urban bicycle journeys

I had a brief 9:00 AM doctor’s appointment fifteen miles away in Pittsboro NC. I drove down there from my home in Chapel Hill NC in our second car, an old 2004 Honda Accord. I wanted to use this opportunity to take a bike ride and the Bike Friday was folded in the trunk. It was cold outside. Even at 11:00 AM it would be a chilly thirty-eight degrees, with highs in the upper forties, sunny with very little wind.

Waiting for the weather to warm up, I drove over to Davenport’s Cafe Diem, in front of a former motel on the northern edge of Pittsboro. For about two years in the 1990’s my friend Jane helped operate a different restaurant in this same building. For dinner it was relaxed and hippie-ish but gourmet. Even then the motel behind it was semi-abandoned. You would drive there fifteen miles on a two lane highway through the dark woods from Chapel Hill. That highway is now mostly four lane and lined with strip malls.

At this coffee house I ordered an oat milk latte, sixteen ounce, with two packs sugar, plus a slice of jalapeño quiche. My current read on the Kindle is The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larson, about the days leading up to the American Civil War.

At about ten-thirty I packed up to leave and drove seventeen miles west to Siler City NC. My idea was to bicycle the twelve miles from Siler City to Liberty, have lunch, then cycle back a different way. This was my ride.

Siler City NC (population 7,700) has a different feel than Pittsboro. It seems more working class, a factory town. There is a big chicken processing plant. The town has a large population of recent Hispanic immigrants.

Also, the woods around Siler City host new-age-y types from the direction of Chapel Hill looking for cheaper real estate. I found this in an expensive gift shop near my condo in Chapel Hill, twenty-something dollars for two little containers of bath salts. Good for them.

Most of commercial Siler City has sprawled out near the Walmart on the big highway US64. Downtown Siler City had this Mid-Century Modern former bank building, plus pre-war gas stations.

Parking spaces were labelled TWO HOUR PARKING / MAXIMUM FINE $5.00. I would be leaving my car four to five hours but took my chances. I pulled the bicycle from the trunk and started north on 2nd Avenue, which turns into Old US 421. I cycled by Chris’s Drive-In, which looks genuinely old-school.

Much as been said of the sad demise of much of North Carolina’s furniture and textile industry. It is far from completely wiped out. I stumbled upon the factory of something called Charter Furniture. Laborers and Upholsterers needed. The parking lot was full.

Their website says they build “Luxury Custom Hotel & Hospitality Furniture.” For example, it says they furnished the lobby of the Grand Hyatt San Francisco. Businesses need a niche, and that often means selling up. (Where can I find someone who will buy multiple three thousand dollar chairs?) Good for them.

The highway sprinted through central North Carolina countryside. People live out here along the highway. There was still snow on the ground, in spots. I did not encounter much traffic.

Staley NC (population 393) between Siler City and Liberty barely seems a town. There were interesting old gas stations.

Liberty NC (population 2,700) is the rare North Carolina town that has not had its downtown ambiance slaughtered by a NCDOT four lane highway.

For a number of years the Liberty Showcase has been presenting mostly country music in a rare but seemingly successful re-do of a small town movie theater.

There is a coffee shop but it was lunchtime. Is this a former post office, or maybe a bank?

An actual lunch was to be had next door at the Y’all Come Back Cafe.

I have lived in North Carolina for thirty-seven years. I have known my wife Tootie, who is from North Carolina, for forty-three years. All that time I thought that like everywhere in America, ordering a cheeseburger “all the way” meant lettuce, tomato, onions, catchup, and mustard; perhaps mayonnaise. In Liberty NC I learned that “all the way” in North Carolina means chili and coleslaw on your cheeseburger. I told this to Tootie, and she commented.

“Of course ‘all the way’ means chili and coleslaw. Everybody knows that!”

Here at Y’all Come Back Cafe it certainly hit the spot.

I started back towards Siler City, taking a different route. These smooth roads had very little traffic and it had warmed up enough to be genuinely great bicycling.

I love living in a cityish urban environment, in close quarters to the everyday needs of life, where I can walk or bike to a quality grocery store. Nevertheless I can see the advantages of the rural life ten miles north of Siler City NC. If you have a business vision of collecting old Volkswagens here is the space and tolerance to get this done.

I cycled once again into Siler City. Small breweries are now everywhere in America and we should be proudly patronizing them. Thirsty Skull Brewing sits on a dingy stretch of the northern outskirts of town. It was closed this afternoon.

Half a mile further I cycled into downtown Siler City’s designated “arts district” and The Chatham Rabbit, a local coffee house.

I needed an oat milk latte, one pack sugar, to drink in the car on my nearly hourlong drive back to Chapel Hill.