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Good evening.

I'm sitting in Atlanta on the last night of my vacation before heading home to Charlotte tomorrow. I don't go back to work until Monday, so I'll have the weekend to rest and get ready to go back to work. I was a little bit aggressive when planning this trip - over 2,500 miles and driving through nine states. There was a very special reason for me to plan this trip and unfortunately due to circumstances beyond mine and others' control my entire reason for making this trip was not to be realized. And I am very sad that it happened that way.

Recently I was asked by one of Canadian friends to start an account on Facebook. I did so and in the short time that I have been on the site, a little over 100 people from my life, current and past have befriended me. Family members, former co-workers and friends from all parts of my life going back to my best friend when I was in elementary school. It has become an easy way to keep track of what everyone is up to and let them know what I'm up to. I tried to keep an account of my vacation on Facebook and my last posting on Nashville was actually a cross post of what I put on Facebook.

The reason I mention this, is because I'm not really sure how many people are checking into this blog. I know of one important person for sure and a few others have mentioned that over the year I've been posting that they have looked once or twice. So, I'm at a point where I'm questioning whether I want to continue with this blog.

So, if there are people out there reading this and are really interested in me and what I'm doing with my life here in Charlotte (well Atlanta right now) then please let me know. Of course there are less restrictions here, then on Facebook, but have I really posted anything that could be deemed controversial?

Thanks to those who have been reading and I hope to hear from more than just one person on this.

Visit to Music City

I checked into the hotel and went to explore the city - walking down the main street which is called Broadway. Although there aren't any "theatres" along this Broadway like in NYC, you can hear music pouring out of the bars and clubs all hours of the day. I was walking along the street at 4:00 pm and each doorway I passed had live music wafting from inside -- and a lot of patrons taking in the sounds.
I also took a walk up to see the State Capital Building and then ventured over to pass the city hall and a nice riverside park. Along the river you can find more clubs - but these must be the late night clubs because none of these were open. Across the street from these clubs is a scale model of the original fort that stood in the area and was the basis for the founding of the city. Kind of weird to see these 18th century stuctures across from those from the 19th and 20th centuries as this city has over 200 years of history, celebrating their bicentennial in 1996.
The city also hosts two major league teams with an arena right downtown and a stadium across the river which is the anchor for a greenway that is being built along the river. They even have a pedestrian bridge over the river to get from downtown area (or The District as it's called) to the stadium.

A Southeast Whistlestop Tour

Back in January we had to submit our vacation requests for the year and with five weeks of vacation and personal time being earned this year I had to make some choices. The first week I picked was the week of March 14 through the 20. My friend's birthday falls in that week and figured if I could swing it, perhaps I could visit for his birthday.
The beginning of February I started making the plans and found out that he'd be in Oklahoma City on the 14th for a rugby match, so my goal was to meet up there and plan a surprise. Since I like to drive I started working out the plan and extended my vacation to begin on the 11th using a vacation day on Wednesday and taking Thursday and Friday as my days off that week (although it did mean working an eight day stretch from my last day off. I sat and mapped out the trip in February tweeking the hotel choices and figuring out distances in order to not drive too far each day. The itinerary was: 3/11 - Nashville, 3/12 - Little Rock, 3/13 - Oklahoma City, 3/14-3/16 - Dallas/Fort Worth area, 3/17-3/18 - New Orleans, 3/19 - Montgomery, with an optional stop in Atlanta on the 20th - all totalled roughly 2,500 miles!
Those who know me know that I love to keep lists and get small goals for myself and one of those lists is the states and state capitals I have visited. (Visit means, slept in or did more than just drive through - feet have to touch the soil). This trip would add seven states to the 24 already visited and six state capitals!
I packed on Tuesday night after work in preparation of getting an early start in the morning. Well, I overslept a little bit, but decided that this was supposed to be a stress-free vacation - so I went with the flow and left the house at 8:24 am. I forgot to mention that over the last weekend I got a Blackberry, and I can post about that at another time when I learn how to fully use it, but the reason i bring it up is that I put a navagation system on it since the first month was free, it's a great chance to try it out. A little weird though is that it was sending me through Uptown Charlotte to get onto I-85 South which was aready reading a 20 minute delay ... so i overroad the system and went my own way. The route I took to Nashville went from Charlotte south on I-85 to Spartanburg, then head north on I-26 into Asheville, NC hooking up to I-40 west through Knoxville and into Nashville. And so, the journey began!

Along the drive to Nashville I drove through a mountain tunnel for the 2nd time in my life (first was a few years ago in Pennsylvania), drove through the Great Smokey Mountains and possible the Blue Ridge Mountains as well and for the first time in my life I drove across a time zone! It was also the first time I've been in Tennessee except to change planes once in Memphis many years ago. The drive took a little more than the seven hours expected with a couple of stops along the way at the Tennessee welcome center in I-40 and to get gas and food. The car averaged aoubt 32 miles to the gallon on the drive!

More about Nashville on the next posting - until then, enjoy this video for out of state drivers from the state of tennessee. . .

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted . . .

Well, it's sort of appropriate that my last post was about my trip to Dallas, because although it was a only a long weekend, it was the last trip that could somewhat be classified as a vacation. I had two vacations cancelled last year due to another member of my staff getting sick, so I'm really excited that after work on Tuesday, I am on V A C A T I O N!! I have a nice little trip planned out visiting a few places here in the southeast I haven't had a chance to visit since being down here. I'll be reporting out as I travel so you can experience it a bit with me. So until Wednesday I'm signing off to finish some laundry and starting to pack. Bon Voyage!!

First Time in Texas

In my last post I listed a bunch of stuff that I've done in the year since I've moved to North Carolina. I also mentioned that there were plenty of other things out there that I probably forgot, but would mention when they came to mind. Here is one!

In October my buddy Jim made it possible for me to to visit him and make my first trip to the big state of Texas. I must admit that I was in Texas one other time, but that was only for the plane to land, let some passenger off and let others on while I was heading to Portland, Oregon. This time I was able to get off the plane and breath Texan air. I was able to swing a weekend off and it just so happened to be the weekend of Jim's company picnic that was being held at the Alliance Airfield in Fort Worth on October 11 the same weekend as the Fort Worth Alliance Airshow, one of the premier airshows in the country. So another first for me would be to attend an airshow - not really knowing what to expect. But more about that in a little bit. I flew down to Texas after work on Friday night and arrived just after dark with Jim waiting in the airport to meet me. It was a great long weekend getting to visit with my best friend, meet his new Texas friends, see some sights, drink some beer and visit some more with my best friend.

On Saturday his friend Shayne joined us as we headed to the Fort Worth Alliance Airport. My buddy's company abuts the airport and they were a corporate sponsor of the show in 2008. So the day was also the company picnic being held at the airport with front line viewing of all the festivities. A tent is set up for the employees and their guests with catered picnic food - some of my favorites; hot dogs, chili, burgers, grilled chicken, salad and chips on one side -- on the other side; soda, bottled water, Coors and Coors Light. It was a nice set-up and all you could eat and drink, although the beer was limited.

As I have said, this was my first time at an airshow, I knew there would be planes flying around, but didn't know there were other planes around the area that you could get up close and personal with. Military jets, commercial planes, helicopters and personal aircraft all displayed out in the open with people to explain what you were looking at. A bright clear sunny sky made for a great day. The highlight of the day was a performance by the Air Force Thunderbirds - the precision stunt team of the USAF. All I can say is AMAZING. It's hard to describe everything that they did, but it is hard to believe that these planes could be flying just feet from each other, turning together and passing each other from opposite directions and again coming within feet of the other planes all while rock music is blasting from the loudspeakers all around the airfield. It was interesting to see how the roar of the jets' engines can be used as part of their defences. At one point in the show every one's attention is directed to one side of the airfield as two jets perform and go off in the distance - within seconds another jet has "sneaked up" from behind, already on top of us before we even hear it. Truly AMAZING (as I mentioned before).

The part of the show that I found the most moving is when they paired up fighter aircraft of both World Wars with current fighter aircraft. Prop fighters that were the state of the art of their era flying side by side with the supersonic jet fighters of today. It really drove home how far science and technology has advanced in the past 100 years or so. Of course if I had written this back in October I could tell you more about the planes and what they did and I'm sorry I didn't do it right away.

Sunday was a trip to the NorthPark Center Mall in Dallas. Opened in the early 60's it is an open and airy indoor mall that has the distinction of housing a lot of artwork.
From the mall it was off to a bar to meet some more friends and just hang out on a Sunday afternoon and evening. Being a Giant fan, it was fun to be in a bar in Dallas watching the Cowboys loose a game in overtime. It's amazing how those Texas fans were cheering like they won the Super Bowl just because the game went into overtime ... but it got real quiet, real quick when they lost the game shortly into the overtime period.

It was a great trip and one that was definitely needed. My buddy's new house in a Dallas suburb near the DFW Airport is beautiful. Great curb appeal with lots of little unique accents inside and out - with a gorgeous pool and whirlpool in the backyard with a fire pit and a huge built in grill. The master bedroom is on the ground floor with access out to the patio and backyard, making it easy to live on the first floor of the house only needing to venture to the second floor when entertaining visitors. A nice large eat-in kitchen, formal dining room, entrance parlor, large living room and laundry room round out the first floor with a nice flow around the house. It seemed very comfortable for the time I was there.

I returned to Charlotte relaxed and in a great mood to see that he was getting acclimated to his surroundings. I enjoyed my first visit to Dallas and Texas in general and I can't wait to pay another visit, see more of the state perhaps. Words really cannot express my thanks for the opportunity to make this visit and truly can't wait to visit with my best buddy again soon!!

Thanks for reading and see you soon!