On Easter during my days at home with the family, got out for a motorcycle ride. Previous posts have shown the Chesterfield Mall which has been empty and abandoned (largely except for an outlying auto repair and a bank) for the last few years, well this is Eastland Mall in Charlotte, NC. Like that mall, it is now empty. It was opened in 1975 and the last store left in 2010. There are, as with the Chesterfield Mall some plans to redevelop it, but will be interesting in this economy which one (if either) gets redeveloped first. I remember going to this a few years ago when it was open, was a rare mall with a ice skating rink inside...unique for sure. 
There are many airports in the state, and quite a few in the Charlotte area. This is Wilshire Airport which is located near Albemarle Road and just (barely) outside of Charlotte, NC. One of the many small airports of which some are publicly and some privately owned. This airport is actually surrounded by a neighborhood and has a single concrete runway. I enjoy at times watching planes take off and land from this facility. Good that in the state where the Wright Brothers first flew that there are so many good airports to check out. Some of them in the area even have grass runways and that is quite a nod to the past days of aviation. 
Also on Albemarle Road is Jakes Good Eats, which has been featured on the Food Network and the show "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives". It was closed on Easter Sunday, but is said to have very good food (my motorcycle club went there during a group ride...just a riding club not an outlaw gang by the way) and very friendly people from what I am told. Location was a former gas station, a rare local reuse of an old building (though many old buildings are reused outside of Charlotte). Charlotte though does not do that a lot, which will be seen more clearly in my next post. They like to build new stuff and it certainly shows. 
Post here was not actually during the ride. Patty and I went on Saturday April 23 to Memorial Gardens in Concord, NC. It is a very old cemetery with some beautiful flower gardens (though Easter being late this year, we missed some of the better ones, most of the Easter Lilly's were gone). It is a popular place for photos, in fact a wedding party was taking photos in the gardens during our visit. I will put a few photos on the photo page, in Concord in the early spring it is a very popular place to visit, and in fact it still was even late in April. There is also a lot of history inside that area; many notable people with some interesting stories are buried there. 
This was taken during my motorcycle ride on April 24. A look at the street in North Davidson, just outside of Charlotte, NC..but is better known as NODA. It was a mill area (textile type) until the mills declined. Artists moved in, and the area has become very popular. Many of the old buildings were reused, but also many have been torn down, and new condos and construction has gone up in the area. Sort of sad that the place is getting too costly for the people who re-established it as a thriving area of the city. Goes like that sometimes I suppose. Many interesting places to see there, and it retains a funky feel. It is also a good place to check out live music with a number of great small places where some notable bands sometimes play from around the country.
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