Banana split loop: Roxboro Road and the greenway at night

Last night, S came home from a bike ride and said downtown was stuffed to the gills with people out and about. Covid ain't over yet, but vaccinations are ramping up, state-mandated restrictions have been relaxing, and people are celebrating. We wanted to take a walk, so we headed in the opposite direction from the experimental germ soup brewing downtown, aiming instead to share a banana split at Goodberry's on N. Roxboro Road.

N. Roxboro isn't a quiet street during the day, and it seemed even busier and noisier than usual on Friday night. Ah, spring. Even with sidewalks along most of our route, the traffic and headlights made for a challenging walk.

We stopped for soft tacos at a food truck, but it was really the potassium-filled banana in the banana split at Goodberry's that made the walk worthwhile.

Way back in 2009, when we were on sabbatical in Germany, we went on a hike in the mountains with E and some longtime family friends. We didn't realize 8-year-old E had a slight fever--he was unusually cranky and whiny, and we thought he was just hangry. At one point he reached his limit. He stopped, began to cry, and then announced through his tears, "I need a banana." So we gave the poor thing a banana--a transaction that led to the discovery that he had a fever, but also amazingly re-energized him. Instead of turning around and going home, we continued the hike with E happily bouncing along the trail ahead of us. Bananas are amazing things, and the banana in the Goodberry's banana split was one of those mood-altering miracles.

S had brought along a bike light, so for our route home, we skipped Roxboro Road and instead headed for the greenway trail access on Stadium Drive. A Northern High School football game was just wrapping up in Durham County Memorial Stadium as we walked by, and although the stadium was far from full, it was nice to know some semblance of a normal high school experience was returning. 

On the greenway, we saw a lot of frogs...

...said hello to the brontosaurus...

...tried out a new dance move...

...and pondered the revolution.