NC State and Pullen Park…

Wow we find ourselves wondering when the rain will stop in this neck of the woods. I shouldn’t complain considering how hard the Oklahoma area was hit and you can bet our hearts go out to those in distress there. I called my sister who lives in north Texas near Ringgold, Tx where the first tornado touched down albeit for a brief moment before heading into Oklahoma… Everyone there in the small town of Henrietta, Texas are fine but they too are concerned for the families impacted by that very nasty twister.

Well between rain events we try and get out and about to continue our exploration of the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. We have now visited all the universities in this triangle and were able to visit a nice park near the North Carolina State University yesterday.

Pullen Park is a family friendly park that has been added to the National Register of Historic Places since it was founded in 1887. It is a small but very nice park to take a stroll in and it has a 1921 Dentzel carousel near its center. This carousel features more than 50 hand carved and hand painted animals and only charges a single buck for the kiddos to ride. That along with a one buck miniature train ride in this park make it a kids dream. We enjoyed our walk around the park and also liked its proximity to the NC State campus.

After exploring the park it was a short walk to the University where we enjoyed a stroll through the center of yet another major University offering its gems to us in exchange for absolutely nothing… It is the energy emanating from these Universities and Colleges that are our fountain of youth! It always makes us feel so energized after spending some time in one of our nations Institutions of Higher Learning… But alas the rain and thunder and lightening came once again so we headed back to the RV park when we suddenly realized it was Tuesday… Why was Tuesday so special? Well our favorite little pub, Buffalo Brothers, has a great happy hour on Tuesday where any draft beer is only $2.75 US! A great opportunity to try some new IPA’s that were normally priced from $4.50 to $5.50 US. I was able to sample a few new IPA’s while we also enjoyed half priced appetizers… Yeah, our life is pretty sad isn’t it???

So hopefully we will get some sunshine and clearing between rain events giving us the opportunity to go out and visit a few more parks we have read about near Raleigh that we haven't been able to explore yet… So from here we will likely head towards Roanoke, Virginia next and then on to the Shenandoah Valley where we had an enjoyable stay a few years ago when we were in this area.