Today is my wife’s birthday. I took her up here to the North Carolina mountains for the weekend for her birthday. Asheville specifically.

Yesterday we rode around the Blue Ridge Parkway and to the top of Mount Mitchell. Mount Mitchell is actually the highest point east of the Mississippi and it also has the same name as us.

Today we had a really fun time in Asheville, North Carolina. It is only about a two hour drive from Charlotte, North Carolina. I have a friend at my church who is from Asheville and he knows all the inside info about it. He gave me several recommendations of the greatest places to go in this area.

This morning we went to his number one spot for brunch called Tupelo Honey. It actually has many Charlotte connections as the owner and founder went to Johnson and Wales University (culinary school in Charlotte) plus he was the manager of Talley’s Grocery in Charlotte before moving to Asheville to open up this one of a kind restaurant!

It was amazing! It is mostly organic and natural foods and all the menu selections are very unique. Crystal had their famous Sweet Potato Pancake with walnuts and some other kind of peach butter on it. I had some grits with Goat Cheese (one of my favorites) as well as an amazing sour dough breakfast sandwich with eggs and goat cheese plus some of the best bacon I have ever had.

Now we are going to downtown Asheville again, so I will have to tell you about the rest later. If you have never been, it is worth the two hour trip from Charlotte.

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I can’t believe it! I am still in shock, but the Yankees lost Game 1 of the 2009 World Series last night! I was definitely not expecting that!

As you know we are die hard Yankees fans here at My Charlotte Home Team! But the Yankees have not made it to the World Series since 2003 and we lost to the Florida Marlins. We also lost in 2001 to the Arizona Diamondbacks in possibly one of the greatest World Series I have ever seen that included a few extra inning comebacks and went to seven games.

You have to go all the way back to 2000 to when the Yankees actually won the World Series. We definitely have big expectations for the Yankees to win this World Series.

But our “murderer’s row” of hitters or our “Bronx bombers”, whatever you want to call them… got shut down. Cliff Lee was the Game 1 starter for the Philadelphia Phillies (the Yankees opponent and defending World Series Champions) and he pitched a magnificent game.

The Yankees could not hit him very many times and could only scratch across and unearned run in the bottom of the ninth off of a Jimmy Rollins throwing error that allowed Derek Jeter to score. The final score was 6-1.

For the Yankees, our Ace C.C. Sabathia really did pitch well… he only gave up four hits. It just so happened that two of those four hits were solo home runs. It was 2-0 when C.C. came out and the bullpen did the rest of the damage.

I am hoping that we can turn it around and win Game 2 in New York. It is really a “must win” game for us!

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Friday is my wife’s birthday and she has really been wanting to go to the mountains and see all the leaves that are changing.

So I planned a trip and kept it a secret from my wife until today. I booked a hotel near Ashevile, North Carolina which is just a little less than two hours from Charlotte. My wife has never been to or seen the Blue Ridge Parkway and I figured there is probably no better place to go look at the leaves changing in the mountains than the Blue Ridge Parkway. That is what it was built for.

I was getting some help planning our route yesterday and there are really several different ways we can go. The Blue Ridge Parkway actually runs from Boone, NC all the way straight down to Asheville, NC. So we are actually thinking about driving up to Boone, which is about a two hour trip, and then taking the Blue Ridge Parkway over to Asheville.

As I have said many times, this is one of those times when it is great to live in Charlotte, North Carolina because we are only a few hours from many beaches and only two hours from the mountains! We have so many different options for routes to take to the mountains and only make a two hour trip!

My mom actually had a Blue Ridge Parkway map. It was a map of North Carolina but at the top it had a section that was just the Blue Ridge Parkway up close. It has every single stop and area where you can pull off right there on the map! It will be very helpful.

So we still haven’t decided which we to go. I guess we will decide tomorrow morning when we leave. I’ll let you know what we decide.
Have you ever been to the Blue Ridge Parkway? Which way would you go?

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Now usually when I say there is free chicken in Charlotte North Carolina, most people would assume that Chick-Fil-A has something to do with it. We would assume they are doing some kind of crazy promo that if you come dressed as a cow or sporting your favorite team’s logo or something like that, you get a free chicken sandwich…

But that is not the case this time. It is Kentucky Fried Chicken who is giving away the free food. I won’t even call KFC a Chick-Fil-A competitor because I really doubt they are competitors, even though I haven’t seen their end of the year “financials” lately.

Anyway, at KFC today in Charlotte, North Carolina they are giving away chicken for free. Really. I just got my free drumstick. I just rolled through the drive through and said “I’m here to get my free chicken.” They just handed me a box with chicken in it. My wife did it too. It was really good… for KFC. (I’m not the biggest fan.)

Thankfully I didn’t even really have to go far out of my way. On my way home from work I get off of I-77 and live about one mile off of the exit, but thankfully there is a Kentucky Fried Chicken in between my exit and my house.

It was the perfect amount of food to recharge me and hold me over until dinner! So, if you live in Charlotte go get some free chicken at the KFC near your house!

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I feel very blessed to live in Charlotte, North Carolina for many many reasons. But one of those very simple reasons is because we have a Chick-Fil-A restaurant on almost every corner!

If you live in Charlotte or really anywhere in the South or Southeast then you may be thinking “Why do you feel so blessed to have a Chick-Fil-A on every corener?” because we just take them for granted.

I feel very thankful and blessed because I have a lot of friends who live in New York and Michigan and New Jersey and Pennsylvania and places like that. When they come down to Charlotte to visit the only place they want to eat is Chick-Fil-A! And that is because Chick-Fil-A restaurants are only down South for now… they have not ventured up North yet. And those northerners love it SO MUCH!

Honestly, every time one of them visits I get my fill of Chick-Fil-A by the time they leave because we eat there so many times.

But they won’t have to wait long in the North and the West because Chick-Fil-A is expanding now! They have restaurants in 37 states now! They are moving North. They don’t have one on every corner yet in those states, but the great taste is getting closer to them for sure.

You just really can’t beat the awesome franchise started by Truett Cathey back in 1946 in Atlanta called the “Dwarf House” and then the first actual “Chick-Fil-A” opening in 1967. What a great day for tasty chicken that was!

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Outback Steakhouse is one of our favorite restaurants to eat at. It really always has been. It’s really our “go to” place if we want some guaranteed great food and great atmosphere.

In Charlotte North Carolina we have MANY MANY Outback Steakhouse restaurants to choose from. No matter where you live there is one near you for sure. There are really only three main ones that my wife and I are usually near that we eat at.

The one in Matthews, North Carolina is where we grew up going to Outback all the time. It is in Matthews Festival at the corner of Independence Boulevard and Sam Newell Road. We still go there if we are over that direction.

There is also the Outback in University area off of Tryon and East Harris Boulevard. It is across the street from Target and Lowe’s and Home Depot and Pet Smart.

The one we go to probably most of the time is the one across from Birkdale Village off of exit 25 of I-77 in Huntersville, North Carolina in the north end of Charlotte.
We just feel like it is probably the nicest Outback and also in the nicest section of town that is nearer to us.

We ate at Outback tonight on our way home from Atlanta, Georgia. Usually I think most of us think of Outback as an expensive place to eat. But, in the next post I want to explain to you why it really is not as expensive as you think… or at least doesn’t have to be!

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As I write this post I am riding in a car down I-85 South to Atlanta, Georgia. Like I have posted about before on this blog, I am making this trip MANY times this month from Charlotte, North Carolina to Atlanta.

The nicest thing about the trip from Charlotte to Atlanta is that it is just a straight shot down I-85. But also the worst thing about the trip is that it is just a straight shot down I-85.

We stopped for gas in Gaffney South Carolina, which is just across the North Carolina/ South Carolina border. It is usually the best price on gas in South Carolina. But at this gas station we always stop at right off the exit the gas price for unleaded gas was up to $2.47.

South Carolina is always around twenty cents cheaper than the gas stations in North Carolina, so you can track the overall trend for gas. So it seems as though gas is going up. I am not very excited about that.

Now we have made it to our destination = downtown Atlanta. Actually the popular section of Atlanta called Buckhead to be more specific. We are at a training time for our church plants at Buckhead Church.

I’ll go ahead and tell you that Buckhead Church is probably unlike any other church you have ever seen. It is pretty amazing.

If the cost of gas goes back down in South Carolina, or in Charlotte for that matter, maybe you could afford to come down here and check it out.

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For the second Sunday in a row the Carolina Panthers, based in Charlotte North Carolina, won an NFL regular season game!

We started the season 0-3 which looked like we were headed for disaster. But we beat the Washington Redskins last Sunday at Bank of America Stadium here in Charlotte North Carolina. In that game last week we made an awesome comeback and won the game 20-17 after being down 17-2 at halftime!

Yesterday we played our usually bitter division rivals - the 0-5 (now 0-6) Tampa Bay Bucaneers. After leading 21-7, the Bucaneers came back and tied the game after a pair of Jake Delhomme interceptions. One interception was his fault and one was not as it was intercepted after being tipped by the intended receiver. Although not all have been his fault, unfortunately, interceptions have become very common for quarterback Jake Delhomme this season!

Deangelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart - our two star running backs - had already rushed for around 200 yards in the game. I am sure every Panthers fan was shouting like myself - “Just don’t throw the ball anymore!”

It was almost as if the play callers for the Panthers could hear our wishes because that’s basically what they did! Aside from a five yard screen pass to Steve Smith, the Panthers handed the ball off to Jonathan Stewart and Deangelo Williams every single play of that 80 yard drive that took them all the way down the field to win the game! Williams and Stewart were unstoppable!

And the Carolina Panthers are now a much more respectable 2-3 on the season. Hopefully they can continue to turn it around and make the playoffs.

Charlotte NC. Charlotte North Carolina. Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate. Charlotte NC Real Estate.

Tonight I am taking about thirty to forty Middle School and High School students to the Country Time Farms Corn Maze and Haunted Woods here in Charlotte North Carolina.

Actually, the it is located at the corner of Highway 218 and Clontz Road in Indian Trail North Carolina. It is located about six miles from the I-485 exit for Mint Hill.

This is our first big student ministry event of the Fall for the students at Ridge Church. All middle school and high school students are invited and it looks like about thirty to forty will be coming to test their skills in the Corn Maze, test their courage in the Haunted Woods, and test their hand at roasting some hot dogs and marshmallows at our bonfire.

If you have never been to a Corn Maze before it is just what it sound like. It is a corn field that has been cut into a human sized maze. There are question cards that each group receives entering into the maze to help them know which way to turn to make their way through the long maze! It is a pretty fun time.

There is also a haunted hayride at this particular farm. It leads through the woods at night with all kinds of scary things and creatures jumping out to scare the riders!

Plus our group has a bonfire reserved with picnic tables where we will eat together and roast our own hot dogs and make our own s’mores, etc…
It is a great family place too for anyone who lives in this Charlotte or Mint Hill or Indian Trail area. You should bring the whole family for a good time that is really inexpensive!

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My wife and I love to eat lunch at the Fox and the Hound restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina! In fact, it is one of my favorite places to have a lunch meeting with anyone.

A big reason it is one of my favorite places to meet people for lunch or to have lunch with my wife is their $5.99 lunch menu! Everything on that menu is only $5.99 up until 2pm on Monday - Friday! How great of a deal is that! And we’re not talking about menu items that are normally $6.99 just marked down one dollar. But these are things that are regularly $9.99!

Did I mention their food is AWESOME! It is NOT a “you get what you pay for” type of restaurant! They literally have some great food. Including a Chicken pesto pizza with feta cheese that is absolutely unbelievable.

But back to that $5.99 menu! Of course they have some regular things on it like chicken fingers and buffalo wings. But you can also get other items like the fish and chips, philly cheese steak sandwich, and this healthy pretzel sandwich with bacon, turkey, cheese, etc…!

I have to say that their steak fries are pretty much the best steak fries around too! I don’t think you will find any that are better!

There is a Fox and the Hound at the Northlake Mall area and also in Uptown Charlotte on Tryon Street across from Rock Bottom and Discovery Place. I personally prefer the one at Northlake because it still looks brand new! It is extraordinarily clean and nice with some HUGE projection TVs playing ESPN all day long. I told you that you would like it!

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