We Meet Mr. Right

First off, Day 1 was all about getting into crowded Charlotte from our hotel 30 miles outside the city.  Downtown (called Uptown in Charlotte) was crowded:  Labor Day parade, concerts, a full city festival.  Parking was restricted to points outside what newspapers called the "perimeter".  We opted for Plan B -- drive from our Hampton Inn in Albemarle to a Hampton Inn near the perimeter, park there, and then take a bus into town.   Plan B became a great Plan A: we got to the Hampton Inn -- in an upscale part of Charlotte called South Park of all places -- and were silently elated to learn that it was full of delegates to the convention.  We played along, since after all we were working for the President and had our Thursday speech credentials.  We became undercover delegates for the day, and joined a free charter bus ride to the convention center in Uptown.  No fuss, no mess.  Like the charter bus driver joked when asked if we were headed in the right direction: "You can't go wrong with Mr. Right."