Southern Byways

Well, there’s the saying that things tend to happen in threes, even storms. As you may know by now, Tropical Storm Hanna is expected to make landfall on the east coast, placing many southern destinations under warnings. Before you make or cancel any weekend plans, be sure to watch the latest here and here.
Not to be ignored, Hurricane Ike might make his appearance next week. And then there’s Tropical Storm Josephine, behind Ike.
 
Photo credit: Portrait of a Laptop, flickr, creative commons by mioi

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” Never before have I tasted hot sauce off a toothpick. But when my mouth caught fire 10 seconds after tasting “Inferno,” one of the hottest of hot sauces in the world, I understood why David Ashley, maker of Mad Dog hot sauces, had urged me to sample his sauce with a toothpick rather than the plastic minispoon I’d used to taste his other, milder sauces. He also insisted – in a stern but kind tone – that I place the toothpick in the center of my tongue, by all means avoiding my lips …read more

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Have you ever felt left out when you hit one of the theme parks and the rest of the family is rushing to find the next roller coaster. Well, here is one that is tame enough for even you Hey, you might even enjoy it. Okay the only thing that I didn’t like was the fact that you have to sit alone. Yeah, I’m a big baby when it comes to rides.
Year Opened: 1974
 
Just in case you are wondering, The Space Mountain attraction at Walt Disney World is over 180 feet high, and over …read more

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I don’t know about you, but a lot of amusement park rides… quite frankly, scare me. Granted, most of the time, the rides are well serviced and nothing goes wrong, but then you read about rides when things DO GO WRONG. All I can say is that I hope that this horrible accident will bring about the necessary changes. These things just shouldn’t happen!
Here’s what took place.
“ Six Flags and another company shut down eight more thrill rides Friday around the country, including a ride at a North Carolina amusement park, after a teenage girl had her …read more

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“In North Carolina, global warming isn’t a future worry. It’s already lapping ashore.
Nags Head Mayor Renee Cahoon sees all the proof of climate change she needs at the end of Old Oregon Inlet Road. The street once led to rows of oceanfront houses. Now it ends suddenly in bulldozed piles of sand.
Some beach erosion occurs naturally, and development near the ocean tends to make it worse. But some scientists think erosion has grown more pronounced in recent years as the sea level has risen and storms increased. On some days, stretches of Nags Head have no dry beach, and visitors …read more

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Well, we are wishing for the rains that they can bring. Here’s the latest on what’s happening in Georgia…
“Georgia officials issued a mandatory evacuation in southern Charlton County, saying about 300 homes may be in the path of the state’s largest recorded wildfire since state record-keeping began in 1957. It has burned 107,360 acres — or 167 square miles — of forest and swampland. ”
The largest wildfire since 1957!! That is kind of scary and it seems that it’s going to take more than a little help to put it out. It’s been going strong for the past three weeks.
Smoke-filled …read more

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Okay, for today, lets just talk about spiders. Even the little ones give me the creeps and I have to call on darling husband to get it out of the house. But now we are talking about really scary spiders…
Louisiana bug experts say the poisonous brown widow spider, a cousin to the well-known black widow, is increasingly being spotted in Louisiana. The spiders are generally found in tropical areas but were reported along the Mississippi Gulf Coast last year.
And what is even scarier is the fact that they are saying that these spiders are coming from Florida!! I really didn’t …read more

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 With hurricane season right around the corner, it seems that Florida has been dealt just a bit more to contend with.
Crews already battling more than 200 wildfires across Florida faced a new threat Tuesday as a huge blaze in Georgia moved toward the state line and a smaller fire crossed it.
    Besides the sheer number of fires, high wind and tinder-dry conditions made it difficult to battle the Florida blazes, which had covered about 78 square miles, or 50,000 acres. Authorities evacuated about 300 homes in north Florida on Tuesday and hundreds more residents were on evacuation standby. ”
I’m beginning to …read more

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This is what Attalla City Judge Kenneth Robertson Jr. in Alabama decided was fitting…  either wear the sandwich board on two Saturdays or face the consequences… which just happened to be jail time.  Most of the customers leaving Wal-Mart thought that the punishment was a good one and that it would definitely make them think twice about shoplifting. Others thought that it was cruel. 
What do you think?
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“Although it was over a thousand miles away, the tornados that destroyed Greensburg Kansas reminded us that there is a chance that global warming is playing havoc with our lives.  Regardless, it was disheartening and sobering to see a town demolished.
On Friday, New Orleans had a wake up call of our own with massive street flooding after a torrential rain.  “
Having lived through a tornado that wiped out an entire street in a nearby town and then a few years later watching a funnel cloud heading straight for us, I can honestly understand what these people are going through. It takes …read more

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