🗞️ The beltway's last stretch is finishing, and Friday it gets a ceremony

🗞️ West Davidson comes to Bishop McGuinness tonight

🗞️ A salon flooded out of its old space reopens Saturday

🗞️ Three drives worth taking while Sunday is clear

⛈️ Partly Sunny, Then Storms | High: 86°F | Low: 68°F

Friday starts out fine and gets busier after lunch. Partly sunny in the morning with a high near 86, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon — 40 percent, with a quarter to half an inch possible where a storm sets up. The wind will barely register, southwest at 0 to 3 miles an hour. Overnight the chance eases to 30 percent with a low around 68. Saturday backs off to 84 and mostly cloudy, with a 20 percent chance of a stray shower. Then Sunday opens up: mostly sunny, a high near 87, and the rain chance down to single digits. If you are holding an outdoor plan this weekend, hold it for Sunday.

For once, the news about the beltway is that it is nearly done.

Elected officials and other dignitaries are scheduled to gather Friday at the Winston-Salem Northern Beltway to mark the upcoming completion of two new sections of it, the stretch running between Interstate 74 and U.S. 421. Note the word upcoming. This is a ceremony for a road that is close, not a ribbon across a lane that opens the same afternoon.

What is finishing is the bottom of the loop — the run from the beltway's current end at U.S. 421 and Salem Parkway down across Interstate 40 to I-74 near Union Cross. NCDOT puts the full Eastern Loop at 17.1 miles from U.S. 52 to I-74, but most of that opened in stages starting in 2020. These last two sections are the ones crews are still working on, and the department has not published a date for opening them to traffic. A photo caption in the High Point Enterprise says the corridor is expected to open Sept. 19. We have not been able to confirm that anywhere else, so hold it loosely.

The reason it matters here is South Main. John Rhyne, the division engineer for NCDOT's Division 9, told WFDD in January that he expects the finished stretch to pull traffic off of it. “Hopefully, it'll reduce some of the traffic over there on South Main in Kernersville, as well as we see a lot of traffic coming and going toward the beach,” he said. He put completion at late this year.

High Point City Councilman Michael Holmes, quoted in the Enterprise, said finishing the eastern section will make it easier for motorists and business vehicles to travel through the Triad. For now the closest way onto the beltway is the U.S. 421 and Salem Parkway interchange, about seven miles west of downtown. When these last sections open, there will be interchanges at I-40 and at I-74 as well, and the run toward High Point gets shorter for a lot of us.

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The lights go on at 7:30 out on Highway 66.

Bishop McGuinness hosts West Davidson tonight at 7:30 PM at the school, 1725 NC Highway 66 South. It is a non-conference game and the Villains' second of the season.

The first one did not go their way. Bishop McGuinness opened at home on Thursday, Aug. 20 and lost 10-7 to Forbush. Seven points is all the Villains have put on the board so far this year, which makes tonight the first real look at whether that opener was the defense talking or the offense.

West Davidson arrives from Lexington. MaxPreps has the Dragons at 1-0, winners of their own opener 19-14 behind Cooper Moore, who ran for 108 yards.

Dress for it either way. The National Weather Service has a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms Friday night, with a low around 68.

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The water took the room. It did not take the business.

Mae's Beauty Bar & Bridal, a full-service salon offering hair, nails, esthetics, lashes and bridal beauty services, was forced out of its previous space by flood damage. On Saturday it holds a grand-opening open house at its new space just down the road, 309 Pineview Drive, from 5:45 to 9 PM.

The move is a short one. The salon's own website still lists the old address at 121 Pineview Drive, which gives you a sense of how recent all of this is — same street, a few hundred yards, a whole new room to set up. The site lists Mary-Ann Ladd as owner and stylist; the Kernersville News identifies her as Mary Ann Ladd Autrey.

The paper did not say which flood caused the damage, and we have not found a source that does, so we are not going to guess. What we can tell you is that a local business lost its space this summer and found another one without leaving the street.

If you have been putting off a haircut, Saturday evening is a decent excuse to go say hello.

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Friday storms, Saturday clouds, and then Sunday opens up. Here is where to point the car.

Mostly sunny and 87 on Sunday, with the rain chance down to almost nothing. Three places, all about an hour or less from town, all confirmed open this weekend.

Pilot Mountain State Park is about 40 minutes up the road at 1721 Pilot Knob Park Road in Pinnacle. The mountain section is open 7 AM to 9 PM through August and September, the visitor center keeps 9 AM to 5 PM daily, and there is no charge to get in or to park — North Carolina only charges entrance fees at Falls Lake, Jordan Lake and Kerr Lake. One warning straight from the park: the road to the summit stays open “depending on available parking space,” and when the lot at the top fills, the gate at the traffic circle closes, sometimes for an hour or more on a pretty weekend. Go early, or go toward evening.

Hanging Rock State Park is about 45 to 50 minutes out, at 1790 Hanging Rock Park Road in Danbury, with the main gate open 7 AM to 10 PM and day use free. Swimming in the lake runs Saturday and Sunday from 10 AM to 5:30 PM, at $6 for adults and $4 for children 3 to 12, and the last half hour, 5 to 5:30, is free. Boat rentals and the refreshment stand keep a slightly wider schedule, Friday through Sunday from 10 AM to 4:30 PM, but note that Friday is rentals and snacks only — there is no swimming that day. The lake closes for the season on Monday, Sept. 7, so there are two swim weekends left in it. The family campground is shut for the next 10 to 12 months while two new shower houses go in, but the trails are all open.

The Greensboro Science Center is the closest of the three, about 25 to 30 minutes at 4301 Lawndale Drive, and the one to keep in your pocket if the forecast turns on you. It is open daily 9 AM to 5 PM, and one general admission covers the aquarium, the museum and the zoo. SKYWILD, the zipline and the carousel are ticketed separately. The center uses what it calls a flexible pricing structure and does not post a flat rate, so check before you go — Greensboro residents, city employees, military and college students get a dollar off with ID. The parking lot is being expanded right now, with overflow at Jaycee Park and at the Nathanael Greene entrance to Country Park.

Not one of them is more than an hour away. You can leave after breakfast and be home for supper.

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