Charlotte also has a crazy amount of churches. Old, new, new age, old age, neon lights flashing....lots. Seems like anyone can start up a church. Charlotte encompasses approx 250 square miles, and has 700 different churches. Seems you'll never be board on Sunday.
Charlotte is also the center of Nascar. And it was Nascar weekend when we landed. These guys are nuts for Nascar. I personally don't see the draw. The cars drive round and round. Wahoo? But in the south, they are big fans. So whatever, we didn't see it, didn't plan to see it. However in our wandering about, checking out the city, we stumble upon Nascar. There is an entire stadium and these guys take it seriously. They are camped out for miles. Full spreads of friends and families that have enjoying everything that Nascar has to offer. And there are A LOT of fans. We quickly exited the Nascar area of town.
So, skipping ahead. It seems the pictures from the rest of Day Two, and most of Day Three are not on this computer.
~ Day Three Evening - Metallica ~
Why did we go to a Metallica concert?
Well....
Initially the draw to go to Charlotte was because we were already going to be in the states, and it's cheap to fly once you're in the US of A. So we looked at events that were playing, and Charlotte was hosting So you think you can Dance. We are fans. Upon further investigation it was discovered that Metallica was playing the night before. I'm adventurous...always up for new experiences. I don't know that I was prepared for Metallica.
Charlotte North Caroline is predominantly inhabited by African American's. They, however, are not Metallica fans. In the previous three days I had seen very few white people. It seems they all ventured out for the concert....and they are all white red necks. Wow. 18,000 screaming white, male, southern fans. We didn't have good seats, it was a last minute decision to attend the concert. We were WAY up there. The Time Warner Arena is about the size of the Saddledome. Decent, but not huge. We were in the nose bleeds. Didn't seem to lessen the volume any.
There were two opening bands, we skipped them. Metallica comes on and this place goes nutso. Show involved lots of flames, laser lights, coffins hanging from the ceiling, head banging, on the floor playing of the guitars, thrashing your hair around, it was an eye opening experience. Mouth opening as well, I'm told I watched the whole thing with my mouth slightly open in astonishment...and my ear plugs in.
Why are there no pictures? Cause the tickets said you couldn't bring a camera, so we obeyed. We shouldn't have...everyone had a camera. Lesson learned.
I now own a Metallica t-shirt. I wear it with pride. I am a survivor.
