Nascar and Paris. Who knew?

Well, we left today. Left home around 1 pm drove to Charlotte (NC) to stay the night. Our flight leaves at Noon tomorrow. So excited!! Kind of funny when I think of it. We passed two airports (Raleigh and Greensboro) to fly out of Charlotte for airfare that cost $400 less per ticket. No complaints here! So now, we are relaxing at a hotel in Charlotte, watching "Harry Potter" and trying to digest something they called "food" at a restaurant called "ShowMars". I'm not sure exactly what it was that I ate, but I think it was supposed to be chicken...

Interesting thing about Charlotte, is the area. Lots of skyscrapers line downtown, the Carolina Panters football team and of course, their love for Nascar. Everything we passed, from billboards to street names, had something to do with their love of racing. Several motorcycles drove past, full of Nascar names and numbers, flags flying high on mini-vans and bumper stickers galore. All I could think of was, "Was this the last part of America I'm going to see before I head over to Paris"? Who knew? Dale Earnhardt seems to be a favorite here. I for one, am not a race fan so I kind of felt like I was missing the point. Then I thought about some of these bikers on their Harleys driving pass, with their mullets blowing in the wind, and I had that image in my head of them standing in the Louvre. "Oh look ya'll, its the Mona Lisa!" Kind of made me laugh. Mullets in Paris. Admit it, you got that mental image too. (I bet they would be brave enough to try the escargo!)

But then of course, my true friends knew why I was aiming toward flying out of Charlotte. That one store that I constantly talk about, that has some of the best Swedish meatballs and modern decor to match. Oh yes. The same store that when the automatic doors fly open, the angels from up above cry out in chorus:

Ikea.

For the first time in my life, I drove past it. Actually, I wasn't driving, but I was rapidly pointing from the passenger seat, and stating the obvious, that we just drove past the exit. SO (Significant Other who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) just laughed. And kept on driving. Who does that? I mean, how can you drive past an Ikea? The chorus of angels drowned out in the background as we headed on to the hotel. Secretly, I was silently cursing myself for forgetting to pack the Advil PM. I could have used it later, crushed up and pour silently into a Dr Pepper. SO would have went to bed early, I could have snuck out with the GPS. But then, I had to remind myself, I am heading to Paris tomorrow. I know I can't cram a Stolkholm couch into my carryon, but I'm sure I can find something stylish to bring back, that might even possibly put Ikea to shame. If that's even possible.

Speaking of suitcases, do you know how hard it was for me to pack a week's worth of stuff into a 22" carry on suitcase? In my head, I had it all planned out. No problem. Everything I had mentally in my head fit just fine into that little black box with wheels. Well, then the time came and I was literally, sitting on my suitcase. I broke out the compression bags and went from small to medium to large size bags opening and closing...stuffing and shoving...This went on for two hours and eighteen minutes. I even went as far as getting a running start, into a graceful swan dive that turned into a belly flop onto the compression bags. Hey, it got the air out. Finally, I took out half the wardrobe, double checked to make sure there was a laundry room at the hotel and came to terms I would most likely be photographed wearing the exact same shirt for more than a day at a time. Feel free to NOT point that out. Maybe its something better left unsaid, if ya know what I mean.

So anyway, I think I'm prepared. For those of you who are like me, no detail left behind, you have a little spiral notebook full of information such as hotel address, metro stops of every musuem and monument (thanks TripAdvisor folks!), US sizes versus European sizes (you didnt think of that, did you?), some French terms so you wont mistakingly order a "Cheval" burger (thats horse) again and directions from the RER (train) to the metro to the hotel which you have memorized just to impress the family. (Hey, don't laugh..when you're from a small town in NC, figuring out how to ride the metro is like rocket science...literally)

I also printed out (in color) how to properly get from the airport to the RER and how to order the tickets. (I messed up last time) Even better, there is an actual section on these directions that tell you to get a SEPARATE ticket for the way back to the airport, that when you first ordered your tickets, you were not indeed, ordering a round trip fare. So next time, you won't find yourself standing at the last stop of the train station, looking into the airport, with no ticket to pass. If you are as fortunate as we were, the guard on the other side who decided to at that moment, go deaf and turn his back on you, didnt seem to care when you had to drop to your knees and CRAWL through the luggage space next to the turnstile. Also, keep in mind, that having to push your enormous suitcase while crawling through, that the French dont pack huge suitcases and are ALOT skinner so when they crawl through (lets pretend that they do, shall we?) they dont get stuck halfway through. Leading to the fact that your friend will stand there laughing hysterically, trying to pull you through while the guard keeps his back to you with shaking shoulders because he too, is laughing hysterically. Yeah, my friend got stuck. Well, let's pretend it was her, shall we?

So yes, thanks to compression bags, I have a little bit of room in my suitcase that I plan to fill up with Eiffel Towers.

They will go great with my new Ikea couch. If I ever get there to buy one.

:D

We have a layover...oh wait, did I mention, we have a SIX HOUR layover...in Toronto tomorrow. Once I get done visting every shop four times and looking for free match books, I'll try to blog again. I might have some time...six hours in an airport, I can't imagine running out of things to do...*le sigh.

Au Revoir, ya'll! Je suie en voyage a Paris!

~Heather~