Yesterday afternoon we made road trip to Wilson, a little town west of Raleigh and about 1,5 hours from Durham.

We wanted to see a historic downtown, and Wilson showed up high in the list with Google results. It was indeed a pretty town with lots of old wooden houses in Southern style with porches and chairs outside.

We saw large and beautiful suburbs when driving into the city, but the downtown area is not doing very well. A lot of houses and businesses are abandoned, and over-all downtown looks to be in bad shape. At other hand we did see some nicely painted stores and public places: the town is making an effort to look better and especially the little square behind the hardware store in the main street is a pleasant surprise.

Later in the afternoon we went to see a nice movie and after dinner we drove back to Durham.

The train station, with maybe 6 passenger trains a day.

A bed and breakfast.

Clock.

A whirligig.

The back side of a hardware store. Look closely!