Howdy y’all,
So I walked out of Winston-Salem about a week ago after spending 2 nights in Camel city. I meant to do this sooner, but it has been go go go getting to Durham. I was fortunate to be hosted by some great folks while in town, so thank you to Tom and Daniel. Daniel had heard about my journey all the way back when I was posting in the Kansas subreddit and I stayed with some family friends of his back in Troy, KS. An absolutely lovely and knowledgeable person (phenomenal host) and glad I was able to make it work seeing him going up the East Coast.
Although I was only in town for 2 nights, I felt like I got to see lots of cool things that made my experience in Winston-Salem unique and special. Examples include the elaborate Japanese garden that my first host, Tom, was building in his backyard, or the Tiki bathroom in Daniel’s house that wins the award for most unique bathroom I’ve seen in a home. Outside of the home, I got to tour around the Arts district on Trade St followed by taking the Strollway over to Old Salem. There I got some Sugar bread as I walked around to go and see the plaques for the first Krispy Kreme and first 4th of July celebration. I can’t forget to mention that massive coffee pot either.
In addition to seeing some of the sights I got to meet some great people. When in Old Salem I met Marianne who saw me on Reddit and said hi. She even let me ride her fun push scooter around. I actually got to see her again when I was leaving town. Over off Old Lexington Rd I saw her picking up litter on a Saturday morning out of the kindness of her heart. If you ever see her around town, lend her a hand or at least some encouragement.
I also got to meet Adrian Smith at El Rancho Taqueria off of Sprague, he found me through Reddit and offered to buy me lunch. He is currently running for city council in the South Ward and is trying to make walkability, bikeability and transit a big part of his platform. Since I am trying to bring attention to walkability issues along my journey, it was great to have an opportunity to share my perspectives with him on Winston-Salem and beyond. He definitely gave me the impression that he was a genuine individual just trying to move the city into a more sustainable direction. If you are concerned about walkability, bikeability, and transit so much of the work happens at the local level and it requires us to be involved in the decision making process. So if you are in the South Ward you have until March 5th to cast your vote and Adrian Smith would be a great option to represent you all at city hall.
Overall, I had a wonderful time in Winston-Salem and was very fortunate to pass through your lovely city. I am very thankful to my wonderful hosts, Tom and Daniel. If anyone is interested in supporting and learning more about AmericaWalks, check them out at AmericaWalks.org. If anyone is interested in learning more about my walk or following along, the best place is walk2washington.con or walk2washington on IG/FB.
Thanks again and hope to return someday Winston-Salem,
HMR
Walk 2 Washington 