Peter Begins his Route 1 Journey in Cary, NC - March 2018

This summarizes the first week I spent on this project was along Route 1 near Raleigh, NC. From the bustle of NC State along Hillsborough Street to the rural beauty of the old route in New Hill there was so much to absorb and to celebrate at the beginning!  I was just winging it and hoping for the best.  It got me hooked on traveling Route 1 in ways that seemed unimaginable then.

I was able to write 3 new songs that week and to hone my skills as a photographer a little bit.  You can hear one of the songs “Drive a While With Me” in the video.

Cary was  incorporated in 1871, but it started way back in 1750 when it was founded as “Bradford’s Ordinary”.  It was re-named for an Ohio politician, Samuel Fenton Cary who was an outspoken leader in the Temperance Movement.  Cary was a dry town beginning in 1871, prohibiting the sale of alcohol until 1964 when State law superseded the local ordinances.

The Cary/Raleigh/Durham area had one of the highest population growth rates of any area in the US at the end of the 20th Century because of the high-paying jobs in the Research Triangle Park on the western border of the city.  The influx of wealth allowed the restoration and reuse of some of the buildings from the 19th and early 20th Centuries at old center of town, which was bypassed by multi-lane limited access highways and usurped by malls and strip centers.   You’d hardly know it was there, unless you followed old original Route One out Hillsboro Street and onto Old Apex Road, following the railroad line.

Neighboring Apex was so named because it was the highest point along the rail line.