I was lent a Specialized carbon 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 (where I reside). The governor didn't actually get to govern – he suffered a heart attack 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 a great fit for the gravel paths of the park, but overall it turned out alright. The paths, which are called bicycle trails, are very packed and of good quality, so you can even ride them 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 only 12 km. I need to 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 very appealing.
While riding, I stupidly ended up on a highway. That's actually forbidden; the only thing, by the way, that's forbidden for cyclists. You can ride without a helmet, and you don't need a bike license. On the state department of transportation's website, there's even a special section where you can read all the rule clauses that apply to bikers. Pretty smart.
So, to get off the highway (highway – although folks use this word for absolutely everything) I had to scramble up a steep hill through bushes, and then climb over an unpleasant metal fence. Luckily, the current bike is light as a feather, and there were storm-felled trees on the fence, so I managed somehow. I also got caught in heavy rain, but because the temperature here in North Carolina is still very high, it was less unpleasant than you might expect. Today was 22-26 degrees Celsius. For comparison: in Wisconsin it's around zero, and in Daugavpils – 6 degrees.
As for the outing itself, the USA really isn't designed for cyclists. Sure, there are bike lanes here and there (very narrow ones), there are trails and maps for bikers, but overall it's extremely 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 plus side, there's a bike shop called Bicycle Chain nearby, and there's just casually an 8,000 buck bike sitting there. Back home in Daugavpils – the max is 2,000.
By the way, there are three lakes in the park – and swimming is forbidden in all of them. The park is generally meant for camping too, but alcohol is banned there. Hard to say why. It's probably worth mentioning that NC is a southern state, and there are plenty of religious hypocritical prudes here. Maybe the alcohol ban has something to do with that.
There are also a lot of runners in the park, and some fishermen. Signs everywhere: “caution, steep downhill” and “yield to pedestrians”. Cars don't drive inside the park, everyone just uses them to get there. It's like that everywhere here – you can't get anywhere without a car. Sidewalks and crosswalks only exist inside residential neighborhoods, but 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 crossing.
Today, though, I rode 40 km in 4 hours (lots of stops and rain), but if I had just rolled around the park – it would've been less. The asphalt roads around here are good, and the carbon roadie rides exceptionally well. I don't have a bike computer, though, so I can't see the speed, but I bet I could rack up 200 km a day on this bike if there was a place for it.
On that optimistic note, I'm going to head to bed anyway, because it's already 1 AM here, and I got carried away as it is writing about shops – but I'll only publish this tomorrow.
By the way, I was navigating with https://openstreetmap.org – inside the park it's way more accurate than Google Maps, all the trails and everything are marked.