Charlotte was perfect.

I took no pictures, because I was too busy having the best day of my year.

I spent the afternoon pedaling between a handful of Charlotte bike shops, looking for some sort of SRAM 8-speed shifter to replace the hated low-end gripshift on the Dahon.  I failed at finding anything suitable, but got to meet a few of Charlotte's bike mechanics, and talk about how cool Paul Thumbies and barend shifters are.  I found the first shop, and he sent me down the hill to the second shop, that has been open longer, and has some older parts on hand.  They had 5, 6, and 7 speed shifters, but nothing in the way of 8 speed that would work.  The man there thought for a minute, and then suggested another shop, that might have more SRAM components in stock, and off I went.
It was the most corporate of the day's shops, but not an extremely large chain store, where we briefly considered a Shimano Alivio shifter set, but the left hand would have gone unused, and there was no real guarantee that the Shimano shifter would work properly with the no name derailleur that has been controlled by a SRAM shifter so far.
I talked to this last guy for the longest, including about building up bikes with barend shifters and Paul Thumbies, and then bought a set of Crank Brother's cleats from him, so that I'd have a spare set, and then I took off back towards the hotel.

First day of spring, hilly southwest Charlotte neighborhood streets, getting passed on asphalt by lycra clad men on suspiciously clean dual-suspension mountain bikes, and just the perfect amount of sunshine made the ride back to the hotel quite possibly the best ride that I've had in years.  I wouldn't mind staying here longer, but not downtown.

Reading the last few paragraphs, it doesn't really sound that fantastic, but the entire afternoon somehow granted me a perma-smile that hasn't quite gone away yet.