I headed out yesterday with just a few hours in between other tasks...
I didn't have a destination, and didn't know what I might see...
Just a few miles from my house on a back road I may have never gone down,
I passed a house with a pretty aggressive looking motocross track in the front yard, and
several people seemed to be doing practice laps.
I pulled in to watch for a few minutes, and when I stopped I could hear a guy giving
a kid with a small motocross bike (less than 125) some demanding coaching points NOW GET OUT
THERE AND TAKE THAT BERM ON THE GAS and stuff like that.
The kid took off and the coach came over and introduced himself to me. His name is Jiffy, he's the
owner of the house and track, and he is a professional motocross coach. We talked some motocross,
and watched the kid, who was there with his father, and the kid nailed the turn a few times, after
falling a couple of times. Jiffy told me that some pro riders were going to show up soon, but I wanted
to ride some before I was out of time, so I didn't get to see them do laps, but I'll go back over there
soon
Off I went, down some other roads to nowhere in particular. I ended up crossing over the Interstate (85)
to a rather large area of roads I'd never been on before - there's no reason to ever go through
there since all the roads back in there end at Lake Hartwell. A big area, no more than ten miles from my
house, filled with agricultural stuff (fields, cows, chicken houses, that kind of stuff) and lake houses
near the lake.
After a while I found "the other end" of a road I pass regularly but never go down - Prater Gin Road.
Sure enough, there was a big old house and an old cotton ginning operation there. I didn't see anyone,
but there were some big dogs chained up at the gin who barked menacingly at me as I went by. I have
a friend up near Rock Hill and there was an old working gin at their farm until just a few years ago
when some hoodlums burned it down one night. Sigh. I guess the dogs were needed.
Anywho... you never know what's just around the corner...
-Mike
