Walkin', Walkin', Walkin'...

River's Edge Park in Roanoke

I absolutely love Roanoke's Parks & Rec department.  I could gush about how awesome they are for days ~ and no, I don't work there.  When I first moved to Roanoke and didn't know anyone, I really appreciated how many cool classes they offered, what a good job they did in marketing them, and how affordable their classes and events were.  For instance, I signed up for pottery classes, guitar lessons, tennis lessons, and Zumba classes.  Those classes helped me make friends and meet really fun people.  Plus, it kept me from being lonely and bored in that first transition year.  In the other places I've lived, I can honestly say that few community Parks & Rec folks did even half as good a job as Roanoke does in promoting their classes and offering such a great and affordable variety of things to do after work and on the weekends.

The one offering I really didn't try was exploring all of Roanoke's greenways that the Parks & Rec folks write about all the time.  Apparently, there are miles and miles of walking/biking trails that connect all throughout the city and county.  I love to walk and wanted to explore them but didn't know if it was safe to go alone.  So I just didn't go at all.

Yesterday, my buddy and tennis partner, Peg, who I met through the tennis lessons I took through the Parks Department, went on an hour-long walk on one of the greenways.  Peg goes a lot with her family but this was my first time checking it out.  It was great!  We walked alongside the Roanoke River and passed a lot of cyclists and runners.  It was a nice scenic walk!  On my left was the river and on my right were a lot of backyards since the greenway seems to back up to residential neighborhoods.

I took two cell phone pictures of the Roanoke River at the start of our walk when we were crossing over a bridge and I'm sharing them with you.  I was impresssed by how clean the water looked ~ crystal clear and really beautiful.  According to my boyfriend, the river has some mercury and other chemical pollutants in it so it's not as clean as it looks.  That's a shame.  At least it's nice to look at!

View from the bridge - look at how clear that water is!  You can see the rocks on the bottom!