Trip

Wednesday - Lajean, Phyllis, Ruth & I left Norfolk around 6:30 pm. With a suggestion from me to avoid construction around Scribner & Hooper, we took the "scenic route" to Omaha. We took hwy 32 from West Point to Tekamah then through Herman and Blair and what we call the high road to Omaha. Two of the ladies had never been that way and enjoyed the change of scenery.
When we got to Omaha, we checked into our motel and started looking for a place to eat. We ended up at the Spaghetti Works in the Old Market. Back to the motel and to bed with an early wakeup call.
Thursday - Departure time 8:30 am Thursday. We had no problems with our flights or connection at O'Hare-Chicago. Kay and Kim had an earlier flight and were scheduled to arrive about the same time as us. They had trouble with planes not being up to snuff and were sent to 3 different gates before they got on one that was acceptable. They were about an hour late arriving in Charlotte. We checked with the airline to see when their flight would be in and were told it would be about an hour late. All safely in Charlotte, we had no problem getting shuttled to the rental place and getting our van. However getting all our luggage and bowling balls in the
van was not so easy. Apparantly the nice young man at Enterprise had loaded a lot of vans before ours. We got everything arranged and set off to find our motel. We had pretty good directions and didn't have much trouble finding it. It was a pretty nice place for a Days Inn. We
set off to find the first Bowling establishment, which was supposed to be about 20 minutes from our motel. If you have never been in Charlotte, it has the most confusing street system I have ever seen. The only street that runs straight is Hwy 77 north and south. All other streets look like a spider web only not as neat. A street may change name 3 or 4 times while you are driving on it. About 2 hours later, we finally found the place we were looking for. We had driven by it, but a tree was blocking the sign. Charlotte has so many trees that everything is hidden. While driving around the city, it seems as if you are in a forrest, but just on the other side of the trees are buildings and houses. There was a nice Mexican restaurant right by our motel so that is where we had our supper. Then to bed with an early (again) wakeup call since we had to be at the bowling center by 7:30.
Friday - Getting to the bowling center was a snap, and was only 20 minutes, once you know where you are going. Team bowling on Friday. We had 2 teams of 5. The other 4 ladies had made their own arrangements and plans for getting to and around Charlotte. I did manage to get close to my average for this event. Our team did not do anything too spectacular. Kay had a 213 which was the high in our group. After bowling we thought we better locate the next bowling center. Just as much trouble finding it as the first. However, now we have gotten a little smarter and ask. Only took us about an 1 1/2 hour to find it - 20 minutes in the opposite
direction from the motel. The Centers are not actually in Charlotte, but in the burbs. We decided to try to find the outlet mall in yet another suburb. We did find it taking the usual hour or two. Spent a couple of hour there. I bought a few things ( I love outlet malls). Back to the motel and accross the street to Murphy's Pub for supper. Nothing scheduled for early Saturday
morning so we get to sleep in. Midnight to get to bed.
Saturday - We don't bowl until 8:30 so have some time to be tourists. We have a bus tour scheduled for 1. They will pick us up at the motel for a nominal fee. After experiencing the street system, we opt to pay the extra $6.00 (well worth it). Nice, friendly, knowledgable driver. Took us around some of the neighborhoods, downtown and to some of the historical sights. There was a Greek festival in downtown, but we only had about 25 minutes to check it out. Really not much time. Seemed to be just like any other festival, only smelled like greek food. Mostly vendors trying to sell their wares. Noted sights - Jeff Gordon's condo, Randolph Scotts home and the cemetery where he is buried. Now we know the answer to the Statler Bros. song ,"Whatever Ever Happened to Randolph Scott?". Charlotte is named for Queen Charlotte, King George the something's Queen. Although George and Charlotte were not very popular, the city founders decided on the name to try to gain favor with the king. Nice tour and we saw places and learned a little of the history of the town. Will probably forget most of what he told us, but still feel like I might have learned something. Back to the motel to change into our bowling duds. Find something to eat and get to the Bowling alley. Yah, found it. Two of the
girls had trouble finding the place. If the bowling hadn't been behind schedule, they would not have made it. I did not do well in doubles and singles. Lajean was my doubles partner and although she had a couple of good games, we will probably not get any money back. A couple of the girls did good enough in singles to get a little back. If you go to these tournaments thinking you will make a lot of money, you just as well forget it. The fun is in what you do around your bowling schedule and going places you would not ordinarily go. We finished bowling around 11 and headed back to our motel. Another early wakup call for Sunday. (This is vacation?).
Sunday- 7:30 am start for Ashville to visit the Biltmore Estates. A 2 1/2 hour drive turned into 3 hours. Our usual wrong turn sent us into So Carolina. This is not a big deal, kind of like being in Council Bluffs instead of Omaha. The Biltmore is the largest privatly owned home in the US
250 rooms. It took about 3 hours to go through it. I'm sure if you are interested you can find more about it somewhere on the web. After we toured the house and gardens, we stopped at the winery for a selft guided tour and wine tasting. I have tried different wines at time and never really cared for any of them. We had a couple of sips of 6 different wines. I now know I do not like wine. Found a Cracker Barrel for supper. A waiter in the cafe told us of a "short cut"
back to Charlotte - big mistake. It took us on a curvey, two lane road for about 50 miles. Nice scenery, but it got dark before we found our way back to the 4-lane and to Charlotte. I think we stapped 3 times to ask directions. Back to the motel and the thought of sleeping in again.
Monday- We have a boat tour of the Lake Norman development set for 1. Allowing for wrong turns, we left plenty early. We finally asked directions (we are getting smarter). We were there
with about an hour to spare so walked around the dock and sat on the patio of the local cafe and enjoyed the nice weather. The tour was 3 hours long. Lake Norman has over 500 miles of shore line so we only saw a sampling. We had lunch on the boat and saw a lot of really expensive homes. One was once owned by Tony Stewart. Two others were built by twin brothers and had around 13000 square feet. One of the brothers had a pontoon and a dock for it. He did not use the boat that much so he sold it and converted the dock to a heliport for his helicopter. Since most of the passengers were in Charlotte for bowling, the captain pointed out one house that had a bowling lane in it. It was a nice day for a boat ride, but maybe could have been about half the time. Since it was not the weekend, there were just a few boats and jet skis out. We did see one
little boat with a couple of people fishing. After the boat ride we had more time. I had seen a Nieman Marcus sign as we passed one shopping center. Having never been in a N M store, I asked if we might just find it so I could say I had been in one. We did find it at a high end shopping mall. My time in N/M was very short. After looking at price tags of jeans ON SALE
for over $900.00 I headed for the sale racks of Belk's department store which is a locally owned chain of stores more in the Dillard's price range. I did find a pair of capris and a pair of shorts which I really didn't need, but bought anyway. We found a "diner" for supper which was probably the worst place we had eaten. Every other place was either the old reliables like BK or
we lucked out and had good food. Back to the motel and another early wake up call. I had repacked my suitcase in the morning so just had to find room for my new purchases. No problem.
Tuesday - The trip home is another blog. Shirley, you just about had an overnight guest.

Good to be back.
Sue