My first time Open Carrying was a bit of an accident on my part.
I live in Ishpeming which even though it's a town, by light of the fact it's in the U.P., it's rural.
Now to explain:
I have my CPL and had been working on a friend's car changing out her brakes. Being the middle of summer it was warm and I didn't feel like getting my button-down dirty so I took my cover off. After I finished fixing her brakes we took the vehicle for a test drive and while we were out she decided to buy me pizza to pay me back.
We stopped at a Little Caesar's and I realized I didn't have anything to conceal my pistol but didn't want to go all the way back for my cover.
I knew the laws and knew open carry was legal, and in more places for me due to having a CPL.
I entered the restaurant and we ordered some pizza, the cashier glanced at my hip but didn't seem to care one way or another which I guess is a benefit of living in the U.P. where guns are about as common as the deer are.
One of the other customers walking in as we were leaving did get startled but we had already gotten outside when I heard her exclaim to her husband "I think that man had a gun on his hip".
I'm pretty lucky in that all the local PD guys are friendly with me and I'm on a first name basis with some so they know I have a CPL and don't generally bug me when I step out around town while open carrying.
I plan to OC a lot more this summer as it's more convenient but having a CPL also makes it convenient for transport. I.E. I don't have to deal with loading/unloading and storing it in a trunk.
