Vosot Patrol

With Brent out of the office (bureau) for a few days, I've got the whole place to myself. That means coming up with enough vosots to keep the assignment desk, producers, news director, etc... happy. Today, I had a couple of ideas and since one of them involved a trip to Mt. Airy (some of you know it as Mayberry) they also had an idea for me to go to Virginia.

I headed out the door to make my way up Highway 52. With Pilot Mountain in my sights and FoxSports Radio on the XM Radio I was setting myself up for a perfect day. Of course, as soon as you think you've got it made something will change all that.





Now, I just had to find this cabbage farmer in Ararat, Virginia. Yep, my assignment was to find this farmer who had a huge cabbage farm and see how the recent heat and drought were affecting (or is it effecting?) him. Oh, I had looked up a few phone numbers before I left and left messages on answering machines, but I knew the best way to find a farmer was to go to his farm.

I found the farm and after driving around it and up and down every dirt road and small lane through fields, I had found the owner and his family. They said they'd be moving the irrigation line after it drained and would be watering in the next hour. That's fine, just enough time for me to head back down the road to Mayberry, er, Mount Airy for a pork chop sandwich at Snappy Lunch.

Now, for those of you who've never heard of, or tried, a pork chop sandwich from Snappy Lunch, let me tell you it is the best -and quite possibly the biggest- sandwich you'll ever put in your mouth. Charles Dowell has been making the fried masterpiece for almost 65 years, yep, 65 years! If you ever do make it to Snappy, get the sandwich all the way... chili, slaw, tomato.... mmm, good!

So, one pork chop sandwich down and it's back on the road to cabbage farm. As I rolled up, they were just putting the finishing touches on the irrigation system. Ed cranked it up and we watched as they sprayed the cabbage with a mist that must've been heavenly given the 95 degrees the rest of us were suffering through. After the interview it was back to Mount Airy where I had another vosot, but it fell through. So, back to the bureau to put together my little vosot.

The assignment desk had other ideas. As I mentioned before, just when you think you've got the easiest day in years, it comes to a sudden and miserable halt. I was needed in High Point to shoot lives for the five and six o'clock shows at a blood drive we just so happened to be sponsoring. Oh, it wasn't hard or anything, just.... uhmmmm, painful. A few dozen lab techs taking blood and generally standing around for a series of live pictures for an hour and a half.

Oh well, beats sitting at a desk all day, huh?