Wake Up Call Death by Speed

It's my job. Take the call at all times of the night...this time 0430 with 3 hours of sleep...and respond. Much like the firefighters and rescue personel you can often fine me at the scene of accidents with deadly consequences.

This morning it was near High Rock lake where 2 young men perished when their speeding vehicle went out of control and ended up under water.

Friends of the pair found the skid marks leading to the water several hours after they went for a drive. I got the call after rescue personel were already suiting up to dive and confirm the worst.



I pulled up and spent 10 minutes shooting before a carefully worded deputy sheriff politely whisked me back to the newscar so they could bring the underwater tomb to the surface.

I spent the rest of my time standing in the 20 degree darkness straddling a skidmark, watching and listening while waiting for the State Trooper to tell me what the sounds around me had already confirmed.

I spent the rest of my day carefully traversing the middle of North Carolina on 3 hours of sleep. As always I'm sad for yet another family, especially this time of the year.

4th of July at High Rock Lake

It's become almost a tradition for me and my family now. We head down to High Rock Lake to see what I think is one of the best Fireworks shows in this part of North Carolina.



In the past 3 years it's been and even better view for us because while everyone pushes and shoves for the best spot to park on the Highway 8 bridge or along other surrounding roads, my friend and coworker Caron Myers has the best seat in the house, and we're always invited.



The view is great from the Deck or out in a boat...because of rain this year we stayed on shore.




Caron and her famous NASCAR husband Chocolate Myers started building their lakeside cabin about 3 or so summers ago. It's grown from a lake retreat into a full time home that you'd have to see to believe. (I didn't get any pictures...darn.)



But on this day, one of the best things is their proximity to where the fireworks are launched from....in the lot two doors over. To watch the fireworks you have to look almost straight up.



One drawback is falling debris. It's so close that if the wind is blowing just right or not at all pieces of unburned morter shells and still glowing ash will fall on you. Ask my wife, she took a chunk to the leg that drew blood!



I took all these pictures with Caron's digital Canon SLR on a tripod. See all of them on Flickr.

High Rock Lake View from the TOP!

When the NC Forest Service put a Fire Alert in place last week because of high winds and dry conditions I set out with reporter Jeff Varner to find a visual way to tell the story.



And just in case there was no actual fire to put in our story, we figured it would be smart to actually have some other kind of hook in our story to make it work.



So with the permission of Distric Forester Lloyd Brown, Jeff and I headed to the old firetower at the lower end of High Rock Lake(at the point of the arrow).



We were forwarned that the climb up wouldn't be easy without a ladder because the lowest flight of the stairs heading up had been removed from this tower that is now only used as a communications platform.



I won't go into too many details about the climb other than to say it involved a ladder that was too short, a little shimmying and using an extension cord to haul up my camera that first 20 feet.



After gathering my equipment on the first level I climbed 5 more sections of stairs to my vantage point (2 sections above where I am in the picture below) where I gathered some video for our news story and these pictures to prove it.



I don't usually say I'm afraid of heights, but there's something a little unnerving about climbling a 50plus year old rusty tower on a windy day. The wind really picked up above the height the treetops.



But it was worth it for the view looking out over High Rock Lake. I could easily see for 50 miles or more. In the picture below you can even see Pilot Mountain that was 51 miles to the North (and slightly west) of the firetower.



In the map below I have pointed out where I was(at the bottom) and where I was looking(at the top).



As it turned out there were no fires this day but the climb made our story worth watching and frankly, worth doing.




Now, when summer gets here I'll be on the lake!