Day 7: December 21, 2018 Looking for the Big Nut Comment via blog

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I'm fairly certain this is a modern Starlite rather than a "Unique 1950's Diner" as the Highway Diner website proclaims. I've never been a big fan of these brand new retro diners but this one won me over with good food and service.

For any who remember my 2014 drive of the Old Spanish Trail, this will probably seem familiar. On that trip, I arrived at the western end of the OST only to find its terminus marker missing and the park that once held it undergoing major rework. This wasn't nearly as long a drive and this park in downtown Raleigh wasn't a primary destination but the scene was similar. The park where I'd first encountered a giant acorn was in the midst of some major work and the big nut was nowhere to be seen. I eventually learned that it had been moved to a spot not too far away but I couldn't find it there, either. A friendly local explained that it is normally poised atop that spike in the third picture but had been removed in preparation for its big New Year's Eve job. Each year, at the stroke of midnight, the icon is "dropped" to mark the start of a new year in The City of Oaks. Here it is as I first saw it in 2005 and here it is just a few hours before the end of 2012.

A few weeks ago, someone brought a list of historic Charlotte restaurants. I wanted to try the oldest (Green's Lunch - 1926) but couldn't make its 3:00 PM closing time. So I settled for the next oldest on the list and chowed down on a cheeseburger and onion rings in the comfort of my car at the 1955 South 21 Drive In

I washed things down with one beer at Catawba Brewing then headed back to the motel.

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