O is for Occoneechee Speedway Trail: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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O is for Occoneechee Speedway Trail

The Occoneechee Speedway is one of my favorite places in Hillsborough, North Carolina, the town I've made my home in for almost a decade now. It used to be a racetrack, a NASCAR dirt track built for the inaugural race season of 1949. 

There are reunions and community celebrations there sometimes. But most of the year, it's a lovely wooded spot where my dog and I run past the old car, judge's stand, and viewing platforms, lightening both our souls. 

I've enjoyed walking down at the Speedway ever since I learned it existed, but it's really become one of my places since I took up running about six months ago. 

If you've been reading my posts this month, you know how much I like the woods and natural places, and how much I like ruins, ghost towns, and abandoned places. And this has the best of both those worlds. 

Recently some additional trails were completed that connect the Speedway to the Riverwalk, so you can get around a fair amount of our lovely little town without leaving the woods. Since it's warm so much of the year here, you can enjoy it nearly all year long. 

If you ever come to Hillsborough, here's where you should go to stretch your legs. It's a lovely, peaceful place.