Goodnight Raleigh - a look at the art, architecture, history, and people of the city at night

The Steam Tunnels of NCSU: Part 2

If you look closely at the top right corner of the photo above, you can see ‘mull’ spelled out and then cut off. This is a reference to Mullman who commented on the last post. He stated that it was left in 1989 or 1990.

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Alleycat / Halloween Bash 2008

This past Saturday was, well, packed. Between the events I attended and the proximity to Halloween, the downtown area was teeming with costumed people looking to have a little spooky fun. I, while not costumed, hit up a couple of awesome events.

First, I met up at the NC State Bell Tower with about 40 other bikers for the annual Halloween Alley Cat bike race, called the “Hell on Wheels Alleycat”. For those unfamiliar with the event, it is a bike race almost always in urban areas where each racer must achieve a set number of signatures that are given at various checkpoints all over town. The concept was originally formed by bike messengers as a way of testing who could route themselves the best around their cities. Often, there are secret or surprise checkpoints not directly listed on the manifesto, or list of objectives. Sadly, because of the fact that it was a race, there was very little grouping of cyclists. But, I did realize very early on that I had NO chance of winning, so I took my time and had some fun. I also got a great shot from one of the checkpoints (top of a parking deck on the corner of Wilmington street and Cabbarus street) as seen in the image above.


After 2 hours of hard biking and finishing mid-pack, we all stuck around the Riviera for some drinks and cooldown

Later that evening, the College of Design Halloween Bash continued it’s tradition of bands, dancing and costume competitions in the Pit, over on State’s campus. A long tradition, that was one of the last events to allow alcohol on campus. It’s been a dry event for a few years now, and the crowds have diminished some, but really not all that much.
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The Steam Tunnels of NCSU: Part 1

It’s fairly common for universities and government agencies to have a network of steam pipes (such as the ones that feed the state government buildings), and NCSU is no exception.

I’ve heard about them off and on over the years, and have always been intrigued by the thought of a subterranean network of secret tunnels, rooms, and machinery hidden below the surface.

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