BRENTWOOD &mdash Born to be Wild blared on the loudspeakers when the motorcycle caravan pulled into the Chick-fil-A parking lot on Franklin Road.
Riders on the Storm might have been more apropos considering the steady rain and dark clouds that greeted the 170 motorcyclists in the Chick-fil-A Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America on Saturday morning. But Petty wasn’t fazed. “We made a commitment to ride from Stevenson, Wash., back to (Greensboro,) N.C. and that’s what we’re doing,” Petty said. “Look, we’re going to run through rain. We haven’t seen any really bad weather.” The NASCAR racer founded the cross-country ride 15 years ago to benefit children’s charities, raising more than $12 million during that span. This year’s route covered 3,500 miles on its 10-day run that ends today. The riders spent Friday night in Nashville before making a breakfast stop in Brentwood on Saturday. “There’s about 25 or 30 people that actually rode from the East Coast to the West Coast and now are riding back,” Petty said. “So they’ve been on the road for two weeks if you can believe that. It’s pretty amazing.”
Nine years ago after their son, Adam, died in a practice crash, Petty and his wife, Pattie, decided to start a camp for children with serious illnesses in his memory. The rides helped raise funds for it and in 2004 Victory Junction opened in Randleman, N.C. Construction began on another camp Wednesday in Kansas City, Kan.