The day after Thanksgiving 2016, my Dad and I embarked on our second WrestleCade road trip. This time we decided to add an extra day and an extra location to visit. Dad had long talked about going back to check out Fort Bragg and nearby Fayetteville where he had been stationed during his Army days. It worked out that I had enough vacation time remaining for the year so that I could take two days off instead of one, so I mapped it out so that we could check out the base. We left the morning of Friday, November 25, this time planning to travel all the way to the Winston-Salem, North Carolina vicinity where WrestleCade would be held.
As with the last time we went to this event, the road trip in itself was a trip down memory lane for my Dad, as he had made the journey via motorcar every couple of months when he was on Army leave, and took delight in recognizing some of the same places, and some of the major changes including the highway itself along the way. We nearly made an unscheduled stop when drove by the Bob Evans Farms Homestead Museum when I recalled the Laurel and Hardy memorabilia collection Carolyn and I had just seen earlier in the year when we had stumbled on it so to speak. Unfortunately being the day after Thanksgiving, we only got as far as the entrance because being the day after Thanksgiving, it was closed. We briefly considered having breakfast there anyway, then decided to press on and have our lunch at McDonalds.
Always nice to see Mt. Pilot, which always puts me in mind of Mount Pilot from The Andy Griffith Show
There wasn’t much in the way of motels right in Winston-Salem, so we ended up at a Red Roof Inn in Greensboro about a half hour east of the city. We found a decent restaurant called Fatz where I enjoyed an Old-Fashioned Chicken Pot Pie for dinner. I made sure to stop at a convenience store to get some salty snack for me, and so my Dad could get his traditional Hershey bar.
A sure way to put on weight. They don’t even try to sugar-coat it.
On Saturday morning, we got up and ready, grabbed some McDonalds for breakfast, and then we headed over to the Benton Convention Center for WrestleCade. The Fanfest event opened at 11am, but we didn’t get there until after 11:30, then parked in the same garage we had before. Being a little late had its perks, as we didn’t face any lines getting in. It was set up very similar to the prior year’s event, with the wrestling ring right in the middle of the convention center room, which was again nice and packed with wrestling fans. I was pretty impressed overall with the number of wrestlers they got there, particularly ones who hadn’t been there the year before.
Back for more…
Among those whom I had already met in the past were Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Ivan Koloff, Ricky Steamboat, Tito Santana, Jimmy Valiant, Jeff and Karen Jarrett, the Masked Superstar, Kevin Sullivan, Booker T, Buff Bagwell, Kevin Nash, Ric Flair, the Rock and Roll Express, Sting, and the Mulkey Brothers. Believe it or not there were even more than that whom I needed. There were a couple of disappointing no-shows, namely Sid Vicious, and also Vince Russo. I decided to bypass the Assassin, whom was on my ‘maybe’ list. You can check out the trail of wrestling celebs beginning here.
Dad meets NWA/nWo referee Nick Patrick
Even with the late arrival, I had plenty of time to get everyone I needed and finish up a little after 2pm, by which time the crowds had completely died down. Dad and I had enjoyed the Mellow Mushroom pizza place last time, so we headed back there again for lunch. This time however I went with the Shrimp Hog’ boy – aka a grilled shrimp hoagie – and opted out of pizza altogether.
We sat and relaxed for quite a while at the restaurant before heading back to the convention center for the WrestleCade wrestling event. This time we hadn’t been forced to buy the upscale tickets that got us in the first row, so the seats we ended up with weren’t nearly as good. In fact, they were pretty bad, the chairs were really uncomfortable, the music was insanely loud, and the bright lights nearly blinded us. Other than that it was… okay. It had its moments of fun, but it didn’t hold our attention the way it had the year before.
I had come to know some of these wrestlers from the last time, so that did add a little bit more an interesting element. The matches were as follows: Warm-up) The Expendables with George South and Heatseekers lost to CW Anderson, Steve Corino, and the Bulldogs. 1) Eddie Edwards defeated Crazzy Steve, 2) Tessa Blanchard beat Rachel Ellering, with guest referee Veda Scott, in what was mostly certainly the ‘hottest’ match of the night 3) Gunner beat Chris Mordetzky, 4) PJ Black lost to Drew Galloway, 5) George South won the 3rd Annual George South Battle Royal which included many of the old-timers, when he eliminated Rockstar Spud, proving once and for all that wrestling is fake, 6) Carlito defeated Jeff Jarrett, who in all his glory, remains the funniest wrestler of the bunch, 7) Luke Hawx beat BJ Whitmer w/ Kevin Sullivan in his corner (Whitmer was a replacement for EC3), 8) Ricochet, Shane Strickland, and Matt Cross beat Sonjay Dutt, Caleb Konley, and Juventud Guerrera, 9) Kelly Klein, Taeler Hendrix, Kennadi Brink, and “Bullet Babe” Amber Gallows beat Mandy Leon, Solo Darling, Faye Jackson, and Deonna Purrazzo in a “Women of Honor” match, 10) “Broken” Matt Hardy ended up beating Ryback to retain the WrestleCade championship we had seen him win the year before from Jeff Jarrett… but by this time we had lost interested and wondered out of the arena. Anyway you slice it, that’s a lot of rasslin’.
It’s still a debatable question as to whether I’d enjoy being in the middle of this match
Battle Royal of old-timers
More battle. More old.
Jeff Jarrett does what he does best: tick off the audience
Dad and I headed back to our motel in Greensboro for the night, and then the next morning we began our 90 minute trek down to the military base at Fort Bragg, stopping in Siler city for lunch at a Bojangles. When in Rome, eat chicken they say. It was relatively easy to get on the base with our ID’s, although when they asked for my car’s registration I nearly had a heart attack because when I went out to get it, I realized I hadn’t changed my tag stickers that had expired on my birthday in early October. This was a heck of time to realize that I had been driving on expired tags for two months, had to drive all the way back on said tags, and that they were supposedly required to get onto the base that we had traveled across three states to get to. Thankfully it turned out to be a non-issue as the officer just sort of ‘dropped it’ when I mumbled that I didn’t have the registration with me. That would have really killed the mood if we hadn’t been able to explore the base.
Dad had been stationed at Fort Bragg in March of 1967 after he completed his Advanced Individual Training at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. At Fort Bragg he was assigned to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company in the 15th Psychological Operations Battalion. It was during this time that he continued working in printing, a trade he had started in high school in 1964. With the exception of a ten-week stint in Fort Greeley, Alaska where he volunteered as a printing press operator, he spent the next year and a half at Fort Bragg. After returning from Alaska, he took a week’s leave, and then spent one final month at Fort Bragg before separating from the military on October 23, 1968. This was his first time back.
Dad visiting his old company
We spent about an hour walking around the area of where his barracks once stood. Unfortunately they had just been leveled about a year prior to our visit, and new housing structure stood on the location. There were a few building that still remained from his era, but of course much had changed too. We tried to match up what we could from some photos that he had with him, but there wasn’t a lot left to match.
Statue dedicated to Arthur “Bull” Simons that my Dad had donated to have erected
The location of his former barracks, just recently razed
Us at the barracks
One of the original supply buildings that my Dad remembered
Me at the JFK Special Warfare Center
Nice statue of commemorating John F. Kennedy’s visit to Fort Bragg in 1961 when he consulted with Brigadier General William P.Yarborough
After walking around, we got in the car and explored the base in the car, and then drove into Fayetteville where he would often go when he was off duty. Most of that was now pretty unrecognizable to him. It always amazes me that foreign countries I’ve visited still have buildings from hundreds, even thousands of years ago, but we are thrilled to find structures that haven’t been torn down after even fifty years. And with that, we headed out of the area around 3:00. I was glad to have helped Dad cross something off his bucket list.
It was horrifically out of the way, but it wasn’t exactly in the right direction either, but I figured since we were this close, we might as well hit a couple of Diners, Dive-Ins, and Dives while we were in the ‘area’, so from Fayetteville, we headed about three hours westward to Charlotte, North Carolina, where we rolled up into the first one at about 6:20.
This one was called Krazy Fish, and it was another one of those that didn’t really fall into the classification of any of those titles, but nonetheless it was a unique-looking establishment with a pretty exotic seafood menu. I went ahead and went with three of the four dishes that were featured on the show: the Gumbo soup, the Mussels cooked in Thai curry and served with toasted bread points, and the Szechuan Salmon Tacos with bulgogi sauce. It was a little later than Dad liked to eat, but he was a good sport and joined in sharing these somewhat reflux-inducing items. I thought they were all pretty fantastic. After filling up on fish, we headed to our evening’s lodging, the Days Inn not too terrible far away.
DDD #140: Krazy Fish in Charlotte, North Carolina
This isn’t really Guy Fieri. It’s just a drawing.
Cool atmosphere, and is you can see, mostly empty
Gumbo Soup
Lost of mussels
Szechuan Salmon Taco
Loving these tacos and things
On Monday morning, November 28, we weren’t exactly balls of fire getting to breakfast, but we managed to arrive before 10:00am, so they were still serving it unfortunately. I’m only saying that because the DD&D featured items at the Landmark Restaurant were turkey and spanakopita, neither breakfast items. So even though it meant not really getting the full DD&D experience, I simply had the eggs and corn beef hash, which although good, didn’t really stand out much. It still counted.
DDD #141: Landmark Restaurant Diner in Charlotte, North Carolina
Breakfast foods
Unshaven face + breakfast foods
It was about a seven and a half hour drive from Charlotte back to Dayton with good conversation. It had been a fun and rewarding trip.
It would have made sense for WrestleCade to be the last place for celebrity encounters for 2016, but I’d be taking one more day off as part of this vacation for just one more… possibly the biggest of the year…
…when 2016 continues with major star power…
Follow the trail of wrestlers from the WrestleCade fanfest here…
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