DigitalRoadtrip: Roadtrip, Day 4... Around Wilmington

Day 4

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Promise, I did mean to set the phone alarm for sunrise. When I woke up, I knew I couldn't make that drive in time.

Tomorrow for sure.

Instead, I took a short drive to Long Leaf Hills Park. There are paved walking trails throughout. If you do both the inner and outer loops, it's a little over two and a half miles.

They're well used. I saw plenty of walkers, a few runners and cyclists, met plenty of dogs, passed a group of six women with strollers and even saw a unicyclist. It made for an interesting morning.

This was the closest city park to where my family lived when I was a kid. It's changed a great deal since we moved in '72. The little league fields seem much nicer, too.

Good start to the day.

Random, vague childhood memory... one of my older sister's friends stops by my parent's house and gets introduced to my father. He addresses him as "Dad." My dad was humored by it.

From that point on, when I met parents of friends or girlfriends, I addresses them as Mom and Dad. They all seemed to get a kick out of it, too.

I first met Karen freshman year in college. I've been referring to her parents as Mom and Dad ever since.

They retired to Carolina Beach thirty years ago. Since I was passing through, I called her Mom. Today, we had lunch. And yes, I still called her Mom.

After lunch, I hit Carolina Beach State Park. Sure it was eighty-seven degrees, but I hit a pair of trails anyway. The first was the Snow Cut Trail. Out and back it's 1.9 miles.

Great views along the way...

From here, I hit the short Venus Flytrap Loop. It's a third of a mile and really easy.

Venus Flytraps are native only to this general area. Unlike other plants, they've adapted to the lower nitrogen levels of the soil by becoming carnivorous..

I did the loop and didn't see any. Not that surprising considering this from the trail guide..