Uptown!

Well, I've been in Charlotte for three weeks now and decided it was time to venture into the Uptown section of the city. In most cities it would be called downtown, but I guess since the business area of the city with skyscrapers and such are in the northern part of the city, it is called Uptown. So this afternoon I drove over to the light rail station at Woodlawn. Bought my ticket and timing was on my side because a train pulled in as I got my ticket. The light rail is called Lynx and opened in November - so it's new, clean and wasn't crowded. It was a pleasant ride. You buy your ticket at a ticket machine and get on the train. The have police and ticket checkers on some trains and not all. They ask to see your ticket, if you don't have one with the proper date and time on it, then you are issued a $50.00 summons. On the ride Uptown they checked my ticket - on the ride back they didn't. So, I guess it is sort of the honor system - or like Russian Roulette with $50.00 summons instead of bullets - LOL.

I took the Lynx up to the Bobcat's Arena (soon to be the Time Warner Cable Arena) and walked around the main square area of Charlotte. Walked around the Bank of America Center which at 60 stories is the tallest building between Washington and Atlanta. (I forgot my camera today, so I don't have pictures). Strolling around the area it was easy to notice that the streets and sidewalks were clean. There is alot of construction going on of hotels and high-rise condo buildings all around the area. The Square is the intersection of Trade and Tryon Streets - all along Trade Street there were tulips around the trees. The tulips were potted but added a nice touch to the look of the street. While walking around (up and down a few hills) my right leg began to cramp up - so I headed back toward the Lynx after a couple of hours of walking around.

Had a nice ride back down to the car and from there went to check my mailbox in the Foxcroft Shopping Center. Deciding I needed some dinner I went to Brixx in the same shopping center. Ordered a pasta dish and then had a choice of 24 beers on tap! I like to try local brews when I can, so I had a pint of Highland Gaelic Ale (it is St. Patrick's Day after all). The ale turned out to be nice - had a sweet second taste to it. The Highland Brewery is in Asheville, North Carolina at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I plan to visit Asheville at some point during my stay in North Carolina - it is about a two hour drive from Charlotte. Deciding to treat myself for dessert I walked across the parking lot to Ben & Jerry's for a large cup of ice cream.

Then it was back to the hotel - leg still somewhat cramped up for a night of watching television in High Def! Good news for the day is that my best buddy from Jersey will be coming down for a visit next week. He'll be arriving on Sunday evening by train from Raleigh and flying back to Newark on Tuesday evening. Yesterday was his birthday and I wasn't able to celebrate with him, so next week we get to! Can't wait!!

Well, working at 7:00 in the morning, so it's time to sign off and get some sleep -- thanks for reading!

Dam, nice - Weather, bad

Had Friday and Saturday off this week. Slept in on Friday - then it was out to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner and the bar for a pint or two. Decided on Saturday to explore a little and headed north toward Cowan's Ford to see the dam that was built between 1959 and 1964 across the Catawba River to create Lake Norman, the largest man made lake in North Carolina. The dam is about a 15 mile drive north of Charlotte and is also a hydroelectric plant for Duke Energy providing "peak" power for the Charlotte area. Next to the dam is the McGuire Nuclear Power Plant generating 20% of the power that Duke Energy produces.

Cowan's Ford is also the site of a revolutionary battle between the armies of Lord Cornwallis and General William Lee Davidson who was killed during the battle. There is a monument to the battle which I was not able to make it to today.

My trip to the dam and historic site was cut short as thunder started rolling in and about five minutes after getting into my car and continuing along the highway the storms rolled in. These were the same storms that spurred the tornadoes in Atlanta yesterday. After turning around and heading back toward Charlotte the rain became heavier and bolts of lightening could be seen in the distance. Upon returning to the hotel, the local television stations were on alert due to tornado warnings in northern South Carolina, right over the border from Charlotte. At one point the NBC affiliate down here was reporting the touchdown of tornado about midway between Columbia, South Carolina and Charlotte. A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Charlotte for this area, but lifted around 6:00 pm. As I am writing this around 9:00 pm, the Weather Channel still has a tornado warning south and east of Charlotte until 1:00 am Sunday morning and several tornadoes were confirmed across South Carolina. The rain and thunder has subsided in this area - and all totalled at least 1.5 inches of rain fell today. Although every drop helps, it's still not enough to help with the drought in the area.

Tomorrow it is back to work - over 100 check-outs tomorrow as the ACC Basketball Tournament comes to a close. The team the hotel was housing lost in the first round and the the team whose fans were staying in the hotel lost in the second round - so not a good year for our hotel's guests in the tournament. The ACC will not be back in Charlotte for at least another eight or ten years because the Bobcat's Arena is too small for the tournament. Next up in a couple of weeks, Charlotte is hosting the Sweet 16 for the NCAA championships. So March has been a busy time here for college basketball.

That is all for today -- thank you for reading!

The Second Week

Well, I know it's been like a week since I last posted, but I have been busy. Work, socializing, exploring and normal everyday stuff. I worked a couple of AM shifts had a day off then a few PM shifts and a day off.

The weekend was busy at the hotel with the CIAA basketball tournament in town. Hotel was sold out and a lot of activity. We were mostly sold out all week, so it was busy as well. At least this past weekend was a little bit of a rest. So that was the business.

On the personal side, I worked the AM shift over the weekend and had Monday off. Relaxed most of the day and went to another hotel in the area to do my laundry. While the laundry was in the dryer I went back to my hotel to help roll out a new check-in process. Then back to pick up my laundry. I went out a few more times this week - getting to meet a few more people. Worked the PM shift Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with Friday off. Relaxed all day on Friday ... it was my first real day off without packing, driving or working in just about 2 weeks - so I slept until almost noon and just hung out until it was time for dinner.

So, a few firsts this week since I've been down here. I needed new dress socks, so it was off to Dillards at the mall. Even though Dillard's is one of the major chains in the US, I've never actually been to one. Staff was nice enough - and I found dress socks 50% off! I think that was Friday night -- then I finally broke down and headed to Burger King for dinner. That was a long stretch - hadn't been to Burger King since I left NJ. Today I ventured out to the nearest supermarket, Harris Teeter. For those back in Jersey and upstate NY - Harris Teeter is like Wegmans. But they have beer and wine too! Was really excited to find Entenmann's at Harris Teeter!! Was even able to find my favorite product.

Had a craving for ice cream and since I was already in the market went to the freezer section and found a local ice cream from High Point, NC. Denali flavors Moose Tracks ice cream. Of course I ate an entire pint of Malted Moose Tracks. Spend Sunday night in ... which brings me to start of my 3rd week in Charlotte.

On the home front in NJ -- still no offers on the co-op and we dropped the price again this week to $149,900. The realtor said that the feedback he is getting doesn't really help ... people don't anything negative to say about it, but also don't have anything positive to say either. UGH!!

Well, it's going to be a busy week this week -- and although this post was probably a bit boring, when something exciting happens, I'll let you know ... until then, Thanks for Reading!

The Deep Freeze

Wednesday night it dropped below freezing down here - so everyone was complaining about the 22 degrees it bottomed out over night. When I got to the lobby in the morning and looked outside, I noticed that the fountain in front of the hotel froze overnight! I got a picture as you can see.

Today I had to make a presentation to all the other managers and supervisors about a new lobby program. As my buddy put it - I had to jump in with both feet this week! A little bit of reluctance from a couple of people, but overall I think it went well. Now the test will be implimentation which begins on Monday. It's my day off, but I'll be out there to help roll the program out. Thursday night was uneventful and Friday morning I attended my first financial critique meeting at this hotel. One of the supervisors handled it this period, next period it will be up to me!

Working the evening shift Friday and then the morning shift on Saturday - so it's time to get ready for work. Thanks for reading and I'll tell you soon about my first weekend in Charlotte!

Venturing out on my own

Sorry for this post being late, but I did go out for some nightlife last night and got back late. . .

Another 60 degree day here - a little rain in the morning, but that's a good thing since the Southeast is in a drought situation. After work today I ventured out on my own to get a mailbox to start forwarding my mail down here. Having your mail forwarded to the hotel would seem like the easier thing to do, but it is very had to forward your mail from a commercial address to a residential address, so I felt this would be the easier thing to do. I mapped out the route from the hotel to the Foxcroft Shopping center and found it very easily. I bought a mailbox for six months at a UPS Store. I found my way from the UPS Store to the South Park Mall and found the Bath & Body Works so I could buy some hand soap for my room (not a fan of washing my hands with bar soap). Then I found my way back to the hotel! I am already starting to learn street names.

Since I didn't have to report for work until 1:00 pm on Wednesday, I decided that it would be a good night to go out and get the lay of the land for one of the bars. North Carolina liquor laws require bars to be "private clubs" and in order to go to the bar you need to be a member or be the guest of a member. I had applied for my membership on line before I came down because there is a three day waiting period between filling out your application and getting your membership card. It was a quiet night at the bar - being mid-week - but about 20 people maybe. Met the owner of the bar and chatted with him a little bit. He came to Charlotte about 12 years ago from Chicago and I learned a lot about the scene in Charlotte and where certain groups hang out and that the bars & clubs in this city are facing the same challenges as bars around the country. On tap was Blue Moon, Ice House and Yuengling - I've been suprised to see Yuengling a lot down here and I always thought it was a Pennsylvania & New Jersey thing! It was weird to smell cigarette smoke again in a bar!! I'm sure it will take a long time for smoking to be outlawed in NC - with it still being a big tobacco state - there weren't a lot of people smoking anyway. The bars close at 2:00 am and I think I left shortly before that time.

Well, time to get ready for work -- and thanks for reading!

First Day on the New Job

It was a foggy morning here in Charlotte - luckily that was outside, so my commute to work today was not impeded. The walk from my room to the front desk was easy to make. I spent the day getting information from the temporary manager about the hotel. I have a cubicle right now, but hopefully that will change after the next set of construction. Not much else to report today, except that it hit close to 60 degrees today.

For dinner i went to PF Chang's with the temp manager. It was my first time going to a PF Chang's and had the "ginger chicken over broccoli" with a pint of Strongarm on the side. For dessert they have these little mini deserts in shot glasses for $2.00 - I tried the S'mores - layers of chocolate, graham cracker crumbs and marshmellow fluff. It was good!

Caught "Little Shop of Horrors" on HDnet Movie channel -- I'm going to get spoiled with this HD television! LOL.

Time for bed now ... thanks for reading!

Made it to North Carolina

Well, I made it to Charlotte today. The drive from Richmond took about 4:45 minutes and went about 309 miles. Most of the drive was in nice sunny weather, but hit rain as I came into Charlotte, so didn't really get to see the skyline through the clouds.

The trip down for those interested started yesterday in Shrewsbury Twp, NJ -- I took a bunch of local streets to Route 34 south to Route 195 west. From there I took Route 295 to the Delaware Memorial Bridge. From there it was Route 95 south to Baltimore where I switched onto 295 into Washington, DC where I got onto Route 50 then Route 395 and back onto Route 95 to Richmond. Stayed overnight in Richmond - got up this morning and pumped my own gas for what will be a regular occurance and got back onto Route 95 to Petersburg, VA where I got onto Route 85 into Charlotte. Then took Route 77 south for a few exits and then local roads to my new job. Only took 10 hours and two tanks of gas to go about 625 miles! The drive along 85 in VA was nice -- two lanes tree lined on each side with a wide median between the north and south bound lanes. At one point in NC came across an area with grass and trees charred on both sides of the highway -- glad that wasn't today, I'd have to assume the road was closed for a long time!

The rain stopped before I reached the hotel. At least it washed some of the salt off of my car. It took two trips with a full bell cart to load my luggage and "stuff" into my room. Luckily they have me in a room on the first floor close to the lobby, so I didn't have to go far. I unpacked, found places to put everything. I brought a couple of things to make it feel more at home - the plant that my staff sent to me when I was in the hospital back in December and a ceramic dog that holds rings and stuff that used to be on my Dad's dresser when I was growing up. It was just last month that the dog and the dresser were reunited when my Mom moved the dresser was sent to me! They will hopefully be reunited again soon -- anyone looking to buy a 2 bedroom co-op in Shrewsbury Twp, NJ?? Let me know, I have one for sale!

After I unpacked I took a walk over to the South Park Mall (no, not that South Park) for dinner. As soon as I found out there was a CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) at the mall my mouth was watering and I planned on that being my first dinner when I got down here. Food was as good as it usually is -- but the difference of going to a CPK in Charlotte is that NASCAR was on the television and country music was playing on the sound system. I was actually watching the race!! I've realized that I will need to pay more attention and find out who the local favorites are -- I don't think they pick a favorite by who looks the hottest or has the car with the nicest color! LOL

Spent the evening chatting with old friends and maybe some new ones on line while the Oscars played in the background. It's currently 43 degrees outside and expecting a high tomorrow of 62! I'm not in Jersey anymore! LOL

Well, have to report for my first day on the job at 8:00 in the morning, so I am off to bed at about 11:30 here. Will keep you posted on my first day.

Thanks for reading!

My New Volume Opens

Well, today was the day that I started my move to Charlotte. Having lived in NJ for all but the first two years of my life, this is a very big move for me to take. Luckily my newest and best buddy was there to help me keep my head straight (so to speak) as i prepared to leave today. I usually overpack even when i go away for a weekend, but i was surprised that i was still able to see out the rear window of the Jeep for the drive to Richmond today and then onto Charlotte tomorrow.

The drive was uneventful - just hit a little traffic south of DC - but it took 5 hours 14 minutes to go the 313 miles to Glen Allen, VA. Staying overnight tonight at a SpringHill Suites - hotel #201 for me!

Well, hopefully i'll get in the habit of writing down what i've been discovering as a transplant to North Carolina - i also hope that it gets more interesting as we go along.

thanks for reading!