View from the Mountain

The heat builds in the mountains

It is the south, and it is the summer, but why is Roanoke, Virginia hotter than some piedmont towns that are usually cooking in the summer?

The folks at Accuweather are proclaiming heat the winner this weekend. Many of the east coast cities are going to have their short cool springs end in a pool of steam.

Having grown up in the south, I don't get too excited about heat even with these dire warnings from Accuweather.

Humidity will add to the discomfort, leading to triple-digit RealFeel® temperatures. Heat advisories are in effect in New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania, including the greater Philadelphia area, and along the Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to the Carolinas.

I just follow the rules of the South.

The rules are get up early, do your outside work before the sun gets high in the sky.  This morning I watered some sod that I planted a couple of weeks ago, sprayed some of our palms for rust, watered my tomatoes, and washed my truck all before 7:30 am this morning.  It was plenty warm by the time I was done, but it was still a lot cooler than it is now.

Kevin Myatt of the Roanoke Times is expecting some Roanoke records to break.

Strong high pressure is building in, and this will give us several days of extreme heat for early June. We're talking mid to upper 90s in Roanoke now through at least the middle of next week. Record highs for each of those dates are, well, in the mid to upper 90s, all dating to the time period between 1914-1939. Blacksburg's daily records in the upper 80s and low 90s are likely in jeapordy as well.

100 degrees in Roanoke? It's not impossible we could scrape the century mark a day or two, and I thoroughly expect somewhere like Martinsville or Danville to have a 100-degree day before the middle of next week.

These temperatures from Weatherunderground show Roanoke hotter than Beaufort, SC. Now that's hot.

I saw a note that kids in Pulaski County are being dismissed two hours early because of the heat. 

I seem to remember that none of our schools were air conditioned back in the fifties and sixties.  I can still remember the first air conditioner that we got for our home.  It was a wonder.  It cooled only our living room.

Before we got that we relied on shade from trees, window awnings and screened windows.  A wading pool or a nearby creek was of critical importance to those of us who were younger.

We have become accustomed to our air conditioned cocoons, they will likely be mighty expensive this summer.  Last summer we set our thermostats on 78 degrees during the day and 77 during the night.  That worked pretty well, but we might have to inch them up this summer.

Since I am down on the Carolina coast more often than not, the water is the most effect way to cool down.  A few days ago I managed to do my first dip in the surf.  Since I hardly ever manage to get over to the beach until after 5 pm, the air and the water are a perfect complement to each other.  Those evening sea breezes don't hurt either.

I am thinking the swimming pools in Roanoke will be busy this next week.

It is hard to believe that Roanoke is hotter than Cornelius or Mount Airy.  Cornelius which isn't that far from Charlotte often cooks.  Pittsboro which is close Raleigh is often one of the hottest spots in North Carolina.

I suspect we all are going to see the heat over the next week.  Perhaps we can dodge the severe weather that often comes with it.

Maybe it is time to consider that long delayed trip to the Canadian Maritimes where it was a sweater day instead of a sweat filled one.

You can check out my Maritime Canada travel guide.  The rocky shores of Nova Scotia are a good place to hide from the heat.

A perverse interest in weather

Last night we went dashing up to Cannonsgate, a new subdivision on Bogue Sound.  We were chasing sunsets again.

The channel from their marina meets the sound at a great place to catch the evening sun this time of year.

It is always beautiful watching the sun slip into the waters of Bogue Sound.

Usually it is a pleasant experience, standing out there by the water as the sun drops down below the horizon.

Last evening was a little different.  It was cold and windy.  I was looking for a place to warm my hands when I got back to the car.

When I mentioned in an email last night that I was cold at 30 degrees Fahrenheit, someone from Memphis made fun of me because it was already 16 degrees there.

Most people will agree that cold is relative.

When we lived on the farm north of Fredericton, New Brunswick, I often worked outside without any gloves until the temperatures dropped below twenty degrees below zero Fahrenheit.  It was something you got used to doing.

Now I enjoy seeing what the temperatures are more than working in them.  I have a long list of weather spots that I check every morning.

Most of them are places where I have lived or traveled. Some are places where I wanted to live, like Deer Lake, Newfoundland, which I found to be a very charming spot in the early seventies, or Charlottetown, PEI, where I once opened a computer store for Datamaster when I was their sales manager.

Other spots, like Mount Airy or Halifax are places where I have lived. Reston, VA, is a former work spot where I stayed so much that I felt like a resident.

In the winter I even like to call some of  my former neighbors in Canada to find out how much snow they have on the ground.

I could just use this really neat snow cover map that I have found, but I also enjoy talking to old friends.

Speaking of old friends, one of my college roommates who moved to Pittsboro, NC from Halifax, Nova Scotia, took off on a trip yesterday to Florida.

We were instant messaging this morning, and he told me it was 19F in Cedar Key, Florida.

If you want some reasonably priced orange juice, now would be a good time to run to the grocery store if it were not so cold.

The best news that I have heard, aside from West Virginia beating Oklahoma, is that the cold weather will be over by Saturday.

When temperatures, at least along the North Carolina coast get back into the sixties, I might get back into my kayak.

Dining at a Cheeseburger in Paradise

I had no idea that Jimmy Buffet owned a chain of restaurants, but I am all for more meals in paradise.

We might differ a little on where paradise might be found, but the thought is good and the wave sounds on the website are cool.

Recently we were visiting the area north of Charlotte that includes, Huntersville, Cornelius, Troutman, and Mooresville.

If you ever doubt that there is an explosion of growth in certain parts of North Carolina, wander on down to exit 25 or so and get in line to get off of Interstate 77.

We had eaten at the Huntersville Cheeseburger in Paradise once before, but we all had cheeseburgers, and I wanted to wait until we had sampled the menu a little before writing this review.

This trip I had the Carnivorous Habit Platter which includes Mini-Cheesburgers, BBQ Jerk Ribs, Teriyaki Wings, and Onion Six-Strings.

I was lucky that my wife not only split her salad with me but helped me eat the platter.  All of it was delicious.   The next time we, we're both getting a salad and splitting the platter.

My wife was especially fond of the Mini-Cheeseburgers.  She got an Island Quesadilla which she found a little sweet.  My youngest daughter got a Jerk Chicken Wrap which she claimed was delicious.

I also got a sip of Beach Bum beer which was also tasty.

All in all, it would be a nice chain to find its way to the Roanoke Valley.  The closest one aside from the Huntersville location would be in Charlottesville.

Cheeseburger in Paradise is one of the better chains that I have been to lately, they even had live music when we were there.

If you want to visit a real beach paradise, check out my revised Emerald Isle, NC travel guide.  It's only 5.5 hours away and as you can see from the pictures it qualifies as a special spot.  I can even find you a really good cheese burger.

Tomato hunter's paradise

Things have been tough for tomato lovers at our house and probably in many other homes in the Roanoke Valley.  The crop has been slow coming in this year.  Our plants were attacked by marauding deer and a fungus.

Good tomatoes were even in short supply at the end of last week at the Roanoke Farmers Market.  In fact I was beginning to wonder if all the area tomato farmers had retired.

Fortunately for us, we decided to take a trip down to Cornelius, NC to visit with our college age daughter who will hopefully graduate from UNC Charlotte by the end of the year.

I'm not sure where North Carolina stands among states with Farmer's markets, but I'm convinced it is well up in the rankings of states with produce stands along the highways.

After we had lunch at Lupie's in Huntersville, we came back and visited a produce stand that our NC-based daughter often frequents. 

It's one of a number of Farm Fresh Markets in the Charlotte area.  According to the owner they have been in business for years.  The one we went to was  at 19204 W Catawba Ave, Cornelius, NC.  It is one the same side of the road as the K&W Cafeteria and actually you enter the produce stand from the road to the shopping center where the K&W is located. 

The easiest way to find the Farm Fresh Market is to get off of Interstate 77 at exit 28, take a right and just follow Catawba Avenue about 1.2 miles until you see the stand on your left.  There's big "Out Parcel for Sale" sign.

After scoping out the tomato varieties and talking to a couple of repeat purchasers, we actually decided to go with the German Johnson tomatoes pictured to the left.  They turned out to be delicious as the main ingredient in our today's lunch BLTs.   They were very meaty with very few seeds.  Since we bought enough to last for most of the week,  I'm looking forward to tomato sandwiches for dinner almost every night this week.  They also might end up as the tomato plant of choice for next year depending on whether or not my Better Boys ever recover or not.

We also came away with a Sugar Baby watermelon.  After  cutting if today, my wife said we should have brought two home.  It was the best watermelon I've had since last year.

For the rest of our thirty plus dollars, we got white half runner beans, already shelled Lima beans, and shelled Crowder peas.  We got enough tomatoes not only for us, but also left some with the youngest daughter and sent some home with the oldest daughter.  We'll freely admit to being a tomato loving family with the exception of our son, a tomato alien, who enjoys his strange lettuce and bacon sandwiches.

We did leave the Okra behind and forgot to try the Sweet Potatoes.  The squash, corn, and zucchini we can get at our local Jamison's Market.  You just have to be on your toes to get there early enough to capture some of the corn.  I suspect their tomatoes are close to being ripe by now.

 

With all these great vegetables, I guess I'll be pretty choosy at the Roanoke Market this week.

 

I Found The 40% Who Believe We Found WMD In Iraq

They were all on the interstates yesterday.  They were crawling all over Interstates 81 and 77. Specifically they were driving in the left lanes of these highways.  Actually they're weren't driving there, they were cruising there, oblivious to the rest of the world.  Of course their speed was whatever happened to please them at the moment.  So they were driving at anything from ten miles under to ten miles over the average speed of the traffic flow.

I don't have any problem with people being in the left lane of an Interstate with only two lanes in one direction.  It's just that it isn't a place to dawdle after you have passed the vehicle which in theory you moved over in the left lane to pass.  Somehow all the signs of "slower traffic keep right" just don't seem to mean anything to those folks who believe we found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

You would think a line of fifteen or twenty vehicles behind you would give them a clue that they might try driving the right lane for a while.  Of course the most amazing thing is that you can have  half a dozen cars or trucks manage to pass one of these idiots on the right, and they still don't get it.

The only thing I can figure is that they are so used to being on the "right" that when they wander over to the left lane, the experience completely confuses them and they become lost, and then they convince themselves that they are in the "right" lane and that there is no other lane to the right of them.

Then it is only logical that the line of traffic behind them is dismissed like the evidence that we found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  They drive along in the left lane oblivious to the impact that their actions are having on the rest of the folks on the highway just as they ignore the impact of all the death and destruction we have wrought on Iraq.

Of course adamantly refusing to change your lane or your opinion no matter what the circumstance causes those of us who have figured out which end is up a fair degree of discomfort.  We have to take some chances to get around these idiots or just accept that the left lane cruisers are running the world.

I think most of us who pay attention to the world around us have seen our tolerance level for the left lane cruisers decline.  Of course their behavior often is far worse than just cruising in the left lane.  There was one guy in  a Suburban with NC plates yesterday who was in the left lane and driving anywhere between 60 mph and 85 mph depending whether or not someone was trying to pass him.

I finally managed to get around him and then  a couple slower vehicles driving in the right lane.  As soon as he saw me pull over into the right lane, he speeded up and drove right beside me until he blocked me in  behind a slow moving truck.  I figured he wanted to punish me for me so audacious as to get around him.   Since road rage isn't very healthy, I didn't rise to bait and let him go on by.  Eventually I passed him again, but only once in twenty miles did I see him slip up and move over to the right lane.

Of course then we found a whole other group of crazy folks, the ones who seemed to enjoy trying to rubber neck from the Interstate at the boats on Lake Norman just before we got to Cornelius.  It's hard to imagine the danger of trying to check out the people in boats while driving on an Interstate.  Of course it's a lot easier if you create a traffic jam and slow everyone down to a crawl.

I have to wonder about our driver training system.  Either it is completely worthless with no thought given to Interstate driving, or these folks are getting their drivers' licenses out of bubble gum machines and their training in bumper cars at the local fairs.

I don't where these folks belong, but they certainly don't belong on Interstates. Perhaps we can find a safe spot for them cataloging all the weapons of mass destruction or counting grains of sand on a beach.