A Cookie is just a Cookie: April Bike Ride #3: Atlantic & Yadkin Greenway

Today's bike ride was in Greensboro. It was a super fun family day. Of special note is that this is the first bike ride that Rob and I have taken *together* in a very long time. Since probably Fall of 2009? We've been doing a lot of solo riding (him riding to work or going for a 40 mile road bike ride, and me riding with Eliza solo), so today was fun to be back together on 2 wheels, which is what brought us together as a couple in the first place!

We were in Greensboro to watch some of the USMS Short Course Nationals. I had a handful of swimmers from my team competing, so I wanted to go and cheer them on for a bit. We let Eliza take her morning nap and while she was snoozing, Rob packed up the car and I packed us a picnic lunch and dinner. As soon as she awoke, we headed westward on I-85/I-40, stopping at our favorite gas station (Sheetz in Mebane) to fill up the tank. Gas at this station is always 10-16 cents cheaper per gallon than it is in Durham. And of course the food and snacks! How could a blog post about traveling to Greensboro be complete without mention of car snacks? Car snacks are the best! They're the reason road trippin' is fun. So we filled up, ate lunch and bought some snacks to munch on. (Krispy Kreme and Starburst, if you were wondering!)

After we watched a little bit of the swim meet, we drove up to Bur-Mil Park, about 10 miles north of downtown Greensboro. We planned to ride the Atlantic & Yadkin Greenway which is a rail-trail that links Bur-Mil Park with Country Park. Here's a cute picture of Eliza before we started the ride:

Her t-shirt says "Could I be any cuter?" The answer is NO! :) She is the definition of cute.

The greenway is very nice. A few hills to climb, a few descents, mostly flat though. We saw a goose family with some really adorable goslings waddling behind them, crossing the greenway to get to a fishing pond. There were lots of people, young and old, on the trail, mostly bike riding. A few walkers, but not many. We stopped to take a picture as we rolled into the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. Eliza had fallen asleep at this point on the bike ride, which she often does if we ride on smooth pavement like this greenway.

We ended up only riding about 4 miles of the trail. Currently, there's a total of 7.5 miles available on the greenway with more mileage to come in the future. Here's a trail map. We started our ride at the Parking Lot and Bathroom symbol in the middle of Bur-Mil Park. We rode almost all the way to Country Park. We turned around at the tail end of the Forest Lawn Cemetery. We only had so much light left and we needed to get some dinner into us. Once we were back at the parking area, we spread the outdoor blanket out on the ground next to the car and had a picnic dinner of NC BBQ, mashed potatoes and peas & carrots. Mmmmm!

Here's a handful of pics from our fun day: