NYC to Lake Lure, NC

September 11, 2009
NYC to Lake Lure, NC

So, about a week ago my brother sent me an email saying "Want to go to the LeAnn Rimes concert in Forest City on September 11?" With an all you can fly JetBlue pass my response was of course "Why the hell not?" So, after making the quick two hour flight down from JFK, which really felt like six hours thanks to the three kids under the age of five sitting in the row in front of me yelling and screaming the whole time, I arrived at the Charlotte airport.

Hopping in my brothers Honda, we jetted up the 74 through Shebly and Rutherford County, where the state of North Carolina is lined with nothing more than Baptist churches and Bojangles. I decided on chicken and and after we pulled through the drive through we were back on our way to Forest City. Upon arrival in the tiny town, I said "Man, look at that beautiful building!" Again, it was a Baptist church that looked like a plantation one might find down in Charleston. Down the road on the right is the baseball park, home to the Forest City owls, and the place of that nights concert for grammy-award winner LeAnn Rimes. Either she's really hard up for money or, just like me, has an all you can fly pass, b/c I don't know why she's out in the middle of this baseball field singing for $20 tickets, which in fact look as though we printed them up on our Dell laser jet printer ourselves.

Mom and dad soon show up and once we are all banded the girl says "Wow, you guys are on field level." I am quite impressed until we walk on through and I realize that LeAnn Rimes can't even fill up the Forest Owls Field Stadium. Chris tells me he had more people than this at his last party. But, with beers being only $3 the fans are already pretty lively to hear the one-hit wonders of the 1990's, Ricochet. A bad young band soon follows called Easy Ryde or something like that. The lead singer was horrible enough, but when his mate took over to remake John Michael Montgomery's "Sold" I had to begin making a YouTube video. Finally, LeAnn Rimes walked on stage and after touting her main hits she told the crowd about her new album coming out, which has some songs about divorce, since she "has a friend currently going through the situation." Would his name be Eddie?

As the evening came to a close, we drove 30 minutes up the road to the famous town of Lake Lure, which many North Carolinians know is where Dirty Dancing was filmed and Chimney Rock is, where Last of the Mohicans found fame. Spending the night at the Esmerelda was a relaxing way to visit the family and walking around town Saturday morning we played some mini-golf before I came back to the Charlotte airport and began on my way to Orlando.