Adventure on The Outer Banks

The morning of the BooBanks wedding we had time to kill so we went to the Wright Brothers Monument and State Park. It was pretty neat to see all the stuff they had. We walked up to the monument and took a few pics. Quiz: Which brother made the first flight, Orville or Wilbur? The answer is after the pics.

Quiz answer: Orville

The morning after BooBanks' wedding a group of us got up early and went hang gliding on Jockey's Ridge. It's a big sand dune in Kitty Hawk very near where the Wright Brothers made their first flight.

You got some instructions first then headed out to the dune to give it a try. It was a lot harder than you'd think. All you really have to do is relax. Easier said than done when you're running off the side of a steep dune.

You got 5 flights each and all of us had at least one good flight. Jonny had the best crash. A picture perfect nosedive 50 feet after liftoff!

Jonny eating it!

Nic looking good!

TG shows everyone up!

Bakes sticks the landing..kinda!

MB looks just like Orville did!

BooBanks Wedding

This past weekend we went to Kitty Hawk, NC for Cliff and Boo's wedding. It was on the beach Friday evening. It was great to see everybody. We had a terrific time. The reception was in the pier house. The Gahagans like to boogie that's for sure.

Tornado Chasing

It's been a month since I came back from tornado chasing with Vortex 2. It was boring most of the time but absolutely thrilling when we finally saw an EF-2 tornado in LaGrange, WY on June 5th. We logged 10,600 miles through 9 states in 5 weeks time. The food was bad and some of the hotels were as shady as you've ever seen.

Anyway here are some pics of the trip. Enjoy!

Cornhole Champion!

So I went to the Smyrna Crawfish Festival last weekend with some coworkers.  I've never had crawfish before.  The were good, but a lot of work for very little reward.  The shrimp was better.  Anyway, they had a cornhole tourney there.  Tim B. and I(Doogie Cornholers) were a team and Mike M. and Mike Mc.(sorry I forget the team name) were a team.  We both made it through the 1st round with ease. M&M unfortunately ran into cornhole buzzsaw in round 2 and had to sit.  The Doogie Cornholers sliced and dice their way to the finals where they were pitted against some lame kickball team that had uniforms and everything.  Just envision the movie Dodgeball but with cornhole.  After having to go back to 15 twice for going over 21, the Doogies put the hammer down and won the finals 21-15.  

Tim

MB

Who's Next?

The Winning Throw!

Volleyball Tourney

So my sister plays for a traveling volleyball club team and I never get to see her, but one weekend they finally had a tourney in ATL so I drove down to see her. Don't let the picture fool you, she is really taller than me (she is leaning).

She played a total of 7 games and won 6 of them. MB and I saw 2 games and they won both. When they are not playing they have to referee the lines. Basically that means they stand and hold a flag and wave it based off of whether the ball is in or out (very technical, I know).

Severe Weather

So there were some very strong winds earlier this week, and apparently, something decided that MB's neighbors didnt need their fence anymore. His neighbor came over with the chain saw and helped out.

Now, while some would say that all I did was take pictures, and did not help out at all, at least I didnt get the chainsaw stuck in the tree!

Eventually they got it out and chopped it all down into some nice firewood. The bad news is everyone has a gas fireplace, so it got chucked into the woods. 

New Record Holder

So I've started this new segment on the show.  It's basically Me vs Weather.  I do these crazy stunts once a month to show the wild nature of weather.  The first was this past Thursday at the Virginia Tech Wind Tunnel.  This thing cranks up the wind to 200mph!  Anyway, I stood inside the tunnel and got blown around.

I wore a climbing harness and was strapped in to 4 cables screwed into the wall.  I felt pretty secure.  I tested it out at 45mph.  Windy but no problem.  Then they turned it up to 75mph(cat 1 hurricane).  It was tough to stand and I couldn't hear a thing.  Live during the show I attempted to break the VA Tech human wind speed record of 110mph.  I got up to 122mph(cat 3 hurricane)!  I couldn't stand without the support cables and my face got all distorted.  It was unbelievably loud and cold.  With the wind the wind chill was about 35 degrees.  i had to wear gloves but my ears were frozen.  After I broke the record, my producer suggested I go back in and try to break m

y own record and get up to at least 131mph(cat 4).  I got back in and they cranked it back up.  It was nastier than nasty.  I got up to 133mph and they decided to shut it down.  They were a little afraid I was going to get hurt.  I could hardly move.  My face was completed distorted.  There was so much force on my chest it was getting hard to breathe.  It was sick!  I think if I did it again I could get to 145mph.  The next stunt is me being rescued by a swift water rescue team in a raging river.  Stay tuned.