TheKillerPenguin , amazing story on the RD adjust!
Well, I'm only 35. And things have changed geographically around here. When I was a kid US-1 in NC was a two lane country road from Raleigh to Sanford. I remember taking forever to get home when someone would often die trying to pass too many cars and hit someone head on. When I went to college they had built it as a 4-lane divided highway.
I-540 didn't exist. Lots of I-440 probably didn't either. Shoot, they didn't fill Jordan Lake up till about the year I was born.
Even when driving age, I don't remember anything really much north of around Lynn Road in NW Raleigh. All those neighborhoods between there and 540 were build in the early 2000's. Wasn't really suburbia out there, yet.
In 1990 Cary had 45k people, now it has probably close to 175k. Morrisville was nothing, now it's bleeding into Cary.
We're talking a few hundred square miles between Wake/Durham/Johnston counties that used to be quiet country road now getting clogged with suburbia and fast moving dangerous traffic.
I could imagine it's a nightmare finding enough decent country road for a road race. God bless the folks who put on the Chapel Hill RR. I've had fun there a couple times while getting my butt kicked. Good little route.