The Friday night stop in Columbia, SC is done, let us roll on with the story.
Saturday
I woke up late, but early enough for my purposes... One thing I have found in hotels, as opposed to the very loose hostels, is that housekeeping take no prisoners early in the morning. This isn't an issue usually but when you are trying to get sleep it is a small issue.
I re-packed my bag (although, this didn't take long given the single night in the hotel room and given that I did not leave the hotel room between checking in and checking out (apart from that one trip to the ice machine, but you know, people need ice... Just ask Benny Cousins...)), exited the room and began my walk down to the Columbia Greyhound station.
I have found, in the South where the need for my heavy jacket has been minimal, that if I am short on space I can use a plastic bag to carry it much more effectively... This may seem simple and obvious, but when you're struggling with a heavy major bag and a not so light backpack and several jumpers, this help in carrying a heavy jacket is invaluable...
I arrived at the station shortly after exiting the hotel, got my ticket, and given that it was nice weather outside I chose to sit outside by Bay 1, where the bus was meant to be picking us up from... The bus station was deserted but for one other guy who was walking around in circles and muttering to himself, but that was about 30 metres away, and I was sitting in the relative comfort of the shade and by a door to the terminal...
As a general rule I have tried to be at bus stations 1 hour before departure, so I can get my ticket and make sure there is nothing else to worry about and that I did not overlook anything. I have also been very touchy in checking bookings to make sure that when I think I booked is actually when I am to be leaving... I was very close to missing the bus to Charlotte due to a mistake on this, as I thought the bus left at midday, however it actually left at 10:30 AM... Thankfully I checked, because I hate to think what would have happened if I were stuck in Columbia...
A black bloke wearing a Miami Heat baseball cap came out and sat at the bench to my right and very shortly after he sat down came over to chat to me to ask me a question... He had just bought a ticket to Detroit, MI, and the woman had given him a ticket that departed on Monday the 15th, and not Saturday the 13th... I told him that he had the wrong ticket (after he asked if I knew how to read the ticket), and he went back into the terminal to sort out the mistake.
The bus was late... Like, substantially late as far as I was concerned. It had obviously been running overnight, as many people got off wearing pyjama pants and looking a bit worse for the wear... Many got off to have a cigarette, which meant that it was not much fun lining up by the bus to enter... There was a guy in line next to me who commented on the cigarette smoke, and when I answered he asked if I was British, to which I told him that I was actually Australian, and he apologised, then noted that several of the words I spoke after that did have a very obvious Australian twang...
We got to talking in the line, and then when we sat down on the bus... His name was Jay, who, I would later find through conversation, was originally from New York City, was a neuroscientist, and was a brilliant conversationalist.
The bus was half full, but despite the extra room Jay came and sat next to me to avoid me from having to crane my neck around to chat to him. He had a very Harold Ramis look and feel about him, but, like, a young Harold Ramis... Like, after Stripes but not long after Stripes, even though Jay was not a young man... I guess he just aged well...
The discussion that we had lasted the entire 1.5-2 hours on the bus (I honestly don't know how long the ride was, it didn't feel like long at all due to the conversation). We began with the usual topic of conversation, my trip, as I took him choronologically through it up until Atlanta, where we tangented off after I discussed the ridiculously seedy nature of the Greyhound Station in Atlanta. He apologised on several ocassions for the quality of the bus stations and the services, explaining that the services and stations have steadily declined in quality over the last 30 years... They used to have Greyhound and Trailways and the like but ended up with cars and air travel changing the preferences and patterns of consumers. We then chatted about anthropology and a book called 1491 which I think was about the impacts of European settlement on the Americas, particularly North America; it sounded interesting and I have every intention on looking it up when I get a chance and hopefully may be able to have a thumb through it... We chatted about careers, my formative years in the working world, his experiences in his field and how he was applying for a job and was hoping that he would get an interview and all that... There were other topics, but after whizzing through my first few weeks up until Atlanta in the first 5 minutes of the ride, the rest of the ride took us all the way to Orlando, so, that says something about the quality and length of the conversation. He wishes me luck for my trip, I wished him well for his job interview/application, and we parted ways. I wasn't even aware we had crossed a state border... The people here have been so wonderful and nice to me!
Before leaving the bus station I asked how much it would be to stow bags there for the day (as the Greyhound Station in Charlotte is close by Bank of America Stadium where I would be attending the football the following day), the cost was $8 for 24 hours. Not prohibitive. I then caught a cab to my hotel, the Hyatt House at Charlotte Airport. Which, whilst an airport hotel, was a Hyatt hotel (and thus had a level of quality not seen since the Hotel del Coronado (I had only finished my Hotel Del shampoo and conditioner the day before so the timing was good for grabbing more toiletries).
The reason I was able to spend a night at a Hyatt hotel when I am working from such a budget is due to the 2 or so years I spent working at EY. Due to my repeated trips to Melbourne for Futuris Automotive I was able to accrue enough points to afford several free nights at various Hyatt hotels in the US (I am spending 3 nights over New Years in New York City at a Hyatt hotel due to the hostel being booked out)... I had originally planned on using the points at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne when Port Adelaide next made a Grand Final, or using them as a surprise to someone, but with my trip to America coming before either of those two things I decided to save a lot more money and spend the nights on Charlotte and New York. The other reason Charlotte was a big thing for me was it is the last night before December 29th that I will be in a hotel and have a private room.
I arrived at the hotel, and the level of service was well above all my previous hotel experiences on this trip, and the room was grandiose... I had essentially 4 rooms... A kitchen/living room, a bed room with a massive king sized bed, and a shower/toilet/sink spread over two rooms... It was a wonderful hotel... I made the most of the TV and watched some Law & Order, although without McCoy it wasn't the same, I then watched a film on my computer (12 Years a Slave... I guess because I had been to a plantation in the days prior and hadn't seen the film previously...)...
I had the intention on going to a shopping centre to get some food (at a restaurant on the way) and to find some jeans (my current jeans now sporting a hole big enough to fit my fist through, this is not ideal coming in to a trip further North), but the shopping centre on the map was not as big as in my imagination, and on the word of the hotel staff I didn't bother going (also because I couldn't walk there... If I could have walked I would have but the roads around the hotel didn't allow for it)... I instead went for a walk around the block, printed some tickets, and then headed back upstairs to kill a bit of time before heading out to the basketball. I did some channel surfing and ended up on AMC which was showing Apollo 13, it is really funny how coincidental that is... It was also really interesting how much they had to censor it for the sake of basic cable TV (apparently Gene Kranz (played by Ed Harris) saying 'god damn' was too much and they edited it to just 'damn')...
I left the hotel at 5 PM, with a 6 PM opening of the gates and a 7 PM tip off for the game in the pipeline. The light rail was meant to take me all the way into the city centre (to the Charlotte Transport Center/Arena station) but it instead terminated at the Carson station, and we were forced to transfer to shuttle/commuter buses to get us to the CTC. This bus was full... Full... And people, in their infinite selfish wisdom, chose not to head all the way to the back of the bus and, in one instance, chose to sit on the aisle seat, not moving for anyone to sit in the window... In the immortal words of the venerable Dr. Seuss: "People are dicks"
Buzz City |
Time Warner Cable Arena |
Main Entrance |
Decent seats |
Arriving downtown at the CTC I exited the bus and directly across the street found the Time Warner Cable Arena, the home of the Charlotte Hornets, who were hosting the Brooklyn Nets in Buzz City... It would be the first of 3 Nets games I see on this trip (with the other two come in Boston on Boxing Day and in Brooklyn on Proclamation Day... Huzzuh for South Australian holidays making it into this blog!). I then went to Will Call, picked up my ticket, then had to exit the arena (as they were not yet open officially) and then headed for a walk through downtown Charlotte. I was looking for food, but nowhere that was open was of interest to me (or there were massive lines and I wasn't for that). So, I entered the arena, found my seats (which were pretty good I felt) and then went and got some Bojangle's... Bo's is fried chicken, which was inside the arena. It was spicier than the other chicken tenders I'd had (they called them 'chicken supremes') and whilst standing around I saw some women with Basketball Victoria pants on and I had a brief chat to them about why they were in the US. Australian accents really do stand out against the background of American accents... As I would find out later in the evening...
Protest shirt worn by the Hornets players drawing attention to the choking death of a black man in New York |
Anthem gets played |
Opening tip |
Deron Williams |
The game got underway and it was a very one sided start; Brooklyn jumped out and were shooting the lights out. Joe Johnson and Deron Williams were the chief destroyers, and the single loudmouth Brooklyn fan behind me was all over it... His mate was a loudmouth Hornets fan, who came to the party as the two bounced off each other all night. I am not sure the father with his son two rows in front of them really appreciated it though...
'Oooh me plums' Repeat Moments of the Day
Loudmouth Hornet (standing and yelling): "I hate you Plumlee... You're awful... Did Coach K teach you that?... I hate Duke!!... U-N-C, U-N-C, U-N-C..."
I grant you, that link has nothing to do with Mason Plumlee, but it was funny anyway...
The Duke bashing happened all night... Charlotte is near the 'College Basketball triangle' that is the University of North Carolina (the college of Michael Jordan), Duke University (the home of the 'Cameron Crazies' and Coach K), and North Carolina State (who I have no idea about)... It was actually pretty funny, and saved a game that really lacked any real bite.
Shaping up after a timeout |
Shooting free throws |
M&Ms apparently come in a box just to come in a plastic packet... America... |
Gratuitous photo of the Honey Bees |
The Hornets fought back in the second quarter but were still 10 points down at the half time break and in the second half the arse fell out of them and they really struggled... Brooklyn lead by over 25 points at some stages late in the 3rd... It has been the story of the basketball games I've attended throughout my trip, one team (usually the home team) will start slowly and get their pants pulled down early, before recovering at the half, then again having their pants pulled down and the opposition having its way with them in the second half... It doesn't end pretty for them...
Mason Plumlee ends up in the seats |
And exits the seats... |
These two guys were too late to the party to continue the Plumlee/Duke bashing up close |
Buzz City |
I exited the arena through the Team Store, searching in part for a shirt which had the word Charlotte on it for Jason and Hope and Charlotte and Piper... But that became cost prohibitive, so, sorry to ruin the surprise guys, but I didn't get a Charlotte t-shirt for any member of the family...
I then had to work out where to get the train, or barring that, the bus to the train to the hotel.
This involved walking around for about 5 minutes in a lost daze before finally working out that the train still wasn't running and I'd need to head to the spot where I was dropped off by the bus originally... I walked on to the bus waiting to depart for Carson station, past a pair of girls dressed in Christmas garb and an old couple at the front of the bus, to one of the girls I quipped 'full bus' before taking a place in the middle of the bus standing... It was a full bus... Full... But we were underway shortly after and found ourselves at Carson station shortly after... The entire bus disembarked at this point, sparking a short rush to the train.
I entered the train and walked up to a less crowded part of the carriage, but walking by the two girls from the bus one remarked 'oh, it's our friend from the bus', to which I replied with something, and then was discovered as Australian... Full credit to both girls, not jumping straight for British as has happened so often on this trip is an absolute credit to them... I got to talking to them and found out that their names were Caylyn and Lindsay... A lot of the conversation was me saying things in an Australian accent (which I was informed was actually a 'dialect' because English is my first language, where as an accent refers to the sound on the language a non-English speaker has when they speak English... As much as this makes sense, I'm going to stick with calling it an accent!) and them referring to my beard as 'Lumbersexual'... Which, I was explained, was like a metrosexual but a lumberjack... So, I guess that is a compliment on my beard growing skills! Happily accepted we kept chatting during the train ride, and before that ride ended they asked me what I was up to for the evening and invited me to join them at a pub called VBGB. With no other plans than to watch TV alone in my lavish hotel suite I decided to head out and chat to some Americans and see a place that most tourists wouldn't probably see... We were greeted at the Scaleybark train station by Lindsay's husband, Tyler (I'm pretty sure that was his name, hopefully that isn't a faux pas) <Edit: His name was Steven apparently>, and an older gentleman who was only referred to a Mr something-son (I want to say Davidson, but that is a punt... Clearly very average with names)... On the ride to the pub we chatted briefly about Australian football and the differences between the local version of football, and I generally remarked that I had no idea where I was.
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Making friends in Charlotte |
I left to go home after agreeing with Caylyn to attend the Carolina Panthers game the following day (she hadn't been to a football game and was interested in going, I was very keen to have someone else to watch a game with!).
Sunday
Football day came and making the most of the hotel amenities (and re-stocking my supply of toiletries) I packed my bags full and brought them down to the front desk where they would store them for me for the day for free. Much better result than lugging them to the Greyhound station only to have to pay and then spend all afternoon after the game at the Greyhound station. Today was going to be the longest day of my trip since Day 1 - Adelaide to Los Angeles.
I liaised with Caylyn about tickets, as she had not bought hers yet and we decided to just deal with it at the arena rather than trying to sort it out at a computer terminal... Speaking to a real person seemed like the winner...
We caught a train downtown and followed the crowds of people to the arena, neither of us having been to the arena. We quickly found our way there, along the way arguing over the term jersey and jumper.
When is a jersey a jumper?
Caylyn: 'So what's that?'
Sam: "This is my Port Adelaide jumper"
Caylyn: 'You call it a jumper? You mean jersey right?'
Sam: "No, we call it a jumper or a guernsey"
Caylyn: 'That makes even less sense than before, its a jersey'
Sam: "I'm going to stick with calling it a jumper"
Caylyn: 'What? Your jersey?'
Sam: "Yeah, my jumper"
Caylyn: 'Jersey?'
Sam: "Yes, my guernsey"
Caylyn: 'Did you say jersey?'
Sam: "I know what you're trying to do here... I'm not going to call it a jersey"
*It would later be called a jersey inadvertently on the Facebook*
Walking through the rows upon rows of tailgaters we found a place that was offering free hotdogs... The catch? Sign up for updates to their product... Needless to say, after giving an old email address so as to not be bothered by marketing, the hotdog was delicious... The price is right!
Tailgating in front of Bank of America Stadium |
We collected my ticket, were told that I could not move mine to a set of two vacant seats and then we eventually decided that buying a single seat (at the back of the nosebleeds just to gain entry into the section) and retaining my single seat was the way to go. We then moved to enter the stadium and were told that Caylyn would either need to drop her bag 'back at the car' or dispose of it, due to the NFL's clear bag policy... I hadn't even considered this, so after chatting to a security guy we walked to the nearby Marriott Hotel where she grabbed some essentials and then dropped her bag. Though, not really wearing pants with deep pockets Caylyn was a bit worried going through the security checkpoint.
"What?" Line of the Day
Caylyn: "I'm a little nervous about all the things in my butt"
I went into the Team Store after entering and bought a pair of gloves (not for the weather in Carolina, as it was another beautiful day on America's East Coast, but for the weather further North and so that I don't have to subject myself to Dad's awful gloves that he gave me before starting my trip) which due to the colour scheme I will be able to trot out at cold nights at the Adelaide Oval. We then made it up to the upper deck and got some more food... I wasn't that hungry, so I just got some hot chips, which lead to a conversation about the interchangeable use of the words 'fries' and 'chips' to describe 'hot chips', further explaining that 'potato chips' can also just be called chips... It was a lot more fun going to a sporting event with another person, and I am really glad that she decided to break her football duck and keep me company.
Second 'what?' Moment of the Day
Sam: "It's really cold up here, I really need to buy new pants, I have this massive hole in the back of them"
Caylyn: 'People can probably see your bum'
Sam: "Well... Good for them..."
The seat that I was in was a wonderful seat, directly on top of the 50 Yard Line on the Panther's sideline. Though because we had two separate seats we were consistently worried that someone would come and kick one of us out, and we were therefore strategising as to where to go that was nearby. The pre-game included a prayer from a local Jewish Rabbi (which was the first time I'd seen a Jewish prayer take place anywhere, let alone at a football game) and a game between some professional mascots and some college mascots... This was actually really funny, Hugo the Charlotte Hornet kind of went nuts at the end and was headbutting the others... This was very cool, though, after the game the night before you can understand him wanting to lose brain cells...
Right on midfield! |
Beautiful photograph of nearby downtown Charlotte |
I didn't bring my yamaka |
Pre-game mascot fun |
The Top Cats |
It is a Buc's life... Loving the awful orange socks |
Carolina enters the arena |
It was so much more fun going to a game with a companion rather than alone... You are able to have conversation about the game and about other things... But more than that, you've got someone to laugh along with when something stupid happened... The entire day was a lot of fun, the game was interesting due the close score (but not necessarily for the play that took place (I would later hear the game described on the train home as 'an awful waste of everyone's time)) and the joking around was brilliant. I am not on Instagram, and I only just got Twitter for the purposes of being a media whore, so hashtagging things aren't normal to me, but we got through a few of them during the day...
Hashtags of the Game:
#fairdinkum (self explanatory)
#touristface (apparently when I take photographs I stick my tongue out a bit)
#bigsticks (a bit of an in-joke with my Port buddies, the words we say from time to time before someone kicks at goal... Field Goal kicking got a new line)
#wooderwooder (imitating the guy selling water who seemed unable to pronounce the word)
#growupslut (when a pre-teen girl rolled her ankle on the sideline and was about to cry... Very much a schadenfreude moment)
#somecolonialshit (on the splitting up of the two Carolinas)
#NeverAshume (apparently I pronounce 'assume' incorrectly)
Early Panther drive |
Anderson throws again |
McCown under centre |
Half time tramapoline show |
Anderson throws |
Touchdown Carolina |
Happy Panthers |
Someone is either getting ready to jump or is a ballet lover |
Fumble! |
The Bucs have it |
Carolina nice touch... Both state flags being flown |
McCown struggling due to crowd noise |
Drops back to pass |
And gets it away before being absolutely clobbered |
Below: Interception to seal it
First Panthers game for us both |
Yes they did |
From the 50 yard line seats |
Christmas Panther |
Final, Carolina 19, Tampa Bay 17
After the game ended we headed downstairs, going through some major bottlenecks due to people lazily wanting to use escalators instead of a slightly inclined ramp, and made our way to the Marriott to pick up the handbag (which took a while longer than it should have, it appears as though people lining up in the US is just as appalling as in Australia, self serve kiosk style)... From here we went in search of some food... I was entirely in my slow down and kill time mode... It was about 4-4:30 PM and I was departing on the bus at 11:30 PM. We walked to the 'Epicentre' which was a kind of shopping mall but it was mostly eateries, pubs and entertainment establishments; we decided to go to Five Guys Burgers & Fries, which was pretty good.
(One thing I have found in America is that when they cook bacon, either on a burger, or on the side of something, is that it is almost entirely strips of bacon and it is almost entirely done to the point of being too crispy... When I was at the Waffle House with Steve in Charleston I couldn't get the bacon on my fork to then eat with the waffle... He didn't know what I was talking about when I started talking about short cut bacon... Crispy bacon isn't a bad thing, it is just a consistent thing that I have found in the US)
We sat around for quite some time chatting and helping me spend as little amount of time as possible in a bus station. We went through a bunch of topics, schooling, politics, Australia (largely cultural differences and any other questions that came up) and things like work. This lasted until we had to get the train back towards my hotel so that Caylyn could be picked up by friends. At which point we said goodbye and parted company. I am very happy that she chose to speak to me on the train on the Saturday night, and from there was able to give me a glimpse into what Americans my age would sometimes get up to on a weekend. It goes to show, again, that this country is full of wonderful people and that I have been very lucky with the people who I have met and that they have chosen to spend some time with me. Serendipitous bus and train rides...
As I arrived at the Woodlawn station I called the Hyatt and asked for them to send a shuttle to pick me up, which they obliged, but about 20 minutes after I arrived at the station... I hadn't quite expected it to be that cold when I was there, so for that period of time I paced back and forth trying to keep warm...
I returned to the Hyatt, used the bathroom, got my checked bags unchecked and then reorganised my stuff. I then used their computer setup for about 3 hours until 10:30 PM just so that I didn't need to sit in a bus station. Furthermore, I was not really married to the idea of bringing out my computer at a bus station.
I caught a cab to the bus station at about 10:45 PM, thus missing out on my 1 hour prior rule, but I got to the bus station with about 35 minutes to spare, and had a borderline disturbing conversation with the cabbie. The cab driver was a former US Marine, but now is in his 60s... He took me through his service history, spoke about the mutual respect and not wanting to see which elite soldier was the most badass at an international convention and then just casually threw into the conversation that he killed a guy who tried to jump him in his cab once... Self defence, that's fine, but he was just so casual about it... I had no idea how to react... The interesting thing about it was that this flippant reaction to gun violence was being described to me as a siege was happening in Sydney at Martin Place... I won't turn this into a sermon at all, but it was just coincidental timing
I arrived at the bus station and had to get my ticket from an online checkout because the woman at the counter wanted no part of doing her job as she was about to finish her shift... Thankfully the next shift worker was a lot more helpful and allowed me to break a $5 bill so I could buy some water...
I was travelling to Baltimore, Maryland with a transfer in Richmond, Virginia. I was meant to depart at 11:30 PM and arrive in Baltimore around 11:40 AM on Monday.
There was a really weird woman hanging around the station, she looked very made up, like, 'lady of the night' levels of make up... She just kind of pottered around... At one point she came up to me and asked me where I was going... I mumbled something about 'going North' and then returned to asking the cashier a really inane question just so I didn't have to deal with this other woman.
11:30 PM came and went, with a guy wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers cap standing up and watching the Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles SNF game, actively supporting the Cowboys... This didn't make sense to me at all... I got in line to avoid ending up with a dud seat on the bus, but I would later discover that the number of people at the station was due to a bus (departing at 11:45, which departed at 11:45 and boarded before my 11:30 departure bus boarded) to Atlanta and 'all points West'. My bus eventually opened for boarding at 11:50 PM, and thankfully the bus was half full and I had two seats to myself... Half full bus... Half.... We were already 25 minutes late to depart before the real show started...
Monday
This entry is suffixed with 'the longest day' for good reason.
I was in my seat waiting for the bus to roll out, already drifting off to sleep when I was snapped out of it by a loud yelling from the front of the bus. The driver was screaming at a woman who was refusing to move from the door... Lines such as 'either come on this bus or get out of the way' or 'I'm already behind and I can't have you holding me up further'... I would later find out that it was the same 'lady of the night' looking woman from before...
I slept for the time between Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, but it was only about 3 hours; and I had intermittently been woken up by the driver on the speaker telling everyone not to bother her by speaking to her as she had the lives of everyone in the bus in her hands... This did not fill me with total confidence but it is what it is...
We were forced to get off the bus at Raleigh, which meant any sleep state I was in was completely broken and I would have to start over... I spent the 15 minute break watching CNN and trying to come to terms with what was happening in Sydney, although I appeared to be the only person at all interested. Upon re-entering the bus I walked by the 'lady of the night' woman being spoken to by police, and then later escorted away... I chatted to other passengers who said that this woman had tried to be dropped off on a highway before entering Charlotte and must have had dementia or onset Alzheimer's. She looked too young for that but whatever... It reminded me a little bit of a Tom Petty lookalike being arrested on a train I was on back in 2010 for stalking... But that is another story...
Raleigh police taking away the crazy lady |
After I got back on the bus and actually sat down I fell asleep almost instantly, but was again awoken about 3 hours later in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederate States of America, and was forced to get off the bus, grab my bags and wait for over 1 hour before jumping on another bus which would take me to my final destination.
Whilst there I asked an Asian girl with a computer about what had happened in Sydney as apparently the siege was still ongoing. This ended with us having a chat about Melbourne, where she is going to study Maths in February. I ate some Animal Crackers, which are in no way a cracker, they're biscuits, and finished my water.
I was blessed with being 3rd to board even though I was not in line 3rd... Gotta love a Greyhound employee who enforces the boarding procedures... I again had a set of two seats to myself and I again, and again slept the entire way to Washington, D.C. despite the sun peaking through... We stopped in D.C. for a half hour, I didn't leave the bus but nor did I sleep...
It was a most uncomfortable ride to Baltimore as my back had given up on me and I was very over tired... I had slept most of the way but was interrupted every 2-3 hours... Adding in stops it took the full 12 hours to get to Baltimore.
Adding in stops and delays and it was a full 12 hours. |
It was easily the longest day of my trip since Day 1 - Adelaide to Los Angeles, but for $62, taking me from Charlotte at the border of the two Carolinas all the way up to the Maryland and not having to pay for accommodation, well, I can handle that...
That' me done, bed at 8:30... Baltimore/sleeping in tomorrow!
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