Hello North Carolina and bye-bye Atlanta, Georgia. You will be missed, but I’m doing a quick dash
away from all this fall/winter weather in hopes for drier land. Here are some images as we made our exit.  One word – RAIN.

Soggy streets – ugh!

I thought LA traffic was bad…

The 1996 Olympic Park.

The CNN Center.

Our first stop in Charlotte, North Carolina was for dinner with great old friends Keisha and I met during college, Shalain and
Angel. Their first suggestion was
Outback, but we ended up at a place called Boardwalk
Willie’s instead.

I have another friend in Charlotte, Kamie, whom I have known since elementary
school.  She took me in for the night.   I love having friends in different cities!  Keisha went to stay with family in a
nearby town.

Catching up with an old friend left me sleepless.  Kamie needed a
little domestic help in her life—there were a whole lotta no-no’s!  I only had one night, so we just gave her bookshelf a makeover, and I promised I’d come back to do the rest another time.

BEFORE

AFTER:  We moved the books forward and incorporated her frames into the reorganization to add a little interest.  We also removed all the paper book covers from the hardback books.

Banks rule in Charlotte.  The city’s two biggest buildings
belong to Wachovia and Bank of America.
Charlotte is most definitely a city in major development.  Notice all the
construction in the pics below.  I have a feeling Charlotte will be a major attraction for
travelers:  great restaurants, a cool downtown and everything is so new.

(l) Bank of America Building (r) Wachovia.

Very cool gold building.

An even cooler pink building.

We stopped into a Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin Robbins and had donuts and coffee before hitting the road. Hey, I’m on vacation!

We captured this rainbow on our way out of Charlotte, heading to our final destination.  What an perfect ending to the “almost end” of our trip.

I’ll be back, North Carolina.

NORTH CAROLINA BUDGET

Derrick in Charlotte:

Hotel:  NONE

Dinner Night 1 – $12.00

Drinks – $2.50

Breakfast @ Dunkin’ Donuts – $9.00

Lunch – Chick-fil-A – $8.00

Dinner –  NONE

TOTAL:  $31.50