Hampton Inn & Suites Charlotte At Concord Mills

The journey home began at 6AM Venice time and even with only a one hour layover in Munich we arrived in Charlotte at 6PM est time (midnight Venice time!) a very long day. We had a trendous trip and Aunt Sue and Guido were the perfect hosts and tour guides. I almost feel like going right back but that will have to wait for now probably June 2011. The weather was cold and at times rainy so some of the things you would routinely do were just not possible.

Excited and ready to leave. The forecast does not seem very promising but it will be great to see Sue &amp; Guido again. We leave Charlotte at 5:30 PM and should be in Venice at Noon (Italian time) Wednesday. I will try to send photo's as we take them as well as update this blog. I loved this when Chris and Liana used it . <br>

... our driving extravaganza and finally arrived in the first city we would be performing in, Concord, NC. This is apparently the home to Lowe's Motor Speedway. That's right NASCAR fans, we were right next to this place. I never realized just how big those tracks are. It was huge! Now, I am not a racing fan, so I had no clue where we were until I literally ended up driving next to it. I kept thinking "wow, there are a ton of hotels for some random NC city I ...

I thought that I would post this picture of me and La Poderosa just before I left for the west coast a couple month's ago. She had to be sold in LA:( What an amazing bike for 700 bucks. She got me through one of the most amazing adventures that I've had to date. As soon as I can get my computer that has all the pics on it online I will have a boat load of stuff to post from this trip.<br><br>

So I just set up this blog thingy. Computers and stuff like this are not my forte. I will try to update with some images of my travels as I get a chance. I am leaving for Istanbul, Turkey in a couple days. So i am practice packing to get things down to as little as possible. I am hoping to hitchhike ...

Sarah and Ken were waiting for us, as we deplaned in Charlotte North Carolina.They had caught a flight from Detroit to Charlotte, the meeting place for our international flight. <br><br> It seems so exciting... and odd, too. Seeing familiar faces outside the ...

... but given the amount of rain, clouds and fog we couldn't see a thing. So we took a few pictures and pretty much drove straight through the park :(<br><br>We reached our destination fairly early tonight and decided with this storm passing over us maybe a cabin would be a little better than staying inside our "tight quarters." The cabin is pretty roomy double size bed, eating area, 1/2 bath, heater and ...

WW and I drove across western NC. Got to a town called Statesville and went into J&amp;R Cigars, billed as the World's largest cigar store. They ain't lying. BIg ol' CHurchills for $3 (or less).<br><br>We camped at Lake Norman, land donated to the State of NC by the Duke Power company as long as the state let them leave their nuke there. No pics. Suprisingly nice campground.

... McD's and head on down the road, and keep heading down the road. It is about 30 minutes into our drive when we realize that we have gone too far, even though we have not left this main road. So we head back in the original direction from which we came from and have no idea where this race track is. We even stopped people in a parking lot to ask them ...

... then have a car sit in the garage 90% of the time, being used occasionally on nice days. Others are more hard core and their toys are a priority. That's how life is. We constantly make choices about what is important to us. Whether it's toys, travel, houses, parties, scrapbooking or collecting dolls. It doesn't matter what income level you are at, choices are made as to where your money goes, though for most of us mostly to necessities...which is also defined differently by ...