Tar River and Raleigh

North Carolina – Thursday, February 28

Tula and I headed for the Tar River Trail first thing this morning, and walked the 3.9 miles from one end to the other and back. The trail followed the Tar River and we passed a waterfall/dam that ran by a huge abandoned woolen mill. We also crossed the river on a bridge that had a plaque overhead indicating the high water mark after a hurricane. The bridge was over the water and the sign was over my head, and it’s simply impossible to imagine all the water that had to be around to raise levels that high.

North Carolina was a big producer of tar, pitch and turpentine (from pine trees) in its early days, and the nickname of Tar Heel state has several origins – whether from the tar that stuck on the heels of the tar workers’ boots, or more likely from the Civil War era when soldiers would joke about putting tar on the heels of other soldiers to slow them down.

Next I drove through Raleigh, and I headed downtown to walk through the State Capitol area and some of the historic neighborhoods, and past the Governor’s mansion. I covered nearly 4 more miles, so I walked about 11 1/2 miles altogether today. I didn’t make a donation since I’d been doubling up on them the last couple of days.