Roadies Go To Charlotte!

I know it's been a while, but I'm here to make it up to you. Road trip! Yep, that means I should have a lot of things to talk about in this one. The setting? Charlotte, North Carolina. The reason was put together by my boy Scotty B and he conned me in with a Celtics game, good get right there indeed. Along for the ride was Spank and we set sail for the 5+ hour ride to the Dirty South in the old lady Buick.



Nothing out of the ordinary on the way down, but we'll still make mention. The music of choice was led by Spank being the car DJ for a while. He went with some MJG, Lil Flip and Z-Ro combo, Wu Tang Clan, old Michael Jackson out of nowhere, Nelly (the only bad choice and we both agreed) and then when we got near the city, I flipped it on some rap radio stations. No rap stations in my area at all unfortunately, but with mainstream stations, you get the same 3 songs played constantly over the day. Several times I'd flip on one rap station and a minute or two later, the same song would be on the other, go figure. Soulja Boy has lost his luster, that kid is on every 2.5 seconds, but he makes money, so I guess I can't argue it. I should rap and say the same line over and over and make a killing. It is catchy, I'll give him that, but I don't need to have it rubbed in my face all day.

Somehow I get to be the road trip driver for my crew recently. I'm by far the worst driver of the bunch, but I guess my buddies aren't scared. My gas light comes on and we see a Citgo station off the exit. We pull off and can't find it. After driving a while we see a sign that says 3 miles away. Since we were in the middle of nowhere, I cranked (crank dat) it backwards into the oncoming lane and and whipped it around. Then we went down some back road in farm land and eventually found this dirty gas station with 2 pumps. Then to get back onto the south interstate, we had to go through another town for a few miles and got it going. It felt like Deliverance. Our biggie was missing our cutoff to our final road. The whole time we were on 3 major roads, that's it. We screwed it up and ended up onto I-85 when we were supposed to say on I-77. We roll into this town called Gastonia, NC. The car of choice was a Chevy Caprice with those huge goofy rims. The rims were worth more than these cars, but it's funny. The huge rim fad has passed us too I believe, let's write that one off.



We get to Scotty's place and I love his setup. He took good care of us and his house is unbelievable. It's sure a weird change from the mean streets of Shinnston. I like the city since there's a lot of things to do, but still not sure I could ever live in one. I definitely would wreck every other day with my driving skills. The good luck part of the trip was that we were in the hometown of the greatest wrestler ever to lace up a pair of boots, Ric Flair. I had to take the laptop down since I'm ate up on here to begin with, but I was able to get some things done. Friday night I roll to bed at 6:10 AM and wake up at noon.

Food? How'd we do there? We make Cork proud by hitting up a Chili's in Charlotte. I got the honey chicken crispers that are quality, I recommend that. Also with that I got some fries that were just ok, but one awesome corn on the cob. Who has decent corn in November? They did, it was worthy. On a backtrack, for the road trip down we loaded up on 2 dozen D'Annunzio pepperoni rolls from rugged North View, WV. Right up there with the best pepperoni rolls ever. Saturday afternoon, we hit up this little Chinese shack. I get my favorite, honey chicken, pork fried rice, and cheese wontons. Thumbs up here and then I brought a gallon of tea back to the house. Some dirty southern sweet tea, it doesn't get any better.



Also while in Charlotte, I got to finally play Rock Band for PS3. You talk about an addicting game, especially if you have a group of people. Think of Guitar Hero III except it's the whole band. You have an actual drum set for this game, a guitar similar to GH, and a mic for the vocals. We didn't get to play it a ton, but what we did, it was well worth it. I manned the drums and picked it up fairly quick. Scotty's brother-in-law is legit at this and Guitar Hero. I've heard of people going nuts on expert and seen videos, but never in person till this weekend. It was a sight to behold, he can hang with those guys. Speaking of, there's already Rock Band vids on YouTube. I was hooked on watching those, especially the drum vids. Also, check out the kids that play Guitar Hero if you have never, the legendary 8-year old boy doing Psychobilly Freakout is excellent.

How can I leave out the best part of the trip? This was my highlight for sure, even if I'm one of just 4 people east of the Mississippi who are still diehard NBA fans. Saturday night it was time for a Celtics game and it is weird seeing my boys make national news and people actually report on them. It sure hasn't been like that for the past 15 years or so. Props to Scott for hooking us up with amazing seats. 15 rows up, dead center court, right on top of the court basically. The arena is really nice, I was big on the setup. Coming in with the best record in the NBA (who knew?), the Bobcats weren't going to lay down easily. They battled all game and it was a struggle. Ray Felton was working Rajon Rondo like no other due to Felton having the strength and also the moves to drive the paint at will. I was behind the great Tommy Heinsohn, Hall of Famer, and our color commentary announcer, he's the man. I wish I would have attempted to walk down to him and shake his hand. I'm not a big autograph person, I'd rather get a shake and talk for a few than get the signature. End of the game, Cats are up 2 and they mess up the inbound. Pierce gets the ball and fires it to Ray Allen wide open for a 3 at the buzzer, and it's good! I was going wild at that happening and half the crowd was stunned. It was strange seeing so many Celts "fans" in the crowd. I'd be willing to say that 80% at least were bandwagon hoppers, but it happens. Maybe the most exciting NBA ending I've seen in person, so that made my trip worth it and then some.



The ride home I was worn out for, but it's still always fun for a road trip. CD wise, we didn't do a whole lot, but jammed out to some older Wu Tang to start things out. After that, most of the afternoon was getting NFL scores and keeping up to date with that on sports radio. That wraps up the Charlotte trip in a nutshell. Hope you liked those ramblings. If not, that's how it goes sometimes.

Another basketball note. Last weekend I hit up the WVU basketball game with my boy Sidell. He was in from Myrtle Beach and he knew I'd be in for any kind of game if given notice. Unlike WVU football as I've mentioned recently, I hope the basketball team does fine and will keep up with them. I think they'll do well this year, nothing amazing, but they'll hold their own and surprise. Coach Huggins is going to be great to watch, he's a character. He was crazy pimped out that night, purple suit with yellow buttons. I'm curious to see his recruiting pool in the next few years. He's not afraid to bring in some total convincts. I'm not against that if the the coach is able to manage these idiots. Huggy Bear mania is running wild up there, shirts and the like are already all over Morgantown. For the non locals, keep an eye out for Joey Alexander. Everyone around here knows of the kid, but he's got some sick skills. A tall skinny dude but he can throw down with the best of them and has long arms that'll be useful. After the game, we hit up Applebee's and most of the team was there afterwards for whatever that's worth. Local legends Teddy Ballgame Talkington and Lil Jerry West, it's fun to see them be crowd favorites. Teddy has game if they give it to him, West is just out there due to his dad.

What's up with Kid Nation? To start things off, we get the results of the new elections, all districts have new leaders. DK wins the red after Guylan steps down without going to the polls. Michael takes out Larry Bahd Laurel for green. Blaine is the new yellow leader after he takes out Seinfeld. Greg is the new blue leader as he gets rid of Anjay. People are freaking out of how Greg and Blaine are together leading their districts, being dictators. Everyone says that Greg, Blaine, and DK have no respect and need to compliment people. Michael sets himself away from the other three leaders. Stuff is blowing up, good drama. Taylor bawls like a baby and says she's not working and will leave. Greg wins the upper class. Greg blows up at the gold star ceremony and the whole town wants him to change. Larry Bahd Laurel gets the gold star. Next week, they try to start up a school.



Bird's Dirty Thug Ho of the Week: http://www.myspace.com/homie2828

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Hey Cakes, seen that first vid of yours you sent the other day, that's like a car wreck, bad times, but you have to watch. The second was new to me. Unfortunately, I'm not posting either of those on here, hah. I should thoug. A find from The_Freak and it's a great one. The video game fans will remember this gem. It's the Madden 92 Ambulance Montage, enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_138p6uzhUk

3 Quick Thangs:

1. Let's try some birthdays for Wednesday, November 28th. Paul Shaffer, David Letterman's buddy, he's now 58. Actor Ed Harris, 57. Jon Stewart does it big for his 45th. Anna Nicole Smith would've been 40 on this day. A pretty rough group, not a lot that really sets the world on fire. It happens.

2. Notre Dame football season is over at a whopping record of 3-9. My boys' first 9 loss season ever, it was brutal to watch. The question I get a lot is have I had enough with Charlie Weis? I'm on his side totally, no way does he (or will he) get ran out of town. Gotta give him some years and let him do his thing, he'll do his business and bounce back from this year.

3. It's getting about that time. Christmas card season! One of my favorite traditions in that I send out to people all over the place. I hope to do the same style I always have in the past, we'll see what goes on with that. If we still keep in touch and you're in my big address pile, I'll send out the words of wisdom. Get at me if you want on the list if you aren't already on.