Day 01 - Leaving Charlotte

    

 

 

Sunday, March 4, 2007

 

I left Seattle on April 26, 2006 and arrived in Charlotte on May 5, 2006. Mother was ill and I wanted to be part of her care, along with my sister and brother. Mother passed away on January 3, 2007. By the beginning of March, 2007 it was time for me to return to Seattle. The stay in Charlotte turned out to be 10 months. Those months were filled with wonderful times with Mother, Sister Jan and Brother Brian, and friends... and with sadness. As I left I was filled with mixed emotions.

 

 

Having held forth the previous evening at the Comet Grill in the Dilworth neighborhood, I began this day in that same neighborhood. I was enjoying "Cowboy Church" on my new XM Satellite Radio as I drove through the Dilworth neighborhood to First Baptist Church in downtown Charlotte...

 

       

 

   

 

 

Mother and Father met at the old First Baptist Church in Charlotte (a few blocks from the current First Baptist Church) in December of 1955 at a Christmas party, and they were married at the old FBC in October of 1956. Mother and Father attended this fine church for more than 50 years. I was not going to leave Charlotte without stopping in for Sunday services and seeing dear family friends once more...

 

     

 

Pastor Mark is a strong preacher!

 

Mr. and Mrs. Purvis, and Mrs. Coffey in the middle...

 

I had a brief word with Pastor Mark after the service. Pastor Mark delivered my mother's memorial service two months earlier and I wanted to thank him for doing such a fine job. Pastor Mark put his hands on my shoulders and prayed right there. This was a profound moment that I will remember always...

 

Mr. and Mrs. Coffey...

 

Mrs. Coffey loaded me up for the trip with her famous cheese biscuits!

 

First Baptist Church, in Charlotte, is hallowed ground in my book...

 

 

My last business item in Charlotte was to take the car that had been my mother's from the storage lot to Sister Jan's house, which meant leaving Bigfoot at the storage center and then having Sister Jan bring me back to the storage center. At Sister Jan's I made more digital copies of family scrapbook photos whilst enjoying a last luncheon with the Hamiltons. Here's my brother-in-law, Engineer Matt... all-around swell guy...

 

The copied family photos mentioned above are now included in the archive...

 

 

Sister Jan and my two young nephews, Will and Ryan, took me back to where Bigfoot was parked...

 

Saying goodbye to Sister Jan was difficult, to say the least. After being so close during the events of the previous 10 months it was hard to believe that we were saying goodbye again...

 

After regaining composure the trip back to Seattle began... with an odometer reading of 38,125 miles...

 

 

Through downtown Charlotte...

 

     

 

I stopped in front of the old First Baptist Church...

 

Through Stanleyville. That first establishment is the former Jack Straw's where much of my old music business took place...

 

The old brick duplex on Greenway Ave. where I lived back in the 1990's. Sister Jan was my roommate there for a time. Tom Billotto lived in the identical building on the right...

 

Around the corner from Greenway Ave, the old Bayou Kitchen, with the Stanleyville water tower in the background. Oh the times had at that place through the years. On this afternoon nary a soul familiar to me was present. I quaffed a contemplative Shiner on the patio and then proceeded on...

 

 

The last stop in Charlotte was Sharon Memorial Park, my parent's final resting place. So much had transpired over the previous 10 months in Charlotte...

 

     

 

 

 

Traveling eastward from Charlotte I passed through Marshville, NC...

 

 

Crossing the Pee Dee River en route to the Atlantic Ocean at Wrightsville Beach. This cross-country trip, during which I would touch the waters of three oceans - the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific - was underway...