On Monday the governor declared a state of emergency and a mandatory evacuation. This closed many roads, stores and gas stations. By Tuesday morning nothing had happened and things loosened up a bit. Meanwhile we prepared our house and left early with a full tank of gas, a cooler with food and Sirius, our dog. The day was clear and sunny and there was no traffic so we drove easily to Charlotte which took about five hours. We checked into a brand new Holiday Inn Express, south of the city. Sirius is behaving very well, but not a fan of the elevator. Poor guy is so scared and relieved when the doors open and we get out.
Dinner time we were invited to see friends we had met in Panama. Alina and Greg now live in a community at the top edge of South Carolina, just minutes from our hotel. We had a great time reminiscing about our time in Boquete and other travels. Both of them are interested in birds and wildlife and we had all met on a birding hike.
We got back to the hotel and Sirius was so happy to see us and go out for a walk. We have three bus loads of college football players staying here for the evacuation from a school near Charleston. Every day they go to USC in Columbia to practice and play against them this Saturday.
Woke up Wednesday to another sunny day and relaxed before heading into Charlotte to tour. We went to the Levine Museum which follows Charlotte and Southern life in this Piedmont area from the Civil War to present day with emphasis on the Black community and civil rights. It turns out to be an excellent museum with great displays, movies and photos. Very educational and well worth our visit. The photos are Jeff and me posing with raw cotton and a large cotton gin from a textile factory.
These machines bale cotton and then spindle and weave. These were days before child labor laws and many spent their youth doing back breaking work for long hours instead of going to school.
Belk Department Store had an early beginning in the south and still in business today. This is what the store looked like many years ago.
Southern Power and Duke Energy brought electricity to these rural areas.
FDR came to Charlotte and spoke to a huge crowd telling them about the New Deal and how life would become better for them.
Sad to remember that white and colord people had to drink from different fountains. The one on the left had refrigerated cold water.
A movie in this bus was about school segregation in the south.
Displays of foods from different parts of the country and different ethnic groups. Notice the Manischewitz Latke Mix in the Northern section and Dr. Brown's soda along with Cape Cod chips and Tastykakes..
We spent about two hours and then headed to a recommended place for lunch. On the way we saw this food market and this interesting building.
Drove to the NoDa section of the city which is newly refurbished, artsy and is north of Davidson street. Ate at Haberdish which is a fusion of southern cooking with a modern flair.
We enjoyed it and found the food delicious. Honestly had the best dried tomato, basil quiche ever with a lovely arugula and goat cheese salad. We tried several sides and one cracked me up. Mac and cheese with fried chicken skins. I call that Grivenas, however it is spelled. A special treat my mother would make, frying up chicken skin in schmaltz (fat.) This dish was too spicy for me to enjoy, but gave me a laugh.
Came back to rescue Sirius and take him for a long walk. He gobbled up his dinner and seemed very satisfied. We are meeting friends for dinner after a rest break. Alina and Greg will join us with Elly and Sandy who live nearby. Elly and Jeff were good friends in junior and high school. Have not seen her in the last 50 years and anxious to talk about the good old days in Trenton. We all met for dinner at a Mexican restaurant near our hotel. So much fun talking and catching up and introducing our friends to each other. Afterwards we went back to Elly and Sandy's home in Sun City Carolina Lakes. It is a smaller community than ours and truly beautiful with rolling hills and lots of water. We toured their home with Elly's beautiful paintings adorning the walls and then had dessert and talked some more. A wonderful evening.
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