My most vivid memory of the Charlotte trip is my friend, Charlie, riding his Cushman down the back stretch at Lowes Motor Speedway with a dead snake in his hand.

Actually it was mostly illusion, because he was carrying the sprocket chain from my scooter, and it just looked like a dead snake.

One of the highlights of any scooter meet at Charlotte is the one-hour daily chance to ride vintage motor scooters around the big 1.5 mile track, where the likes of Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt once rode. They traveled a little faster than we do on our scooters. In 1997, when the Cushman Club of America last held the national meet there, I rode my 1947 Cushman around 14 laps. This time I took my 1963 Eagle and made three laps. The traffic was heavy and fast with some souped up scoots going 80, or almost half of Richard and Dale's speed. So after three laps I ducked into the pits.

Then on Thursday, I took out my 1953 Allstate Deluxe, which I had entered in the show. At the time, I didn't know that it had been judged number two in class. So out I went, intending to take at least three laps on that scooter. I made 1.5 laps before, while buzzing down the back stretch at a blazing 35 miles-per-hour, my drive chain snapped. I heard a slight clank and there was no power. So I coasted to the end of the back stetch, over the tunnel into turn three where I parked it behind a low concrete wall. Within seconds, Charlie showed up and gave me a lift back to my truck. Counting the coasting, I guess I made about 1.75 laps on the Allstate.

WMM and I enjoyed the trip. We camped in a tent for the first time in years. We always enjoy the friendliness of North Carolina people and their great food. After all these years of attending scooter meets, I have friends from all over the country and enjoyed meeting and talking with them. Some were new friends that I had met on various internet Cushman sites.

Naturally, I took pictures and will post notice here when I get them on my web site. In the meantime, I have a picture of a scooter that belongs to an internet friend in France. It is a front-wheel drive, French-made scoot called a DeLaPlace. It is a prototype model built in 1949. I don't know how many were produced, but it is a very rare scooter. You can find it on my site on a page called "My Favorite Pictures."
It's at the bottom of the page below some Hawaiian scenes. Just click the link.
Howard