4/18/07 Tuesday We have been unable to post for a while as the parks we have used lack Internet and trolling for a signal has not been successful. Currently we are in a mall parking lot in South Carolina with a decent signal. For a few days now, we have been located in the Charlotte, NC area where we are taking care of some much needed business. We had the opportunity to have dinner with Joe and Francis Clayton two nights while here. They are originally friends we met while at Paramount Carowinds Theme Park last year here in Charlotte. They spent the winter near us in Bradenton, FL allowing us some fun times together. Things in their lives are so parallel to our lives that we can almost complete each others sentences.
We picked out an RV park here that was a bit off the beaten trail, but the rate per night was $18 less than the next lowest park. We kept questioning some of the buildings and features, but we could not come up with any ideas what we were surrounded by. Joe guessed it was the former location of the Jim and Tammie Fay Baker religious compound, but he was not sure. I checked with the office and found he was dead on the money. The whole area including the RV park was part of the PTL complex.
Of course everything went south for the Bakers and he is in jail and she is somewhere, but not in jail. The hotel facility has been sold to a non-denominational church group along with the multi-story high rise. This latter is likely what cause Jim Baker’s downfall as he sold more time shares to this facility than he had rooms. When people came looking to stay in ‘their’ time-share, there were already people occupying the apartment.
A chain link fence now surrounds it, but we drove through so we could see what was going on. There are sections of brick that have fallen off the high rise, but it is reported they have checked and the building is structurally sound. Problem is the new home owners who bought homes in the area outside the complex property want the high rise torn down as they say it is an eye sore and can be seen for miles. Yes, it is hard to miss a 12-story building on a hill in the middle of nowhere! I need to make the analogy of people who purchase a home at the end of an active airport runway, then later complain the noise is bothering them and they think the airport should be closed as it is impacting their property values. Well, just who is the dummy here?
There are some other buildings and amenities that are also closed and some of which have fallen into disrepair, but after getting some background on the area, it is very interesting to look around and see just how large this PTL compound was back in its hay day.
When we arrived here the weather was a bit cold in the mornings and the winds this past Monday were so strong they were blowing the new leaves off the trees along with some small branches. With the rains that came to this area of North Carolina, they reported several trees had fallen on vehicles during the morning commute. One tree was reported to have a 6’ diameter, so this confirms just how strong the winds were. In Boone, NC, northwest of Charlotte and in a mountainous area, they had 50MPH sustained winds with gusts to 65 and several inches of snow predicted. These are not conditions you want to be driving an RV in.
We picked out an RV park here that was a bit off the beaten trail, but the rate per night was $18 less than the next lowest park. We kept questioning some of the buildings and features, but we could not come up with any ideas what we were surrounded by. Joe guessed it was the former location of the Jim and Tammie Fay Baker religious compound, but he was not sure. I checked with the office and found he was dead on the money. The whole area including the RV park was part of the PTL complex.
Of course everything went south for the Bakers and he is in jail and she is somewhere, but not in jail. The hotel facility has been sold to a non-denominational church group along with the multi-story high rise. This latter is likely what cause Jim Baker’s downfall as he sold more time shares to this facility than he had rooms. When people came looking to stay in ‘their’ time-share, there were already people occupying the apartment.
A chain link fence now surrounds it, but we drove through so we could see what was going on. There are sections of brick that have fallen off the high rise, but it is reported they have checked and the building is structurally sound. Problem is the new home owners who bought homes in the area outside the complex property want the high rise torn down as they say it is an eye sore and can be seen for miles. Yes, it is hard to miss a 12-story building on a hill in the middle of nowhere! I need to make the analogy of people who purchase a home at the end of an active airport runway, then later complain the noise is bothering them and they think the airport should be closed as it is impacting their property values. Well, just who is the dummy here?
There are some other buildings and amenities that are also closed and some of which have fallen into disrepair, but after getting some background on the area, it is very interesting to look around and see just how large this PTL compound was back in its hay day.
When we arrived here the weather was a bit cold in the mornings and the winds this past Monday were so strong they were blowing the new leaves off the trees along with some small branches. With the rains that came to this area of North Carolina, they reported several trees had fallen on vehicles during the morning commute. One tree was reported to have a 6’ diameter, so this confirms just how strong the winds were. In Boone, NC, northwest of Charlotte and in a mountainous area, they had 50MPH sustained winds with gusts to 65 and several inches of snow predicted. These are not conditions you want to be driving an RV in.
