"b1bob does Charlotte in a big way" a Charlotte Travel Page by b1bob

"An agreeable village but in a bloody rebellious country," recorded General Cornwallis when, before the unpleasantness at Yorktown, he visited Charlotte, North Carolina: "A veritable nest of hornets." This city, settled by Scots-Irishmen who came down the Blue Ridge Road from Pennsylvania, has now become one of the biggest metro areas between Washington D.C. and Atlanta. It has no particular geographic reason for being and it has never been showered with political favour since it got the Navy Yard for the blockaded Confederacy. Before the California gold rush, Charlotte was the gold mining capital of the country. Now, it is the headquarters of two of the nation's biggest banks: Bank of America, formed from the merger of Nation's Bank and Bank America, and First Union. Charlotte is the second-largest financial centre of the nation, behind only New York. It is the centre of the nation's biggest textile manufacturing region and an airline hub for U.S. Airways.

Before 21 March 2003, the last time I stopped in Charlotte was August, 1973 when I visited some distant relatives. Back then, I can only remember going to Carowinds amusement park. I passed through it once in 1980 when we took what I knew at that time was a circuitous route: I-85 to I-75 to I-4. I hadn't given much thought to returning until after October, 2002, after "acemj" visited me.

Originally, I thought President's Day weekend in February was good, but that was when he found a good deal to go to Portugal. Next, I thought his birthday weekend would be good and he liked that too. However, something came up caused me to have to switch the dates to go one week earlier, 21-24 March 2003.

That was a fun trip. I arrived there on the Friday night a bit frazzled after riding from Raleigh to Kannapolis with a (train) carload of 9-year olds coming back from a field trip to Raleigh. Mark took me to a Spanish restaurant in town. Had I known how expensive it would be, I would have suggested a locally-owned diner instead. Mark and I weren't in Charlotte much the following day as we spent the lion's share of it in Asheville. We spent much of that Sunday touring Uptown.

Sometimes, things work out for the best. I alluded above to having to move my trip to Charlotte up a week. It turned out the weather was as perfect (and stable) as it could be for late March. Had I gone when originally planned, it would have been 82 degrees (28 degrees C) on the Saturday and we would have seen snow flurries the following day. I got a bunch of good tips on that trip, but I went a second time.