Charlotte Trip with the kids, no electric, heat returns

Back from a fun trip to Charlotte, but so many photos that I made a video of the trip:

We went around and saw all the sights that we could. One of the coolest areas is the Whitewater park. I could have spent a lot more time there.

We come back home to a lot of our flowers in full bloom! 

We have been doing our best to stay cool this week. This is our first year getting a pool membership, so we will be there a lot cooling off.

I have limited my runs to no more than 5 miles the last few days because the heat index has been between 90 to 100, but Tuesday's run was a 3 mile run with the heat index 115 while I was running! I like experiencing the extremes because it makes you appreciate the run of the mill 90 degree day a little more. 

I had the pleasure of running with a good pal, Carl, last weekend. We ran around Tar Hollow State Park. He ran the 9 mile south loop with me at first then I did the 9 mile north loop solo. It is one of my favorite parks because it is so remote. 

Some of the views are amazing!

There are two downfalls to the park though. Downed trees and logging. The park is notorious for trees knocked down over the trail that you will need to climb through or over. There was a storm the week before and there were at least 40 trees down on the 18 miles. The park does not regularly clear them, so if you want to head there, be sure to be able to cross the downed trees. The other issue is logging. There always seems to be logging going on in different parts of the state park. With the lack of tree-cover there is more light at the surface for briars. So you will be running through a lot of thorns. If you know those two things going into the adventure, then you know the worst of it. I ran with running poles and tried using those to block most of the briars, but my legs came back pretty shredded. 

This weekend is looking GREAT! We will get a break from the heat and humidity, but it will be back soon...

A warm and humid morning, but humidity will be dropping slowly through the day setting us up for a pleasant weekend. We will still be hot today, high around 87, with mostly sunny skies. There will be more clouds to the south as showers and storms pass by to our south. Mostly clear tonight with a low around 58. You can open the windows to the house! Beautiful Saturday with sunny skies and a high of 76. Mostly sunny Sunday with highs around 78. Low humidity all weekend long. Don’t let your guard down with the sun because the UV index will be high this weekend. Monday we start heating back up with humidity slowly climbing. Partly cloudy with a 10% chance of rain with a warm front lifting through Monday. Partly cloudy with a 20% chance of rain Tuesday and we heat up to 95. The best chance of rain will be scattered showers and storms on Wednesday with a high of 95. Some isolated rain also possible Thursday with a high of 90. So if you did not get much rain yesterday, you will need to water your plants because we stay dry until the middle of next week. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael