“North Carolina”
3/24/17, “A Long-Expected Journey”
LaGuardia Airport, New York (LGA)
For four Marches now, I have been saying that I would go
to North Carolina. Originally, the plan
was to drive down Friday night, arriving Saturday morning, and drive back up
Sunday night, arriving back in NYC Monday morning. Obviously, I couldn’t do that drive solo, and
I had tentative commitments from various traveling companions, but they all
fell through. Instead, I wound up going
to the Redwoods WHS, the Lake Placid Winter Stadiums, and Iqaluit in 2014,
Central Mexico and Poverty Point WHS in 2015, and South Carolina in 2016. Now, we have arrived at the last March
weekend before I turn 30, and I can put this off no longer. I will be going alone and by airplane, the
purpose of the trip is twofold: Wright Brothers NMem and getting a missing WHS
stamp at Great Smoky Mountains NP. Cape
Hatteras Lighthouse and some other NPS provide an added draw, as does the State
Capitol in Raleigh, where the infamous HB2 was passed.
When I first started considering this trip, an
added draw was NCAA March Madness events that rotated around the state every
year. Well, HB2 put paid to that, when
the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, decided to withdraw all March Madness events
from the Great State of North Carolina for deigning to pass a law that mandated
that people must perform certain biological functions in public bathrooms
segregated by biological sex, rather than “gender identity,” a term which has
no technical definition. If I am allowed
a brief political discourse here, it is stupid shit like this that cost
Democrats the election. Who cares who
uses which bathroom? You are there to
perform a biological function, not start a political war. This liberal insistence that, if you do not
see the world exactly the way they do, you are evil is what drove me away from
the Democratic Party, a party whose basic beliefs, I mostly support on a moral
level. I just don’t like those beliefs
forced on me, either by guilt-tripping or the coercive force of
government.
Okay, back my regularly scheduled
Travelogue. Are my readers tired yet of
my standard Night -1 description?
Reader, I’m sure you could write it yourself. The only thing you need to know is which
movie I saw. It was Power Rangers, and
it was good, brought back lots of fun memories.
I then packed and woke up and get ready and headed to the office, like
usual. For lunch, I got my usual
pre-departure lunch at Hop Won, followed by my usual pre-departure Cohiba,
smoked in the loading dock in shelter from the elements. I had a productive day at the office. Reader, you could have written this whole
paragraph, right?
Now, here’s where it
gets interesting. My flight was at 8:30
PM from LGA, which meant that I could work until 6 PM and take a taxi and be at
the airport in good time. At 5 PM, one
of my coworkers was leaving, and he asked what was bringing me to North
Carolina. I told him just some National
Park Sites. I thought about all the
stamped brochures I would get. Something
was nagging at me. What was I
forgetting? Then, it hit me. I had forgotten the most important thing to
pack, one of the two reasons I was taking this trip. I had forgotten my WHS folder.
Without it, the trip was almost
pointless. I needed that stamp I had
forgotten. The first time, I completely
forget the folder. I bought a new
passport at the site, and I transferred the page to the old passport, but the
other documents were unstamped. When I
returned five years ago, I forgot that missing passport page, and I also forgot
to get one of other documents stamped.
That was the only reason I am returning the site, to get that last
document stamped. If I forgot the
folder, it would have been only too ironic.
I quickly finished up at work and biked home to retrieve the folder,
which meant I had pointlessly brought my bags to work with me today. I got home, retrieved my folder (and night
mask and sunglasses for good measure), and took a taxi to the airport.
There was some traffic, but I was there
around 6:30 PM. Plenty of time. There would be no meal due on board, due to
the short length of the flight, so I went to the burger place that I like to
get dinner. It is high-quality food, but
the order process is very dumb. You place
your order at a kiosk, but you can’t pay there.
Instead, you have to wait on another line, which is in the direction of
the gates, to pay, so I wind up having to redouble my steps when I go back to
pick up my food and bring it to my gate.
I ordered a mushroom and onion burger with fries and a red velvet
shake. The mushrooms and onions were
cold, which was annoying, since it made the sandwich cold overall. I was starving. Otherwise, I would have returned it and made
a stink.
Once I scarfed down the burger,
it was too late to do anything. The
milkshake was the best part. After I
finished my dinner, I proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close, as
we will be boarding soon. Oh, and to add
to the adventures of the day, as I was writing this entry, I was looking
through my computer bag and noticed that my laptop wasn’t there. I had a mini panic attack, until I realized
it was on top of my lap.
Raleigh, North Carolina
This all feels very familiar. It harkens back to my trip a year ago this
weekend, a very similar trip to South Carolina.
I will not continue my discourse from last year on the South being
populated by the descendants of slaves and slaveholders. North Carolina is no different, but it has
larger and more liberal population centers, and the prestigious colleges in
this state are in no small part responsible for it being less reliable
conservative than its neighbor to the south.
Since that entry a year ago, Trump won the election, and Governor McRory
lost his bid for reelection, due to HB2.
I am sitting in front of North Carolina State Capitol, right in front of
statue of the three “Presidents North Carolina gave to the Nation”. Unless I am forgetting my history, all three
of these Presidents hailed from Tennessee, but the “alternative facts”
inscribed on the base of this podium speaks volumes of the state I am currently
visiting. According to the statue,
Andrew Jackson “revitalized American democracy,” James Knox Polk “enlarged our
national boundaries,” and Andrew Johnson “defended the constitution.” Need I remind my readers about, respectively,
the Trail of Tears, the Mexican-American War, and Reconstruction? These are not three presidents of whom to be
particularly proud.
Anyway, the two
hours from the time I landed at RDU to the time I lit up my cigar and walked to
the Capitol was hellish. After I closed
at LGA, we soon boarded, and I think we spent exactly an hour in the hour. I was only able to finish my chapter of Lord
of the Rings and not even start another chapter. I had a bourbon, club soda, and some assorted
snacks en route. When we landed, I was
the first one off the plane, my favorite part about sitting in seat 1A.
That’s when the hell began. It was a long walk to the ground
transportation area, and then I had to wait for the shuttle bus to take me to
Hertz. When I got there, I had to wait
on line, since my Gold Club membership wasn’t properly linking. Then there was confusion about which car I
was supposed to take. Eventually, I
figured it out. After that, more
confusion in how to exit the parking lot.
More confusion about how to get on the highway. Then, oddly, there was bumper-to-bumper
traffic.
Soon enough, though, I found
myself at the hotel. It was what I would
call a “college party” scene, very similar to what I saw a year ago at the
hotel in Charleston and two years ago at the hotel in Jackson. There is a theme here, reader. I settled into my room and did something I
almost never do: unpacked. Since I would
be staying at this hotel for three nights and had my clothes in a shopping bag,
rather than a suitcase, I figured I would utilize the drawers.
I changed into some more casual clothes and
then went down to park my car and head out.
I got a cup of coffee, which was lukewarm. The receptionist said he would make a fresh
pot. In the meantime, I parked the car,
which was a hassle, even though the garage was across the street. I saw some police activity in the garage,
probably related to some drunken kids about to get in their car. The police probably were lying in wait for
such eventualities. I had to go to the
third level, and it was quite a walk back to the hotel, but then everything was
good again. The coffee was soon ready,
and I poured myself a cup. I walked
outside and lit up a Saisson by Oliva cigar and walked to the State Capitol,
where I sat down and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close so
that I can publish and walk back to the hotel and get to sleep. Tomorrow will be an early and long day.
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