We had been wanting to ride the Charlotte Trolley Trail for quite some time. We had read that Charlotte was being visited by representatives from other cities to see how they had constructed a light rail trolley into town along with a pedestrian/bike trail paralleling it which stimulated development of condos and restaurants along the line. We parked downtown and rode south. We parked at the fire department which was adjacent to the trail and had some unnumbered spaces in a very large and nearly empty lot.
We had a great ride, but upon our return we saw that our truck was missing. With a closer look we discovered that there is an obscure sign saying it is a paid lot and listing the tow company’s phone number. We were already tired and thirsty (having drunk all our water on such a warm day) when we learned that the tow yard was two miles away. We would not only have to navigate to the tow yard, but to an ATM downtown for cash as well. This was the first serious use of our smartphones. They ably navigated us to both. However, one of the roads came to a dead end with barrier at the Norfolk Southern RR main line. As we could see no alternative, we jumped our bikes over several tracks to the street on the other side. The tow yard was not too far from there and we got our truck back. Still no water, though, until we got back to the coach.
Actually, the Walmart where we were parked was in a bad neighborhood – bad enough that we had planned to leave when we got home and find a better place to park over night. However, we were so tired there was no way we were going to move. Fortunately we had an uneventful night. The next morning we headed for Greenville, SC, and the Swamp Rabbit Trail.
No comments:
Post a Comment