It was summer 1974, and love was in the air. Judith Goode and her steady beau — they had exchanged class rings just weeks earlier - frolicked at the San Jacinto battlefield. Then, as the young man rocketed a frisbee into the blue, Goode's Deer Park High School ring sailed off his pinky and was lost amid the grass.

For two weeks the pair, metal detector in hand, scoured the sacred turf that Sam Houston trod in search of the $45.10 white gold band with its emerald-green stone. And for all their sweat and tears they got - nothing.

Sticky heat grips the Houston region for the next few days as a strong ridge of high pressure parks above the area.

Temperatures will climb to triple digits under sunny skies by the weekend before the region cools off slightly next week. The ridge will drift eastward away from southeast Texas, and a slight chance of showers is possible.

The scalding heat mixed with muggy air left over from recent downpours will send the heat index soaring to 106 degrees on Friday, July 30, 2010.