Back from North Carolina

I got back from North Carolina this evening.  I drove up to Tyler in east Texas on August 5, spent the night with my sister and then took two days to drive up to North Carolina to visit my daughter and her family in Wilkesboro (northwest part of North Carolina).  I took the northern route up, across Arkansas and the length of Tennessee.  Ran into very heavy rains in the mountains of Tennessee.  During the rain, I hit a big bird.  I thought it would break my windshield.  Instead, it knocked the driver-side windshield wiper off my car.  I limped into the next town and got a new one.
On Saturday, we all went down to Valdese, NC and ran The Great Waldensian Footrace.  My son-in-law and I ran the 10K and my wife, daughter and two grandkids did the 1-mile race.  My son-in-law got a trophy for 4th place in his age group and I ran 1:20:20 and got 3rd place in my age group.  My grandson was 2nd overall in the 1-mile.  We hung around in Valdese after the race for lunch and the local festival.
This Wednesday, we spent most of the day hiking up and down Stone Mountain, about 45 minutes north of Wilkesboro. 
The first day in Wilkesboro, I ran in my daughter's neighborhood..  This is in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, so there was a steep hill in every direction.  For the rest of the visit, I ran a trail along the Yadkin River, which runs between Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro.  Beautiful place and great place to run.
Took the southern route back to Texas.  Yesterday, we drove 600+ miles through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and part of Mississippi.  Today, we drove 500+ miles on through Mississippi, Louisiana and on into Texas.