November In North Carolina, Part 4
   
 
Sunday, November 16
 
Coffee at Laurel Market, then driving through the Elizabeth neighborhood to the Bayou Kitchen...
 
5th St...  an old section of the former Mercy Hospital, the point of my birth...
 
Caswell at Greenway (near where I once lived), looking up toward the Bayou Kitchen...
 
In the Bayou Kitchen parking lot, looking toward the back of the old Jack Straw's...
 
 
I met with Christie at the Bayou Kitchen... Pete joined the meeting a little later...
 
       
After a while we repaired next door to Jack's, the former Jack Straw's, joined by Bob Patterson and others. The old Jack Straw's marquee still hangs within the new Jack's... 
 
 
Monday, November 17
 
Lunch with Charlotte Microsofties (and old time trouser pullers) Eric Watkins and Greg Whitcomb at Luisa's Brick Oven Pizza... 
 
After lunch I stocked up at McCranies Pipe Shop prior to meeting with Bill Noonan for the drive down to Camp Deer Camp...

www.mccranies.com
 
 
 
I met with Bill Noonan and his fine dog Jessie at Microsoft Charlotte, then we headed for Bill's new spread in Cherokee County, South Carolina...
 
Crossing Lake Willie at the Buster Boyd Bridge, the "Gateway to Clover," South Carolina...
 
www.fineartsemporium.com/tour/artour25.htm
 
 
Moving southwest through South Carolina... through York County, to Cherokee County...
 
       
 
     
 
 
Arrival at Bill's lodge in Cherokee County. This area, from the Broad River west to the Pacolet River, including Thicketty Creek, has always been know as the "Back Country." Fine, old country, much of which is still in large estate parcels. Lakota the horse and Cleo the kitty...
 
       
 
 
 
 
As the sun dipped low we headed to Camp Deer Camp, just south of Thicketty Creek... a couple of miles from Bill's lodge...
 
Jessie patrols the grounds while Bilious strikes a fire...
 
Mike Lenderman prepared the fresh venison for cooking while Tom Wheeler held forth on the 6 string, gracing us with a couple of his own compositions, as well as a fine rendition of John Prine's "Souvenirs"...
 
     
 
Bill and Bernadette Swayngimran made a fine duet...
 
 
Roasted corn on the cob and Lenderman venison... Bill took the deer down a couple of days prior...
 
Mr. Lenderman, camp cook extraordinaire, bids his sweet adieu...
       
 
Bill closes camp...
 
 
Back at Bill's lodge... Bilious prepared rough maps of the area, estimating several of General Daniel Morgan's 1781 routes and stops through the Thicketty Creek area as he battled, and defeated, Banastre Tarleton and the British at Cowpens. Bill also ran through a fine rendition of a recent song of his, "Now I Got A River." Bill had played this song for Hiromi and me back on May 3 when he was visiting Seattle on Microsoft business. The lines about Stevens Pass and Wenatchee resonate well...
 
   
 
www.nps.gov/cowp
 
 
Tuesday, November 18
 
I left Bill's lodge in the early light, pausing for a moment at Thicketty Creek...
 
         
 
 
The Broad River... crossing back to North Carolina. King's Mountain, that height of land that figured prominently in the American Patriot's defeat of Lord Cornwallis in the American Revolution...
 
       
 
     
 
www.nps.gov/kimo
 
 
Tuesday evening back in Charlotte, at the Bayou Kitchen. Tom Billotto's band, Standard Brands, was holding forth, celebrating Tom's 15th anniversary of playing music at the Bayou on Tuesday evenings...
 
Vocalist Kathleen Ausley and guitarist Jimmy Bookout...
 
Two old boys... Pete "Pony Boy" Davis, and Bob Patterson...
 
Tom picks as Heidi Edidin looks on. Tom with Mr. Roy... 
 
Back at Thompson Manor, with Baby Ralip and Father...