Day 5: The Charlotte Knights of North Carolina who play in South Carolina

I hate to disappoint, but there’s not a ton to share from Day 5.

We rose from slumber and headed Hope Mills to meet up with The Mayor, who had gone home for the 4^th of July parade to tend to his House of Reps campaigning duties. He showered me with more gifts (there is no greater living man than he), and we headed for Fort Mill for the skyshow (that’s southern for fireworks). Oh, and there was a baseball game prior to the skyshow.

Since Cousin Cindi works for the Knights, she pulled a string or two and took us down into the belly of Knights Stadium to meet the mascot, Homer the Dragon. Well, with Cindi, it wasn’t so much pulling strings as it was barging her way past Knights security personnel with us in tow about 75 feet behind her. That crazy southern woman is on a mission and she cannot be stopped.

And here I must insert a shout out to a little Dragon friend back in the STL – Rebecca Leigh – the newest Dragon I know. Dragon is my friend, Sweaters’, recently delivered offspring, whom I dubbed as the “dragon in the oven” during the early days of her era of gestation. It stuck. So Dragon she is. I’m quite surprised that my brain even let me remember her legal name since I often struggle to recall Sweaters’ actual name, which I can’t type here because I can’t recall it. Oh, Dave’s brain…why must there always be so much going on?

We had great seats behind the plate, but the Knights didn’t play so well and were taken down by the Gwinnett Braves. To that, I say, “boooooo!” It makes sense though since, most assuredly, all the players could think about would be that skyshow, dubbed “the best skyshow in the Southeast.” Bold statement Charlotte Knights…bold statement. So the sooner the game is over, the sooner the skyshow begins. My logic is completely plausible if you ruminate on it.

A few hundred folks were brought down onto the field to folding chairs to watch the skyshow. Apparently, it was a prize or they were somehow deemed super special or something. However, I’m not certain how moving down to uncomfortable, metal, hemorrhoid-inducing, folding chairs would really make the skyshow view better. At most, these folks moved about 100 feet closer and it’s not like the other 10,000 seats in the stadium had horribly obstructed views of the skyshow that these super awesome field seats would alleviate. It really served no purpose other than making 200 people feel superior and prolonging the skyshow for the youngins (and Dave). Again, my logic is sound and bulletproof. Refutation is simply not possible. Waste not the brain cells attempting.

Once the last Chinese-made Roman candle was launched and the thousand sparks of color changed into nothing more than lung choking smoke and thin cover of ash in your hair, we exited the stadium and got a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a baseball stadium groundskeeper. I wish my DeLorean wasn’t in the shop or else I’d be 1.21 gigawatting my buttocks back to 1990 and getting me a groundskeeper job. What a ridiculously fun group of folks complete with two Golden Retrievers, BBQ, and a seven year-old Soulja Boy. We didn’t leave that post-skyshow shindig until about one in the a.m., hence the reason for another delayed post and these tired eyes of mine.

Well, it’s time to head out for today’s adventures beginning with lunch with Julia’s Uncle Jim and Aunt Ellen in Charlotte and then on to Hickory, NC for the Crawdads game this eve. If you’re lucky, I may just post more stuff today.

HERE is the link to the photos. Enjoy and peace out yo.