O-H!!! N-O!!!

Current location: Chillicothe, OH

Current weather: Sunny 69

Miles traveled today: 459.2

Total miles traveled: 1,351.7

Today we left Fayetteville, NC, around 8am and instead of taking the interstate through Raleigh we took a back highway. I was thinking at first that we should have just kept with the regular route, but I think it's fun to switch it up a little. Traveling through the "boonies" of NC was in fact fairly interesting. Cotton planting season is now in full swing, and we also noticed numerous small grave yards right along the roads. It was almost as if the people that lived in the house were just buried out in their front yard by their favorite tree....very interesting indeed.

I also love how much the land changes while you're in NC. We started out with flat sandy soil and in a few hours we are greeted with our first sign of the Appalachian Mountains. Mt. Pilot was always a fun landmark for me when I was a kid heading out to the outer banks, not only did it signify the entrance into NC, but also the unique shape of the mountain. When I was little I always called it Mt. Burt in honor of Burt from Sesame Street. Then when I got older and traveling with some of my guy friends we renamed it Mt. Boob. Looking at it now I think Mt. Burt is a much better name, and it always makes me happy to see it.

*******SCIENCE NERD ALERT********** When we started driving up the mountains we noticed a water bottle we had in the truck was dripping every time we would climb up the mountain. When we would level out it would stop, and when we were descending the mountain the water would actually retreat back down the straw into the bottle. Hopefully the video works!

Once we got into Virginia we decided to stop at a historic site along the interstate. We stopped at Shot Tower State Park only to find out they don't open until April 1, go figure. We did however get a picture of the tower and I read about what it was used for. I found out that this tower was used to make lead shot for the civil war. Lead and firewood were taken to the top of the tower and the lead was melted down. The molten lead was then dropped down pipes of different sizes and the lead fell over 150 feet, most of it being underground. As the lead fell not only did it cool but it also took on a spherical shape. The lead then fell gently into a large pot of water to cool down even further.

We then ran into our first traffic jam/wreck of the trips. I think by the time we got there most of the carnage was cleaned up. The only thing we could see was the remnants of a semi trailer that had caught fire. I just hope everyone was ok.

Tomorrow we have about 5 hours ahead of us, and I'm looking forward to being back home for a few days and spending time with Lacey's family for Easter before we head out to Iowa.

Next up.....The Holy Land (West Lafayette, IN)

Carolina on my mind

Current location: Fayetteville, NC

Current weather: Sunny 71

Miles traveled today: 403.2

Total miles traveled: 892.5

Today we woke up to a rainy/foggy morning, and being in the mountains with a low cloud deck the travel was a bit difficult at times. Our hotel last night sat up on a fairly steep hill. I'm glad we never stayed at this hotel before with the trailer because I don't think we would have made it up. This is a view from the parking lot of the hotel to give you an idea of the hill we were on.

Driving a few miles down the road was the tunnel that connects West Virginia to Virginia. This always brings back memories of my childhood going to the outer banks. My sister and I would try and hold our breath the entire length of the tunnel. I would always cheat and my sister would hold her breath until her face was bright red. My secret plan was for her to kill some of her brain cells so I could once again be the smartest child.

We then reached the pot of gold of our almost 900 mile rainbow. Our towers were all taken down for us on this trip...others will not be so easy. We had four of these bad boys to load up in our trailer and tie down. The sites were about 1.5 hours apart and it only took us about 3 hours of total "work" time to get them loaded. On our way out from our first farm we had our first wildlife encounter. This is our snapping turtle friend and when we got out of the truck to take its picture, it wasn't happy with us at all. We tried to get him to move out of the driveway but he wouldn't budge, so we just straddled him with the truck.

We then went to Mt. Olive, NC, the pickle capital of the world for some lunch. It was about this time that I became pretty bummed that we were only an hour from the beach and it was such a nice day, but we still had work to be done. We then drove to our next site and packed up the towers, where we almost had a disaster. As I was cutting the ground rods with the saw sparks caught some of the dry grass on fire. We were able to stomp it out pretty fast, but if ten more seconds would have passed the entire north side of the lagoon would have been on fire. The winds were about 20mph and dry grass was everywhere. My heart was beating pretty fast after that scare. We then hit the dusty trail back to our hotel.

Next up...Chillicothe, OH

Take me home, country roads

Current location: Bluefield, WV

Current weather: Light rain 46 degrees

Miles traveled today: 489.3

Total miles: 489.3

This morning we kicked off our travels at 8am. We woke up to a heavy frost...hopefully we won't run into anymore of this the rest of the trip, 80s by the end of the week?!? We then headed off to the Uhaul on the west side to pick up our trailer. I was hoping that this would take us maybe 10 minutes.....wrong!

I backed up to the trailer and the guy told us that we had the wrong hitch. I thought it would be ok because we had another hitch ball in the back of the truck. It turns out that they were the same size. This made me really mad because I had called 3 days before to make sure that we had the right ball size and they told me that we would be fine....I guess Uhaul couldn't handle our big balls! It took the guy a little over an hour to change our hitch out, which was entirely way too long. This put us on the road a little after 9. If there is anything I've learned from this job is that whenever you think a job will be quick and easy, it usually never is the case.

Our travels then took us through Xenia, Ohio, and if you're a weather nerd like me or lived through the 70s this town should ring a bell. Almost 36 years to the day April 3, 1974 the single largest tornado outbreak on record occurred. Almost 150 tornadoes in 13 states with nearly 330 deaths. Xenia was by far the strongest and even rivals the 1999 Moore, OK tornado.

We then moved into West Virginia, the coal capital of the world. I just took this picture because i thought the smoke looked cool against the dark blue clouds in the background. So here I am now in Bluefield, WV a town that sits in a valley right along the West Virginia/Virginia border.

Next up....North Carolina

It begins....

Current Location: Lafayette, IN
Current Weather: Light Rain 45
Miles Traveled: 0

Starting tomorrow (March 29th) I will be traveling by truck all over the country taking down weather instrument towers. I estimate that we will be on the road for about 80hrs. The first trip takes me to Eastern North Carolina. I'm sure I'll have many stories and pictures to share in the coming month. Stay tuned!