VDTA Show Convention Trip to Charlotte, NC
March 22-25, 2018

Thursday March 22, 2018

The day started normally, up at 5:50 AM to the Google Home alarm. Soft and gentle. Tommy B. was on vacation so we listened to “The Best of” as it’s Spring Break. That should have given us a hint of things to come… Beth showed up at 7 AM for our shuttle to the airport. We shut things down, loaded up the car and headed out. The next hint we should have noticed was the HEAVY traffic heading in to Terminal 1. A dead giveaway but no, we didn’t take the hint even though we couldn’t do much about it anyway.

Beth dropped us off at the “near” end of the airport so we hoofed it through the crowds to the opposite end of the airport to drop our luggage off at the Delta counter. What a freaking zoo. This reminds me of that Star Trek (original) episode where Kirk somehow opens a window on the (fake) Enterprise to see masses of asses all locked together trying to move… a nightmare. Well, we’re in one now…

So we hit one kiosk only to find out we already had our boarding passes so we didn’t need to be there so we got in the next line for the baggage drop. What a fiasco! We finally made it to the next kiosk to print out our luggage tags but there was so much chaos and crowds not knowing what the “F” they were doing that we waited in a line just to escape the kiosk area only to get in another line for… wait for it… TSA. And it didn’t make any difference which line. The “regular” line (we were not “TSA Pre” this trip for some reason) OR the TSA Pre line they were ALL mucked up and in a big holding pattern. OK, back up. We left the house at 7 AM for an 8:50 AM flight. Plenty of time… Right? Well comma…

OK, we’re in the “regular” TSA line for what seems like forever but finally got through (once I was strip-searched because I had the audacity to forget to take off my belt, which I normally don’t have to do because I’m usually TSA-Pre…) only to find we are on the wrong side of the airport again. So I re-dressed and we headed back down to the opposite side of the airport to the “C” Section on Gate 24 which apparently is WAY down and out there somewhere. We figured this out once we got to the end of the airport only to find, “the tram.” I don’t think I’ve ever taken the “tram” at the MSP airport. What a BIG deal… NOT! A two car tram that has three stops total but I digress…

OK, on the tram we went and headed all the way to the end the the “C” Terminal. We jumped off and found Gate C-24 and headed toward it. I looked at my watch and it was 8:30 AM… WOW! It took us an hour to run this gauntlet but it felt like three… The plane was boarding already but Mary needed a pit stop so I walked in the the gate area only to hear my name being called. Apparently if we weren’t available to board in less than 5 minutes the seats were being given to the next in line on the waiting list. Mary came around the corner and we made it on after discussing life and names with the gate agent (Mary) who had nothing else to do because we were the LAST ones to board the plane. Well, almost the last ones. As we went to the very back of the plane (see next chapter in this nightmare) I think I saw two empty seats.

OK, we sat down in row 19 seats C & D. There are 20 rows in this tiny Bombardier CJ-90. At least it was a jet… I felt like I was island hopping… And guess who was in row 20… The monster from hell. Mister “Two Year Old” and his “not so into discipline” parents. Oh joy! The little monster had fun with us. The typical kicking of the seats and when he was done with mine his loving parents switched off and gave Mary a dose or two. Oh what fun… Between the screaming and kicking and even grabbing of Mary’s hair from behind we really enjoyed this trip to Charlotte. A lot…

FINALLY we landed after a bumpy approach and wiggly landing (not related to the monster from behind). We deplaned (De-plane, De-plane… My memory of this flight will always have “Tattoo” from Fantasy Island kicking and screaming in my ear from behind…)

Off to the rental car area which is actually on the airport grounds and not off site like most other airports we’ve flown into. And just to be consistent, we went to the wrong office (the one that actually gives us the car AFTER the one that signs us in) so we had to hoof it back downstairs to the one that signs us in…

We ended up being consistent because we went through three cars before we found one that we could have. (First one had no keys in it… Second one reeked of smoke… and the third had no XM Radio capability (I ordered XM) so the guy (a very nice guy who tried hard) pulled another out of the line-up and… this one had no XM either so I gave up on XM… But it’s a nice new Hyundai Sonata with 1300 miles on it. I’ll live without XM for a few days and save the $25… This has been a rocky trip and we’re not even started yet. Let’s hope the rest of this excursion gets better…

We drove out of the airport… finally. Mary navigated while I got a feel for the car and adjusted seats and mirrors. Charlotte is over 50 degrees and sunny. It’s WARM! I put on my sunglasses, took off my jacket and opened the windows (the A/C might be next). 

We made it to the hotel (Crowne Plaza, Charlotte) in no time. We took the scenic route off of the freeway. It took ten minutes. We parked, walked in and found a very nice gal to check us in. The card reader wouldn’t read my AMEX chip so we had fun with that. It worked on the third try… The room is nice. It actually has a king bed (as compared to our last experience) and is clean. On the tenth floor out of 19. We unpacked a bit and freshened up. I got on the PC to see what was for lunch.

I found a brewery called the Olde Mecklenburg Brewery (OMB) not far away and highly rated so we jumped back in the car and took the “slow” way there. A whole five minutes…

We parked and walked in. I was tempted to sit outside but no one was there and Mary still thinks it’s cold out… We ordered beers (lot’s of choices) and lunch. The place was relatively empty except for the “suits” in another room having a corporate event. The food was exceptional and the beer was better than the place this one reminds me of, Surly. The layout is similar to Surly. Even the doors along the walls that open to a “picnic” area with LOTS of picnic tables outdoors. Even the propane heaters for those cool nights are lined up along the outside wall just in case. We finished lunch and headed back to the hotel.

After a catch up on the 250+ emails I had we decided it was still martini night so we headed down to the bar at the hotel for a martini or two. I’m still catching up on emails on my laptop while enjoying my first martini. Once I caught up I turned to Facebook to catch up while Mary was reading her current paperback. Funny, I haven’t picked up a “real” book for some time. All electronic… Sad in a way…

Before our second martini we ordered calamari and a glass of water. We’re waiting for a friend (Randy Ewald) who lives nearby. Actually Randy was at his weekly bowling league and only seven minutes away so he decided to join us for “after- dinner” drinks. We finished our martinis and calamari about the time Randy arrived. It was good to see Randy again. We talked for a long time and caught up on old times and what was happening recently. We had a good get-together for a couple of hours before it was time to say good night around midnight. We discussed our next get-together and decided to try for lunch tomorrow. Randy headed home as we headed ten floors north to turn in. A pretty good day all things considered…

Good Night!

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Friday March 23, 2018

Up late (for me) and ready for coffee and breakfast. I Googled a highly rated breakfast place and found… Flying Biscuits Cafe… Weird but it turned out to be really GOOD! We Google Mapped over to the restaurant and enjoyed a great breakfast. Too much food as usual… Mary bought an OMG Tee-Shirt (Oh My Grits).

We had some time to kill so we drove downtown to get “the lay of the land” near and around the Convention Center. We drove by the convention center thru town went a block west and drove back south thru town again just to get a feel for the downtown area. (As it turns out we’d need this info soon…) Downtown Charlotte is nice. Seems bigger than St Paul but smaller than Minneapolis. A good mix and everyone I talk to say it’s quiet and safe. It looks like it…

Once through the downtown area we drove back toward the hotel but decided to stop by the Billy Graham Library which just happened to be between where we had breakfast and our hotel. We parked in a very large parking lot and headed toward the complex which includes the original house (reconstructed at this location from a dairy farm 30 or so miles away) as well as the “Library” which looks more like a huge fancy barn with a large cross-shaped window on the front of the building. We toured the house then headed over to the library for another tour. A little too long but we made it through and finished by walking over to the burial site of Rev. Graham and his wife. She’s been there for awhile but Billy just arrived in the last month or so… A well maintained and beautiful place.

Actually Charlotte is pretty compact and easy to get around. It was no problem getting from the airport to the hotel to the downtown area so we had no issues getting from place-to-place. I like this area. It’s easy but the drivers are like Minneapolis or other metro areas, they drive WAY too fast… I must be getting too old for this crap… And I’m not in a hurry as much any longer…

We headed back to the hotel to contact Randy and plan our next two days. Randy was available for lunch in a couple of hours so we decided to head down to the bar for a glass of wine and to finish up our planning for the convention as well as some map loading for our possible destinations. At 1:30 PM we headed for our next restaurant (Cabo Fish Tacos) to meet Randy for lunch at 2 PM.

What a treat! We drove by the restaurant looking for a parking spot and saw Randy walking into the restaurant. We found a spot behind the restaurant and walked around to the entrance. It’s sunny and over 50 degrees. Nice! We found Randy and continued to catch up on “old times.” We were in the “outdoor” section of the restaurant but it was covered and heated. I was under one of the electric heaters hanging from the ceiling so it was very warm. The food was fantastic (and too much once again). I had the BBQ Mahi Mahi Tacos, Mary had the Lemon Shrimp Tacos and Randy had the Blackened Fish Tacos. All wonderful! 

We drove to the Convention Center, parked across the street and walked in to the convention center building. It was huge and empty except for our little VDTA Show. I wondered if that’s why we are in Charlotte, NC for the convention this year. Cost… Probably. We did a “walk-thru” just to get the lay of the land so to speak. Not much going on so we hung out until the Awards Ceremony was scheduled to begin. We went into the ceremony room and found a couple of seats about 10 rows back from the podium. There was a lot of people running around getting ready for the ceremony so we watched all of the activity until finally Judy Patterson (President) stepped up to announce the beginning of the ceremony. I wasn’t impressed. Too many of these and they all look/feel the same but we stayed and listened/watched the whole thing through to it’s finish. Lot’s of thank yous and awards plus the Bernie Epstein Scholarship Award which was interesting as it involves the younger generation which we need as most of the crowd is our age…

 

The ceremony finished so it was time to head over to the Dealer Appreciation “get-together” at the Nascar “Hall of Fame” building for a drink and to meet anyone we knew. Turns out there wasn’t much representation from our area so we toured the building and all of the fancy cars on display then finished a glass of wine (we were still full from our feasts with Randy) and headed back to the car for the drive back to the hotel.

We stopped at the bar for a nightcap then headed for bed. Big day tomorrow…

Good Night!

 

 

 

 


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Saturday March 24, 2018

We rose and did our morning prep and headed out for a drive down to meet Randy at his home just over the border in South Carolina about a half hour drive south. A beautiful drive even though the sun was behind the clouds. Luckily very little rain. Mainly mist but cooler than I was hoping for. We arrived at the house and met Randy for another cup of coffee and a quick tour. They have a beautiful house. Randy and Noreen moved relatively recently from a much larger house on Lake Willie to a smaller house near the lake but not on it. A beautiful corner lot with woods behind the house and lots of plants surrounding the house. They’ve done a good job with this house. The addition they added fits perfectly and is very usable year-round. Well almost year-round. It’s a bit cool for the 3.5 season porch but this weather is unusual I’m told… Well, being from MN and having our own LONG winter, I’m not surprised.

After breakfast we hopped back in the car again for the trip back to the convention center and the VDTA Show. Our agenda was to walk the convention floor for a couple of hours then meet at the Miele booth for our reservation to see the new CX1 Blizzard presentation then three “after-hours” get-togethers, ESSCO’s Dealer Appreciation Event, Tacony’s Dealer Party and finally Miele’s get-together which was six blocks away at a hotel nearby.

We started at the ESSCO party and met up with several people including the folks from Chavez Vac and Sew (Andrew Slattery included) as well as the people from Johnstons. Other than that midwesterners (you know, fly over country) were not well represented. From there we walked over to the Tacony party and found even less familiar faces. We didn’t last long at Tacony so we headed out the door for the six block walk to the Marriott City Center and the Miele Event. It wasn’t raining yet but you could tell it wasn’t far away. We walked in the Marriott City Center and found the Miele party on the second floor just getting started. We picked a table with the Chavez group and caught up with Andrew and the others a bit before heading to the bar and serving line for some food and refreshments. As we enjoyed the company and refreshments an “80s” band began to set up for their stint of the evening. I had just refilled my wine (cheap red) when the music began. I hate to say this but it was bad and way too loud. This band should have retired years ago. They turned up the sound level to hide how bad they were. Too bad. Not only could we stand the bad music we couldn’t hear a damn thing when trying talk to others at our table.

We tolerated this assault on our ears for longer than I wanted (about a half hour) but finally I conveyed my feelings to Mary and we agreed it was time to escape. We headed downstairs and outdoors to… a misty rain so we picked up the pace and headed back to the convention center and our parking garage. Downtown Charlotte is nice. Busy but not crowded. People are friendly and not pushy. Restaurants are full with patrons lining up outdoors even in this mist. It reminds me of a college town. We made it back to the parking garage without getting too wet. Back on the road to fight the race-car drivers back to the hotel. I just stayed out of the way… We made it back and hit the sack for our big travel day back home in the morning.

Good Night!

 

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Sunday March 25, 2018

It’s a travel day so we headed down to the buffet in the hotel for breakfast and relaxed a bit before heading back to the room to finalized our packing. Once packed we headed out to the airport which turned out to be a very easy operation compared to the trip to Charlotte. Apparently no one goes to Charlotte for Spring Break so no one has to leave… We made it to the rental car return area and dropped the car off without incident then headed across the street into the terminal. We checked in and got through the TSA gauntlet in short order then had time to relax in a bar/restaurant (as I remember it was a brewpub. Maybe OMB?) awaiting the boarding process. All went well. The ride back was much nicer. No turbulence, no “two-year-old monster from hell” just a relaxing ride home. But then again it’s a ride home… We landed and met Beth right away for the ride home. The weather had recovered so it almost felt like Charlotte. Well… almost. It’s still MN and I’m sure we’re not through with this rough “spring” we’re in.

Good Night…