive.

It is cheifly a bedroom community. Highway 74 is full of car lots, fast food places, and Dollar Generals.  Amidst that you can find a Haunted Mill that has black light indoor mini golf and a small radio station.  Downtown are some fine eateries.  Sammy's is a nice pub place with music on the weekends.  Cherubs only serves breakfast and lunch, and is completely staffed with individiuals with mental and physical handicaps. Ole Steakhouse is a fine dining experience built on the same property as the first jail.  The General Store is still there.  The Train Museum is now a boutique (with trains out back).  Caravan has great deserts and coffees.  The Shack has great icecream cones by the park. 

Leaving the downtown area, and the swanky large Mill Owner Houses and formerly privately owned banks, you can find a hodge podge of mill housing and farm land.  Avoiding Hwy 74 (congested and ugly) one can find any number of smaller roads that lead through older neighborhoods and out into rural farm land of NC and upperstate SC.

Perhaps not the prettiest 'waht's in your backyard,' but that's what we have out here. A nice place to pass through, eat a meal, and enjoy.

[RDKLL]

Still a little chilly to be swimming....but