I was lent a carbon Specialized road bike and I went for a ride around the nearby William B. Umstead State Park. The park is named after a governor of North Carolina (the state where I reside). The governor didn't actually get to govern much – he suffered a heart attack right after his inauguration, was sick for two years, and died. Why they'd name a park after such an unlucky guy, I don't get.
My bike wasn't exactly suited for the park's gravel paths, but overall it turned out alright. The paths, which are called bicycle trails, are very hard-packed and of good quality, so you can ride them even on a roadie. There aren't many paths in the park, and the park itself isn't very big, at least by my cycling standards. It's funny that when we drive to work by car, we have to go around it, but on a bike, I could just cut through the park for a mere 12 km trip. I should think about how realistic that is. There's a shower at work, but grinding on a bike for half an hour in the morning in 7-10 degree weather doesn't sound too appealing.
While riding around, I foolishly ended up on a highway. That's actually forbidden; the only thing, by the way, that is forbidden for cyclists. You can ride without a helmet, and you don't need a bike license. The state's department of transportation website even has a special section where you can read all the rule clauses that apply to bikers. Makes sense.
Anyway, to get off the highway (highway – though people call everything by this word around here) I had to scramble up a steep hill through the bushes, and then climb over an unpleasantly metallic fence. Luckily, my current bike is as light as a feather, and there were some storm-felled trees on the fence, so I somehow managed. I also got caught in a heavy rain, but because the temperature here in North Carolina is still very high, it was less miserable than you'd expect. Today it was 22-26 degrees Celsius. For comparison: in Wisconsin it's around zero, and in Daugavpils – 6 degrees.
As for the outing itself, the US isn't really built for cyclists. Sure, there are bike lanes here and there (very narrow ones), there are trails and maps for bikers, but overall it's super easy to screw up like I did and end up on a highway. Of course, drivers are generally careful and give you a three-meter wide berth, but it's still scary. On the flip side, there's a bike shop called Bicycle Chain nearby, and they just casually have an 8,000-buck bike sitting there. Back home in Daugavpils, the max is 2,000.
There are three lakes in the park, by the way – no swimming allowed in any of them. In general, the park is also meant for camping, but alcohol is banned there. Hard to say why. It's probably worth mentioning that NC is a southern state, and there are a lot of hypocritical religious prudes here. Maybe the alcohol ban has to do with that.
There are also a lot of runners in the park, and some fishermen. There are signs everywhere: “caution, steep downgrade” and “yield to pedestrians”. Cars don't drive inside the park, everyone just uses them to get there. That's how it is everywhere here – you can't get anywhere without a car. Sidewalks and zebra crossings only exist inside residential neighborhoods, and never between them. On foot, I can only make it to the nearest Lowe’s Foods store, and even then I have to press a button at the crosswalk.
Today, though, I rode 40 km in 4 hours (lots of stops plus the rain), but if I'd just rolled around the park, it would've been less. The asphalt roads around here are good, and the carbon road bike rolls exceptionally well. I don't have a bike computer, though, so I can't see my speed, but I could probably crank out 200 km a day on this bike, if only there were places to ride.
On this optimistic note, I'm going to go to bed anyway, because it's already 1 AM here, and I got carried away as it is writing about stores – but I'll only hit publish tomorrow.
By the way, I was navigating using https://openstreetmap.org – inside the park it's way more accurate than Google Maps, all the trails and everything are marked.