Well good positive open carry at the local wal-mart on new hope and wake forest road, First time for me in a public place too and it went good I was not as nervous as I thought and kinda just browsed in many different places, picked up some pants for work. Also was OC in the yard and neighbor came out and invited me over for a beer and found out he is a big gun guy and had no problem with me OC even though his wife and my fiancee as well as our kids were out playing with the dogs. Great first day for OC.
What are some other good places you are ok to carry in, like taco bell or target.
Most places you are good to go in. I usually scan the door and to the sides of the door - looking for gun buster signs - before entering. Some places you are not:
Any place that serves alcoholic beverages - no carry whatsoever.
The State Fair is one place you have to go disarmed (they charge an admission). They also have big a** signs on the gates stating that concealed weapons are not permitted. So I'm unsure as to what the status of Open Carrying would be on the State fairgrounds when it is running as a flea market. On the surface, I would say it is good to go with OC, but there may be some site specific rule that I am unaware of.
Many shopping malls have rules against carrying but do not make these rules public nor do they post signage very well. I believe that Crabtree Valley Mall is such a place. I know that Southpointe Mall in Southern Durham has rules against carrying - but you have to look for the rules - they are not posted in obvious places.
The town of Cary prohibits carrying on places such as sidewalks and other town owned property. I have carried openly in Cary, though, as I do not live there and do not frequent the sidewalks. When I am there, which is rare, I tend to be on private property (shopping centers) and have not had any problems.
Chapel Hill also has some odd rules about carrying - and I do not recall them right now. It is another place I do not frequency very often, even though my daughter goes to school there. She does not live on campus so I don't have much need to visit the campus or the town. Since I don't go there much, I don't bother memorizing their stupid rules.
I would expect that most of your experiences while carrying openly will be non-experiences, meaning that nothing worth noting will happen except for whatever activity you are engaged in. If you do have any interactions with someone who makes a comment, I would suspect that most of them are going to be neutral to positive. Most likely, the negative interactions will be the minority. If you happen to be confronted by someone, be confident in yourself and know that you are doing absolutely nothing wrong. Perhaps I should re-phrase that to something more positive: Be confident in yourself and know that what you are doing is absolutely correct and right.
I always have one of the gun rights brochures in my back pocket now. There have been exactly two instances where I wish I had it and did not. Since then I have had one in my pocket but have not handed it out yet - and it's getting tattered - probably time to replace it with a fresh one.