Two Piedmont greenways, two adventures

Downtown Winston-Salem looms at the end of the north end of the Strollway.

We’ve added two more greenways to our greenway guide, both of which offer a potential day of escape, especially for young families.

Smithfield: Buffalo Creek Greenway. When we stumbled across this work-in-progress in spring 2010, we were surprised by the audacity of such a project (a $1.2 million, 3.3-mile greenway) in a relatively small town (population 13,000ish). The greenway joins the  city’s historic center with new development on the north side of town. Starting at Bob Wallace Kiddie Park (and Riverside Cemetery, worth a visit in itself), the greenway skirts the Neuse River (passing the Neuse Little Theatre), then follows Buffalo Creek out to Smithfield Community Park, home of the new (2009) Smithfield Recreation & Aquatics Center, complete with indoor pool and splash park, indoor track, racquetball, basketball courts and more. Meanwhile, back downtown Smithfield’s wide streets and minimal traffic make exploring by bike enjoyable even for the newest of peddlers. Destinations include the Ava Gardner Museum and 75-year-old Howell Theatre and $3 movies. read more

90 Second Escape: The Climbing Gym

Don’t kid yourself: No matter where you live in North Carolina it’s going to be hot this week. Real hot. Again.

As the saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough take a second look at the thermometer and say, “To heck with this. I’m staying inside.” read more

This weekend, make a night of it

If we wanted to live on the Sun, we would have moved there. Instead, the Sun apparently has decided to move here. More record-breaking heat is upon us, which would have more more sane people opting to stay indoors. For those of us of hearty, boiling  stock, that’s not an option. We just need to play it smart: Instead of going out in the daytime when it’s 102 in the shade, we’ll simply wait until the evening when it cools off to the upper 90s. read more

Do I suck? (Or am I just bad?)

“I … I just didn’t have anything more to give,” I confided to my cycling psychologist on our ride this morning. “I was empty.”

Allen and I ride one morning a week at Umstead. It’s typically a mildly competitive ride where we save just enough air to chat about bikes (lot’s of debate about whether to go the 29er route), rides (mountain centuries that Allen does and I talk about), juicing (Allen is obsessed with making fresh OJ). And, occasionally, why we suck. read more

90 Second Escape: A ride in the woods

Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast, especially come summer. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. 
To help ease this trying transition, we’re running a new feature every Monday, at least during the summer, called 90 Second Escape. Essentially, it’s a 90-second video of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s in the sun. read more

Explore the outdoors, discover yourself.