Beat the Heat Ride

WOW what a day for a ride. When Mike planned this ride to Lake Lure he had no idea that the day would turn out like it did. The weather did not start out so good as it was clouded and overcast but their were 23 bikes and 28 people ready to ride. As we started out the temperature was in the low 70's with dark clouds in the sky, as we rode on we did not encountered any rain at all through out the day in fact it turned out to be a very pretty day. On the third stop of the morning one of the bikes had a problem, it seemed that the Road Star had burned out a coil so Mike Clark decided to return home for his trailer. Curt and Sue Pratt stayed with the downed bike (in true Star Rider tradition, no one gets left behind) and Ray & Carol Kitchen took over as ride leader and lead the group the rest of the way in. Once we had gotten to the information center it was decided that we would return at 4pm for the ride back to Columbia, we split up to go our different ways for lunch. Everyone returned at 4 and some of the riders wanted to take the long way up to Chimney Rock around to Columbia while the rest of the group decided to return the way we had come. Ray leaded the group for the long ride while Cajun led  the rest home. We had several new riders in the group who handled the curves like seasoned group riders. It was a long but wonderful day.