Over the Freeway and Through the Woods

Ever since we moved here about 10 years ago, Ian and I have spent a lot of time on the American Tobacco Trail.  It's a trail running through Durham that was built on old railroad tracks.  We checked it out many years ago when we were working up to doing our first 5K.  It's where I trained with Bob for my first marathon.  We've pushed the double stroller many a mile on it.  The boys have learned how to ride their bikes on another section, and Ian has even biked on it to get to work.

However, there was always one problem with the Tobacco Trail-the two main parts of the trail were separated by I-40 in the middle.  This meant that we could either go on the southern route from a park about a mile from our house that would take us down into the woods of Wake County.  Or, we could drive about 5 miles to the other side of the freeway, park, and hop on the trail there.  Bob and I had to go five miles out of our way on our marathon runs to run to the trail on the other side of the freeway.

We always wished that both parts of the trail would connect.  So, we were so excited when we saw construction finally start on a bridge across the freeway.  Whenever I would drive the boys to school we would watch the progress of the construction as we drove by on the freeway.  Unfortunately, it was slow progress.  The completion of the bridge kept getting delayed and delayed.

Finally, in February, the bridge and the surrounding connecting trails were finally complete.  We could hop on our bikes at our house and bike all the way to downtown Durham!  Well, we haven't gone quite that far yet, but we've been out several times already to check out the new bridge.  We drove down to Herndon Park, about a mile from our house, and let the boys ride around a little on their bikes.  Now, from that point, it's about 3 miles to the bridge, so the boys can't quite make it that far and back yet.  So, after they rode around a little, we met up with our friends Bob and Liz, stuffed the kids and LOTS of snacks in the bicycle trailer and off we rode.  It was a fun ride because it took us past the mall and all of the nearby shops.  On top of the bridge we let the kids out of their ride and let them watch the cars pass by on the freeway below.  They thought it was great fun that they could get cars and trucks to honk that them as they passed.  On one of our rides we continued on to get some gelato.  It's great now that we can get to some actual destinations on the trail.

Next time we'll head back with Evan on his bike.  We think he could make it to the bridge and the nearby donut shop if he really tried. So, we'll take the trailer, let both boys ride as long as they can, put Benny in the trailer and strap his bike on the back when we gets tired, and see how far we get.  Who knows where we'll end up!!

(my boys biking on the trail)

(finally on top of the bridge)