After rollers coasters and sand, the remainder of our trip was spent in Raleigh NC visiting the wife's family, mostly cousins who don't/can't come to KY for family reunions.
Raleigh has an extensive and growing network of
bike paths and greenways. While much of the new constructions is contained in the outer burbs (where the relatives live), there are also some options for connecting to downtown areas. If comparing Louisville to Raleight, I would say that both have trails that provide the "rim" of the wheel- the Louisville Loop and the Raleigh Neuse River Trail as examples- but the 'Ville doesn't really have "spokes" that provide good volume into the city proper. Yes, I take the Beargrass Creek trail often, but it services a pretty limited population, and none from the the outer burbs. In my humble estimation, I don't think the LL will serve much of anything other than as a cute non-street path. It doesn't really go anywhere. Or maybe I'm wrong.
My Bike Raleigh adventure began the evening we arrived when I went out to refill the car and luckily found a bike shop open nearby, a "Trek Shop" marketed as such. I used their floor pump to change the flat tire from the beach knowing I couldn't get the proper pressure with my old mini-pump. There I also found that my spare tube had a hole too, so along with a free pump usage I spent $8 for a new tube too. Thanks "Trek Shop"!
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| The 'ol swimming hole |
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| Neuse River |
Here are some pics from the second day:
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| Followed this path looking for some adventure or at least trailage. It seems to be around the location of the trail extension. |
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| The path led to this water pump, I assume for the soccer fields nearby. |
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| This is the placid Neuse River. The boys and I kayaked this the next day in sunny conditions. I'm a terrible paddler. We didn't have any cameras that day, so no pics of the sunny Neuse. Our paddle didn't actually come this far south. |
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| The Crosscheck in beat-around vacation mode. I actually don't like this bike that much. I think it's the wrong size (too small) and now am in waiting mode until 'L' is big enough to fit on it in, which could be sometime in '12 and certainly in '13. |
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| A new bridge linking up to a previously built greenway. Nice. |
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| A mushroom sculpture along the path. A nice bit of whimsy. |
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