Travel Dates: February 15 – February 23, 2020
Destinations: Charlotte, NC; Boone, NC; Monroe, NC
Transportation methods: Commercial Air, Rental Car

Packing List

• DJI Osmo 3 Mobile
• Bagail Packing Cubes
• Columbia Men’s Winter Gloves
• Columbia Women’s Winter Gloves
• GoPro Hero 7 Black
• iPhone X & XS

Departure

I always sit us near a window. Most flights are short, just about 2-3 hours. If we can’t hold our bladders until then, we failed. We sat in seats 16A & 16B on this flight. An overcast sky over most of Florida meant we didn’t have very good views of the ground, but when the sun came up shortly after take off, cloud surfing at its finest.

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American isn’t a 5-star carrier, but they generally do a good job. On American carriers (not just American) your experience will depend more on the people you fly with. That’s probably true for most flights. I’ve never really had a bad experience with the crew or staff. Of course, you must keep in mind that there is not always something they can do for you and whatever request or problem you have.

N972UY was built at Hamburg in 2009. Delivery to Us Airways was December 9, 2009, registered as N541UW with the serial number 4123. After the American/USAir merger, it was reregistered as N972UY. It is in AAL’s layout 2 on SeatGuru, seating 187 passengers. Seats D, E, & F have misaligned windows in most “over-the-wing” rows.

Rental Car – Jeep Wrangler Sahara

I will be honest, I do not have a high opinion of modern Jeep’s to begin with. They are a vehicle bought by people who want to look like they go off road, posers to be exact. In my opinion modern Jeep’s are sold too expensive to take off roading… and they are made like cheap off road vehicles. This Jeep was no exception.

I’ll give Jeep credit, this Jeep had all the features you’d expect in a real Wrangler. Removable roof, fold down windshield, removable doors, 4×4 drive, high ground clearance. The problem is they sell these things for $45K.

Gripes are the gear knob felt like it was in the wrong place, the transfer case shifter was difficult to operate, and the Apple Carplay on the radio was glitchy. Also the doors appeared to be held on with a piece of rope. I’d rent it again, but I wouldn’t buy one.

Places we went

• Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden (Belmont, NC)
• The Blowing Rock (Blowing Rock, NC)
• Blue Ridge Parkway (US-321 – US-221)
• The Lazy Bear Lodge (Vilas, NC)
• The Pedalin’ Pig (Banner Elk, NC)
• Grandfather Mountain State Park (Banner Elk, NC)
• Linville Falls (Jonas Ridge, NC)
• Over Yonder (Laurel Creek, NC)
• Original Mast General Store (Laurel Creek, NC)
• Wiseman’s View Scenic Overlook (Ashford, NC)
• Henry River Mill Village AKA District 12 in the Hunger Games (Icard Township, NC)
• Treehouse Vineyards (Monroe, NC)
• UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens (University Place – Charlotte, NC)
• CLT Overlook (Charlotte International Airport)
• Hilton Charlotte Center City (Uptown – Charlotte, NC)
• Sea Level (Uptown – Charlotte, NC)
• NASCAR Hall of Fame (Uptown – Charlotte, NC)
• The Dumpling Lady (Food Truck – Charlotte, NC)
• Optimist Hall (Optimist Park – Charlotte, NC)
• Whiskey River (Uptown – Charlotte, NC)
• Rail-Trail Lights (Rail-Trail Charlotte, NC)
• Hazelnuts Creperie (Charlotte, NC)
• JR Motorsports (Mooresville, NC)
• Dale Earnhardt Inc (Mooresville, NC)
• Hilton Charlotte University Place (University Place – Charlotte, NC)
• Ninety’s Sandwiches & Ice Cream (University Place – Charlotte, NC)
• BLT Steak (Uptown – Charlotte, NC)
• Famous Toastery (University Place – Charlotte, NC)
• Boardwalk Billy’s Raw Bar & Ribs (University Place – Charlotte, NC)
• FireWater Restaurant (University Place – Charlotte, NC)
• Liberty Walk Trail (Downtown Charlotte, NC)

Snap-Filter Collection

Notable Events

Our North Carolina trip in 2020 was relatively relaxed but it did snow! As we are from Miami, where the temperature rarely gets below mid-60’s in the winter, this was as exciting as it gets. I have never driven in snow before, nor in freezing conditions, so I was nervous. Of course, that said, it snowed on a day I had to do a lot of driving, but we survived. Enterprise Rent-A-Car did have an ice scraper in the Jeep we rented, though we didn’t need it.

Arrival

Flying home we occupied seats 17A & 17B, directly behind where we sat on the way up. Both trips the 31″ seat pitch was enough for my 6’1″ self. I think I’ll be fine in the 30″ pitch now proposed for American’s future interiors… but we’ll see.

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N553UW was built in Hamburg and delivered December 2011 to US Airways as a lease. It is serial number 4960. The aircraft is still leased by American. It is in AAL’s layout 2 on SeatGuru, seating 187 passengers. Seats D, E, & F have misaligned windows in most “over-the-wing” rows.

When we are on the last flight home, coming back to Miami, I find it fun to people watch. You have to take things you see as “unimportant” or “not effecting you” because otherwise some things you witness will bother you. I fell victim.

In the terminal there was one girl who had a clearly too big to carry on bag with her. I quickly noticed she had a checked bag tag on said oversized bag, which gave me more questions than answers. I mean, she had to lug that thing through security. My guesses as to why she had it; she missed the bag drop off directly behind the check in kiosks, which she would had to visit to get the checked bag tag; the line for bag drop off was long and she felt she could carry it through to the gate herself; the bag was overweight and maybe they don’t have scales at the gate desk. Whatever the reason… it didn’t effect me.

It happened again on the flight, and this really did bother me. On American Group 9 is the last group to board and it is for the Basic Economy tickets. American assigns those seats at check-in, or you pay more to pick your seats earlier. If you don’t pay to pick them and you are group greater than 1, you have a 99.9% chance of not sitting together. That is unless you get on the airplane that isn’t fully booked and you move your seat. What caught me was these 2 people asked a Flight Attendant about 2 seats in the “pay-even-more” rows, and she said yes. Well damn. Next flight I will just be the last to board as well and maybe I’ll be able to get more leg room.

So you know… it didn’t effect me, and I didn’t bother with it any more, because the flight was perfectly fine after that.