It was the first day of May 2024 when my photographer’s alarm awakened him at 6:00am. For Tom and me, there’s no better way to kick-off a day than to pay a visit to a Presidential site. And not just any site, mind you, but my camera guy was taking me to the birthplace site of James K. Polk, one of my favorite Presidents. The birth site, which was only a mile from the Fairfield Inn & Suites where we spent the night, was located near Little Sugar Creek and was a mile or so southeast of downtown Pineville, North Carolina.
Although the President James K. Polk State Historic Site officially opened at nine o’clock, my camera guy had the brilliant idea of getting to the site earlier; all the while his wife got herself ready and ate breakfast. Tom knew the museum would be closed, but he also figured it wouldn’t have many authentic artifacts associated with Polk anyways. However, by arriving before the throngs of hell-bent Polk fans got to the site, we’d have the grounds all to ourselves – and that’s never a bad thing.
Tom and I left the hotel shortly after eight o’clock, and it seemed to take forever to make the one-mile trek to the historic site. The morning rush hour traffic in and around Pineville was surprising, which made me wonder if my photographer was right about the onslaught of Polk enthusiasts who might have had the same idea as us. However, when we finally arrived at the entrance to the State Historic Site, we were the only ones there – and for good reason. There was an iron gate that blocked the entrance road onto the grounds, and to make matters worse for those folks with cameras who like to climb over gates and onto Presidential sites, we saw a ‘No Trespassing – Violators Will Be Prosecuted’ sign affixed to the gate.
Reunited with Vicki back at the hotel, the three of us waited until the clock nearly hit nine before we retraced our route back to the Polk birthplace site. The weather was a lot better than the previous day with no threat of rain; as a matter of fact, there wasn’t a cloud in the bright, blue sky. Upon our arrival, not only was the entrance gate open, but we were the first visitors there. It seemed great to be back at the 21-acre site that was part of the original 429-acre farm once owned by Samuel Polk. My first visit to the Polk farmland was on July 27, 2020, which was during the Covid pandemic that had forced the museum and birth site buildings to be closed.
Our first stop, once we were on the grounds, was at a ten-foot-tall stone pyramid that was dedicated on September 26, 1904. The first thing I noticed as Tom carried me towards the pyramid was the marble plaque embedded into the stonework. The etched wording on the plaque read: ‘Here stood the house in which was born November 2, 1795 James Knox Polk, President of the United States 1845-1849. Erected by Mecklenburg Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution 1904.’ When my photographer carefully set me on one of the stones where I stood balanced six feet off the ground, I thought I might be killed on the exact spot where President Polk was born. But was it the precise location where the birth cabin once stood?
In 1794, Samuel Polk and his wife Jane arrived in Mecklenburg County after purchasing 150 acres of land near Little Sugar Creek. Likely with the help of their five enslaved people, Polk built a small cabin, a kitchen outbuilding, and a small barn which became the centerpiece of the farm. On November 2, 1795, James Knox Polk was born in the main house. The future President was the first of five children born on that farm. During the next ten years, Samuel’s farm became very prosperous and grew to 429 acres before the upper middle-class family packed up their belonging in 1806 and moved to middle Tennessee.
“Hills. Swimming pools. Country music stars. Well now it’s time to say goodbye to Sam and all his kin, he would like to thank you folks for kindly droppin’ in. You’re all invited back again to this locality to have a heapin’ helpin’ of his hospitality.”
Ninety-eight years later, the local chapter of the DAR had the stone pyramid erected on the property to mark the birthplace of our eleventh President. In the late 1960s, however, several cabins that had been built around 1806 in Mecklenburg County were disassembled and relocated to the Polk site – today they represent the birthplace cabin and outbuildings once owned by the Polk family. To make room for the buildings, the stone pyramid was moved to the spot where we saw it on that Wednesday morning.
That’s why I was confused. The stone monument had been erected on two different spots on the property, and it clearly stated “Here stood the house” where the President was born. Where did the house stand? Was Polk born where the reconstructed cabin was placed in the ’60s; or was he born on the spot where the pyramid was now located?
When my photographer and I were finished at the pyramid, Vicki drove us to the museum. Instead of Tom and I joining his wife inside the museum, however, the two of us walked to the reconstructed cabins where I posed for a number of photos. My cameraman was in a rush to visit the cabins because he heard a large group of school-aged kids were on their way to the historic site for a field trip, and that never bodes well with either of us.
For the second time in four years, I stood on the symbolic birth cabin, which was dedicated by Lady Bird Johnson on May 20, 1968. But knowing that cabin had been reconstructed where the pyramid originally stood, I was confident I was standing on the actual birth site of President Polk.
Finished with our outdoor photos, my photographer carried me into the museum where we met up with his wife. Vicki told her husband she didn’t see very many cool artifacts on display, and after the two of us made a quick trip through the small museum, we agreed with her. There were historic relics from other famous people, like Henry Clay, but when it came to stuff used by James K. Polk, the only thing we saw was a dinner plate – and after reading the description, that plate was a damned replica.
The three of us had been on the Polk historic site for about 45 minutes, and it was an honor for me to be back. While the museum was a bust, I was honored to once again visit the birth site of our eleventh President, James K. Polk.
While that morning kicked-off with a Presidential site for my photographer and me, the rest of the day was scripted primarily for Vicki. We were in prime NASCAR country and Tom’s wife is a huge fan of the sport. Although we had been on a horrible tour at Daytona International Speedway a few days earlier, my photographer planned on rolling the dice for a tour of Charlotte Motor Speedway, which was only 30 miles north of us in Concord, North Carolina.
Traffic was fairly thick as my photographer’s wife drove through Charlotte and up to Concord on that Wednesday morning. But even with the vehicular congestion, we arrived at the racetrack at 10:20am – which meant we had well over an hour to kill before the twelve-noon tour time.
Charlotte Motor Speedway hosted its first race, the World 600, on June 19, 1960. While well-known drivers such as Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, and Fireball Roberts all competed in that inaugural race, it was a guy named Joe Lee Johnson who took the checkered flag on that historic day. For the past 64 years, NASCAR has made Charlotte part of their regular circuit – including the Coca Cola 600 scheduled for May 26, 2024.
While I posed for photos in front of the Smith Tower to Charlotte Motor Speedway, I had no idea I was about to compete in the Grand Toriano 1. That was similar to the Coca Cola 600, but only 599 miles shorter.
Once inside the building, Tom inquired about tickets for the noon tour. At first, he was leery because of the lousy experience we had in Daytona. But after talking with tour guide Toriano Gray, who guaranteed my photographer he’d be blown-away by his tour, Tom shelled out the $30 for two tickets.
Our tour of the track began at precisely 12 noon, but the three of us weren’t alone. Six other people, some of whom had travelled to the Charlotte area from foreign countries, piled into the van which was driven by Gray. It became obvious from the outset that the hour-long tour of the Charlotte Motor Speedway complex was going to be fun, and that was due to the amiable personality and sense of humor possessed by our guide, Toriano Gray. After we saw the Dirt Track at Charlotte, and the zMAX Dragway, Gray drove the van through the tunnel entrance where we got our first look at the 1.5-mile asphalt track of Charlotte Motor Speedway.
We listened to stories about the track’s history while Gray took us around the infield where we saw the garage area and some of the road course track. But the highlight for me, as well as for the rest of our group, was when Toriano ‘hit the gas’ at the track’s start/finish line. Even though our guide said he was driving only 55 miles per hour, there were times it felt as though he was going a lot faster. I listened as Vicki giggled as we went around the high-banked turns, which were angled at 24 degrees. It felt as though our van would tip over – our humorous guide chuckled and said that had happened only once in all of his tours. When we finished one lap of what I called the Grand Toriano 1, Gray drove our van down Pit Road where Tom offered to change the van’s tires and fill the tank with Sunoco high-performance racing fuel. After the pit stop, our group had the opportunity to pose for photos in Victory Lane and stand on the start/finish line.
Are you ready to go racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway? Please take a look at the images Tom had captured during the Grand Toriano 1 – which was held just a little over three weeks before the Coca Cola 600. And speaking of the Coca Cola 600 – Donald Trump made Charlotte Motor Speedway a Presidential site when he attended that race. On May 26, 2024, Trump’s visit marked the first time a President, or former President, attended a race at that racetrack.
When our one-hour tour had finished, and Gray dropped us off at the Smith Tower, my resin body still shook from the excitement. For once, a racetrack tour had exceeded my expectations. Just as Tom and I exited the van, I knew my face had turned a whiter shade of pale, but it could have been fifty shades of gray for all I cared. And that was all due to one gray; Toriano Gray, who fulfilled his guarantee that his tour would far exceed the one we had at Daytona.
The three of us returned to the Jeep, which was parked in the shadow of Smith Tower. At that moment, I figured our NASCAR experience was over for the day. I quickly discovered I was mistaken, however, when my photographer barked out directions to the Hendrick Motorsports complex which was located just down the road from Charlotte Motor Speedway. At first, I was perplexed by Tom’s insistence that we make another pilgrimage to the NASCAR home base founded by Rick Hendrick in 1984. But after I thought about it for a moment, and realized my photographer was throwing his wife a bone after her patience at all of our Presidential sites, I calmed down and thought to myself, “Boogity, boogity, boogity.” After all, this was the home base to some of NASCAR’s biggest names in racing, including current drivers Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Alex Bowman. As a matter of fact, Kyle Busch drove for Hendrick from 2003 to 2007 before he jumped ship to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008.
Although the public wasn’t allowed in any of the buildings where testing and work on the racecars was being conducted, we were permitted to spend money in the Hendrick Motorsports Museum and Team Store. But our visit turned out to be a lot more than just the William Byron signed die-cast racecar that my camera guy had purchased. The staff was incredibly friendly and made the three of us feel at home. As a matter of fact, George Kail and D.J. Rosanelli took the time to record a video message for Earl McCartney, who’s my photographer’s good friend back in Michigan and is a long-time NASCAR fan.
It was nearly two o’clock when we had finished browsing the museum at Hendrick Motorsports. Once we returned to the Jeep, my companions discussed their plans for that evening’s races at Millbridge Speedway, which was a small dirt track located near Salisbury, North Carolina. I wasn’t looking forward to watching young kids drive small racecars around a dirt track, but when I heard Brexton Busch, the eight-year-old son of Kyle Busch, was racing, that made my resin ears perk up a bit. I figured if the three of us went to the track for the 6:30pm races, perhaps Kyle would pose for pictures with me after his son had finished racing.
With some time to kill, Vicki said she wanted to go back to Kyle Busch Motorsports, which had been closed during our visit in 2020 due to Covid. But after we made the 23-mile pilgrimage to the complex owned by Busch in Mooresville, we discovered the building had been sold to Spire Motorsports in 2023 – a revelation that disheartened all three of us.
Since our hotel was less than five miles from the complex once owned by Kyle Busch, Tom and Vic decided to get registered and have dinner before they made the 17-mile drive to Millbridge Speedway. And maybe, just maybe, my two companions could sneak in a cat nap before a long night of racing.
But something happened after we got to our room at the Hampton Inn & Suites and then had dinner at the nearby Cracker Barrel – my two companions had lost their motivation. Their mojo had vanished. Perhaps it was because we’d been on the road for the past 14 days; or maybe it was due to the fact Tom and Vicki were tired of rubbing elbows with throngs of rednecks, or it could’ve been because we wouldn’t get back to the hotel until around midnight and my companions were already exhausted from a full day of sightseeing – which was a more likely scenario. But when Tom polished off the last bite of his fried chicken dinner at the Cracker Barrel, the two of them made the difficult decision to abort their plans to watch Brexton Busch drive his race car that evening.
So instead of me posing with Kyle Busch, I got to spend a few hours in front of the TV set in our room where I watched Sheriff Andy Taylor play grab-ass with Barney Fife on the Andy Griffith Show. In a sense, that wasn’t a terrible way to end our day. After all, we were less than 75 miles south of Mayberry, which was Griffith’s hometown of Mt. Airy, North Carolina.
It was only eight o’clock when the final episode of the Andy Griffith Show ended, but I knew Tom was ready to hit the sack. Several times during the Mayberry marathon, I saw my photographer’s head bob up and down like mine once did before I had spring replacement surgery.
After my camera guy extinguished the lights, I stood alone in the darkness and thought about what we were missing just seventeen miles down the road. We had missed out on what might have been our only chance to meet our favorite NASCAR driver, Kyle Busch, in person.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I had already met an amazing driver that day – and there would be no way possible for Kyle Busch to compete with that driver’s personality, friendliness, humor, and all-around good nature. For one night, Kyle “Rowdy” Busch would have to take a back seat to my new favorite NASCAR driver – Toriano Gray, the “Master of Disaster” at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
** This post is dedicated to Toriano Gray for exceeding his guarantee during our tour of Charlotte Motor Speedway. Toriano’s sense of humor, along with his knowledge of the racetrack, made the speedway come to life before our eyes. Thank you, Toriano – you made our tour one of the best experiences ever. **
Good ol’ JKP! I remember being there once a long time ago.
Yes, on Day Two of our 1991 D of I tour.