by jeff@lyonsroar.com | Jul 18, 2017 | Events, North Carolina, Travel
Tom Johnston thought he’d created a fictitious town when he wrote China Grove for the Doobie Brothers in 1973. He learned later during an interview that there was a real China Grove in Texas and North Carolina. Karen and I visited China Grove in North Carolina...
by jeff@lyonsroar.com | Jul 11, 2017 | North Carolina, Travel
Saturday (7-8-17) Karen and I headed east of Charlotte to visit four vineyards and America’s first gold mine. It was a beautiful drive through lush farming country with rocky accents and rugged hills. The first grapevine farmed and raised in the U.S. was grown...
by jeff@lyonsroar.com | Jul 5, 2017 | Events, North Carolina, Travel
Karen and I drove east of Charlotte to Gastonia, North Carolina on July 4th, 2017 to join the City’s 140th birthday celebration and Independence Day Party. Gastonia closed eight blocks in its historic downtown area for the bash. The vacant store fronts along...
by jeff@lyonsroar.com | Jun 27, 2017 | North Carolina, Travel
Finding one’s muse is a worthy quest, but accidentally locating The Muse in Salisbury, NC was quite enjoyable. Karen and I popped into the Rail Walk Studios and Gallery after lunching at the Morgan Ridge Railwalk Brewery & Eatery next door. The...
by jeff@lyonsroar.com | Jun 26, 2017 | Events, North Carolina, Travel
The North Carolina Transportation Museum is celebrating its 40th Anniversary. Karen and I visited on June 24, 2017, the same day the Fire Truck Festival 2017 was held. The Museum site sits on 60-acres with a train depot, roundhouse, switchyard tracks and this massive...
by jeff@lyonsroar.com | Jun 26, 2017 | Events, North Carolina, Travel
Working as the Asst. Fire Marshal of Lewisville Texas taught me that firefighters love to show off their apparatuses. A massive gathering of new and old fire trucks in Spencer, NC attracted a huge gathering of families and brought out the kid in all of us. It was an...
by jeff@lyonsroar.com | Jun 10, 2017 | Events, North Carolina
Saturday (6-10-2017) I took the Lynx commuter train downtown to the Taste of Charlotte 2017. I got an early start, but the heat neared 90-degrees on a clear and still day that made walking the six blocks closed off for the event a challenge. Mert’s Heart and...
by jeff@lyonsroar.com | Jun 8, 2017 | Events, North Carolina, Party, Travel
Our good friends Keith and Diane Logan stopped by to check out our new digs and rest up on their trip back to Michigan City from their winter home in Florida. Sunday (6-4-17) we took them to the Primal Brewery in Huntersville, NC to catch Lake Street Dive in concert....
by jeff@lyonsroar.com | Jun 2, 2017 | North Carolina, Travel
My good friend Jim invited me and Karen to spend Memorial Day Weekend with him and his companion Noreen at his cabin in the woods near Lake Lure. We jumped at the chance to enjoy more time in these beautiful mountains. Jim bought himself a boat from a man who rigged...
by jeff@lyonsroar.com | May 31, 2017 | Travel
Historic Brattonsville showcases colonial and antebellum buildings on former plantations. Staff clad in historic garb depict life in this rustic South Carolina setting from the 1780s to the 1850s. This was home to William and Martha Bratton around 1776. Built of...
