The last couple days of the trip, we just headed east back toward Blacksburg. I was sad to leave my chasin' buddies! We had spent a day over 2 weeks together, and never really had a break from each other, so it was so strange being away from them! But, we'll always have facebook. :)

After I got back from the trip, I helped my parents get the house ready for the relatives who were coming down for my brother's graduation. We needed to get the bar finished. Well, at least appearing like a bar! It looks awesome, I'll have to take some pictures.

The graduation weekend went by fast and smoothly! It was nice to see my family, and nice that I didn't actually have to travel to see them!

I've been back to work now. So it's hard to get back in the swing of things. After sitting in a van for who knows how long, it's even harder to sit at a desk for 8 hours a day. I haven't successfully done that yet! I'll get use to it by the end of the summer. :)

Today Kevin bought me a bike! I'm really excited! I've been wanting a bike to start riding, and maybe even ride to work in a little while to save gas. I'm waiting on the riding to work part until I get more in shape, and I think I can take on the roads! Kevin and I are going to do some riding around tomorrow, and Dawn and I are going to try and hit the Huckleberry on Saturday morning before it gets too hot! I'll be happy when it starts getting cooler again and maybe Huckleberry rides can become weekly over the weekends! (On Sunday of course, because in the Fall FOOTBALL!!! is on Saturdays!)

~Taylor~

Kevin and I went on a bike ride on a trail close to my neighborhood this evening. After I huffed and puffed through it, we've decided we'll need to ride it every day to work on getting in shape if I'm ever going to ride my bike to work! We really enjoyed the ride. It's not too long of a bike trail, but long enough to give you a work out. I'm not so good with the hills, and just a little ways up the first, very very VERY slight hill my thighs were burning! Clearly I'm not in the best of shape, but I haven't ridden a bike since before I moved out of my old house. That was almost six years ago, and then plus some! Kevin was having a lot easier time than I was. He use to ride his bike all the time, but I was surprised he did so well since he hasn't ridden his bike very often, if at all since we started dating over two and a half years ago. His body hasn't quite flaked out on him as mine has. But! There are goals to get to! I'm not going to set any time limit on this, but I hope soon to be able to ride all the way around that bike trail without stopping. Except of course when we need to cross the street and all that.

I'm very excited to be able to work up to the point of riding around that trail multiple times. It was quite a beautiful ride. We left about 8:00 pm so we didn't endure the full blown heat of the day. By the time we got around to the top of the trail the sun was setting and we had a gorgeous site that we rode under. The sun had made the sky a magnificent pinkish-red color. Awesome.

We have determined ourselves to ride almost everyday. I also decided it would be good to keep a log of our journey on my blog. Tomorrow I will take down the time it takes to get around the bike trail, and I'll try and keep getting the time of every go around and see how much we improve each time. I'll also try and figure out how long it is around. It's probably something lame like a quarter of a mile. I hope not! :)

Stay tuned!

~Taylor~

On Saturday we went out around the trail again. This time we timed it, and it took us 26 minutes including a stop every now and then. I'm hoping to bring that down to 10 minutes.

Yesterday evening was still very hot. So we waited for the sun to go down a bit more before we headed out bike riding. Since we waited longer, we decided to ride around the neighborhood some. That way we didn't have to go as far out since it was getting dark. We didn't time anything since we couldn't really compare it to anything else. It was really more of a nice evening ride. Though, there was a hill I had to huff up. The second time around I got all the way up without stopping! I can't wait until a hill like that is a breeze.

For now I still have a lot of work to do, but I'm glad Kevin is around to bike ride with me! We're doing good these past three days, and I'm sure we can keep it up!

Today my legs are sore, and it sucks to walk. I know I just have to truck right on through it to improve!

~Taylor~

I've never been one to really dream a lot. Or remember the dreams I had. Recently, however, I've been having very real seeming dreams. Let me tell you about a few:

A few days ago I had a dream about plinko. Only it was people who were the pegs, and the little plinko disks were sweet tarts. It didn't work very well because they kept getting caught up on everyone. Humans are not very good plinko pegs! I wake up to hear on the radio that some of the contestants for Survive It to Drive It were playing plinko for clam shots or something.

The night before last I had a dream where the entire Marching Virginians went on a storm chase! In those huge charter buses! Not good chase vehicles! Then one of the trumpet players, Alex Nette, lost his trumpet somewhere, and I had to call all the places we had gone to to see if they had a trumpet. In reality, I highly doubt that I would do that, he can find his trumpet himself! But I guess I'm nicer in dream life. Also our director, Dave, got in trouble for hiring strippers. Something Real Dave would definitely not do, I hope. Crazy!!!

Then last night I had a dream I ordered a sandwich at Subway. Simple right? Well for some reason they wouldn't make my sandwich. I waited for an hour for it. So I wanted to talk to the manager. I got really angry, and I started crying, and I said all I wanted was a sandwich! The manager took me out to where they make the sandwiches and he was about to say something when my mom woke me up. So I don't know if I would have ever gotten my sandwich! I'm not sure why they wouldn't give me one.

So that's been my dreams in the last few days. I think it is so random and strange, I just don't understand dreams. Anyone care to let me know what they mean?!

~Taylor~

I had gone out to dinner for a friend's birthday, so I did not get back until around 8:30. The sun was going down and there was a storm headed our way. That did not stop us!!! We took a lap around my neighborhood. I did better going up the hill! So I think I am improving. Which is the whole point! :)

~Taylor~

Again I got home on the later side since I had dinner with Julianna. When Julianna and I get together, we can talk for YEARS! Anyway, I dropped her off and called Kevin to meet me at my house so we can ride around. It felt wonderful out! Usually by this time it's still hot, but last night it felt amazing.

Since the sun was down and we were in twilight, we just rode around my neighborhood again. Three times around! Never stopped on the hill. My thighs afterwards, though, killed! They felt really tight, and I didn't want to walk! But, I think I'm getting better. Maybe tonight, if the Interview with Channel 7 doesn't run over, we can go around the path again. It's not suppose to get into the 90s again for a while, so that's good news!

I'm excited with the progress, and hoping I'll get comfortable enough on the bike to be able to take my hands off the handle bars! Kevin was being silly and had me try to touch his hand while we were riding, and I ended up running into the curb. Gosh! He likes to get really close to me on his bike and make me nervous. He's mean, really. :)

~Taylor~

Last Wednesday, some of the local chase crew got the chance to be interviewed by Brent Watts of WDBJ7. The two leaders, Dave Carroll and Kevin Myatt, along with us students, Andrew, Joel, and myself, met up in Roanoke at the station. When we were all there Brent Watts came out and got us and took us back to the weather deck. I felt totally stupid when we got out there, I definitely thought the weather deck was on an actual house. But, it's just a set just like everything else on tv. But it had a garden and everything. Just surrounded by studio lights and all set up with a camera. He started interviewing us one, by one, when my roomie, Jen, showed up! I didn't know she was going to come, so it was a nice surprise. She was the one on the trip who is an author writing a book about tornadoes. Brent Watts had us each talk about something we had a huge part on in the trip. Kevin and Dave talked about general stuff, being the leaders and all. I talked about video taping the storms, Andrew talked about being on GRLevel3 and the Delorme, Joel talked about his aspect of being an high schooler on the trip, and Jen talked about her book and what she thought about the trip. After the interviews we got a tour of the studio. It's basically in this huge gym type area with a ton of lights, and these foam squares to absorb the sound since it is so echoey in the room. We got to see the weather center with brand-new flat screen tvs! Since they've gone HD they've really been vamping the place up. It was neat to see the green screen and how they make sure they stay in the 4:3 screen area even though they broadcast in 16:9 now. They have white lines on the monitor showing the area they need to stay within so it doesn't look strange to those with the 4:3 tvs. We met Robin Reed who was a hoot. He was telling us now they're in HD that they get to be, "Clearly Wrong." He seems quite confident in his forecasts, hm? Brent Watts explained that he'd put the piece together that evening and it would air the next day at 5pm. Also maybe, since he had such great footage from us, that he'd make a longer piece for Friday at 5pm.

The next day, a short package aired. It didn't show what we had talked about really. Just a few snippets that were general. There wasn't another package later either. But, it was still a really neat experience.

VT Storm Chasers on WDBJ7 from Kevin Cupp on Vimeo.

We might get to do some sort of interview for a documentary PBS will do about us. That'll be later in June, which would be pretty neat too!

~Taylor~

We've still been riding every day! One night I had a headache, so we rode around the neighborhood once. Going around the neighborhood, after mapping it, is .68 miles. Not much, but with the hill, it's still a work out, especially going around more than once. Unfortunately that night my headache won over exercise. Kevin was itching to get out of the neighborhood, so he rode around the bike trail by himself. He took about 15 minutes, but was quite winded when he got back. Apparently my holding him back is a good thing, because he was in a lot of pain when he got back! After mapping the trail, we found out that it is a little over 2 miles down, around, and back to my house. So where I got barely over half a mile, Kevin got almost 3 miles.

The next day we only went around the neighborhood once because it had gotten really dark. I forget what had held us up. (Kevin reminded me that it was the Weather Station that held us up, I was working there Thursday evening)

However, on Friday, after a pool party, we did go around the bike trail again. We keep forgetting to check on the time. However, based on the amount of walking I've done in the past, the amount of walking I did on Friday was considerably less. Which was the same for our ride on Saturday and Sunday. I try a bit more every time. Spots that gave me trouble the first time we took that ride, give me no trouble now, and hills I had to walk up the first time, I can get up pretty well now. There are still a few hills that are practically vertical that I still can't get up, but I'm excited about the progress!

After mapping the path I'll take to work, it is about the same distance as around the entire bike path. So I just need to master some hills to be able to conquer the ride to work!

~Taylor~

We've been going strong. Switched the way we go up the bike trail so we have a more steady incline, rather then going up all at once and then have no work the rest of the ride. I think the steady incline will help us better on the work out side of things.

We're stalling at 16 days right now, since tonight there was a big storm and it has kept raining, so we were unable to go out. First time in 16 days, I think we deserve a break anyway.

Tomorrow will be a late day since it's Dawn's birthday and we're going to Awful Arthur's at 7:30. But, I am determined to go out tomorrow no matter what since we didn't go out today.

~Taylor~

Kevin and I were leaving his house to go to my house for the daily bike ride. I told him to check the radar before we left to check on the storms I remembered seeing earlier in the day. He checked it and we saw a big, red system headed our way. We put the storm tracks on and it showed a hail core and it would be over us in a half an hour! We decided to wait for the storm to pass and we ran to Food Lion, because I really wanted some corn bread!

On the way to my house from Food Lion, we turned onto one of the streets going toward my house when a huge bolt of CG lightning touched the ground right up the road in front of us. I screamed a little and took my foot off the gas, but Kevin told me to keep going. He also mentioned how I was a veteran at this. I told him I didn't have to drive during the storms! I noticed two wall clouds, one to our left and one to our right. I did not want to drive in that direction! I just wanted to get to the house and get in before the storm hit. I turned on another street, and we saw another CG right over the hill! We finally got to the house, and I hurried inside, forgetting the corn bread in the car, and looked out the front window.

I could see the hail core headed right for the house. Unlike when we storm chase, you can't just move away from the hail when you're in a house. Soon it was raining so hard just down the street that we couldn't see the mountains just to the west of us anymore. It eventually powered over us. Heavy rains, winds, and hail pounded my neighborhood.

~*~Video here as soon as I get it up on youtube!~*~

The hail started out tiny, but as the storm moved over us, the hail got bigger and bigger. I saw a few pieces were quarter size, maybe bigger. I called the NOAA weather station to report the hail. Other than the hail, the wind didn't seem very strong. The guy I talked to at the weather station told me there was some rotation with the storm after I told him about the wall clouds.

After the storm died down, I got some hail to show to Kevin up close since he said he hadn't remember ever seeing hail. Then we decided to use the hail as ice for the ice tea! Our back porch looked like it had snowed!

All in all, it was a pretty big storm for the area. Brought me back to the good old days of storm chasing...a few weeks ago...:)

~Taylor~

Little Known Fact: I wear eye glasses.

Widely Known Fact: I never have eye glasses on!

Yes, I am suppose to wear glasses, yet I never do. They broke a long time ago...like in High School...and I just never got them fixed, or bothered to get my eyes checked again for new ones. Since I have been dating Kevin, almost 3 years now, he has been pushing me to get glasses again. He'll mention something a good distance away, and I can never really see it. It's usually blurry. I am near-sighted if I forgot to mention that. I have grown a custom to what blurry objects look like far away. Like I can generally tell who is walking down the hall in front of me, if I know them well. I've been sitting in the front of the class, so I can see the notes and such. However, it's been annoying. So finally I gave up on my struggle in living a blurry life, and I gave in to getting an I appointment.

Only...this is what kept running through my mind:

I can relate almost anything to Friends.

So finally it is time for my appointment yesterday at 10:30 am. I get there a little early because my mom said I would have to fill out some paperwork. I hate filling out paperwork! Especially the part that said, "Date of your last eye appointment." Uhh...heck if I know! Later on the lady told me to just guess, so I said 2001. Woah. So I'm waiting for the *pre-eye exam* and reading a People Magazine. Don't you know they always seem to call you in right when you're getting to the good part of the article?! So I go in and she took my blood pressure. Apparently blood pressure can effect your eyes. She used a neat little automatic blood pressure thing, where it's like a really big watch and it automatically inflates on your arm and takes your pressure, the woman didn't have to do a thing but put it on and take it off of me. I told her it was pretty neat, and she said they had been using it for a month. After my blood pressure (which was fantastic) I had to look in a machine that focused on my eyes and made this little star thing sharp for me. Very technical terms. After that machine, I got to swivel around and get the puff of air in my eye like the above friends clip. I did not jerk away until after the puff of air went in. I don't understand the point of the puff of air...At the next machine she took a picture of my eyes. A very bright flashed in my eyes and all I could see were these bright circles in my eyes. It was better when she turned the lights back on. Then I was finished with my pre-exam! What a load of fun that was. Oh, I forgot I did the typical reading the eye chart thing. I suck at that with my bad vision. I'm not even sure of the number my eyes are, they never told me. Let's just say far from 20/20.

I waited for Dr. Newman, and went in to my actual eye exam when he was ready. I explained to him that I had had glasses before, they broke, and I just never did anything about it. I got lectured, naturally, but he was nice about it. He said my eyes have probably gotten worse from the strain. He first put eye drops in my eyes to dilate them.

This is pretty much what has to happen to get drops in my eyes:

I hate eye drops, but he did them quickly, and held my eye open like an expert...because, well duh, he is an expert. The eye drops stung, but he said that would go away, and I would just have trouble with bright lights and things would be blurry in a little while. Great. He re-did my eye chart reading and said I was ALMOST illegal to drive without my glasses. Oops. He did a bunch of other random eye checking things to make sure my eye problem was just an eye problem and not something related to health. And it is just an eye problem! Yay me. Dr. Newman then did the big eye machine thing where he asks you which lens setting is better...this one, or this one? After that I was all set and ready to get my glasses frame. I decided to wait until I came with my mom to decide. I slipped on my sunglasses and went out to my car to go to work.

Man, were my eyes weird! My pupils were huge and everything seemed like it had a film over it. I managed to get to work, and freaked Dawn out with my eyes. She gave me some work do to, and I went to my desk and turned on the computer. Trying to focus on the paper and on the computer nearly made me throw up. So I decided to go home for lunch and rest my eyes a bit. I watched tv, since that didn't hurt my eyes, but mainly I listened to the tv with my eyes shut. I took a picture a couple hours later, since I was too lazy to look in a mirror, to see if they had gone down any. Just barely. I got annoyed with just sitting at home when I needed to be at work, so I decided to go back to work despite my eyes. I did my entry, which made me feel like I was going to throw up still. I powered through it though! I gave some of it to Amanda though, because I just couldn't continue to keep doing it. Plus I was leaving soon to meet my mom back at the Vision Care place to pick out my glasses.

I picked Kevin up on my way and we met up with my mom. She told me I had to get fun frames. Of course! If I have to wear glasses, they might as well be fun. I tried on SO many glasses. I finally narrowed it down between a pair of Candie's glasses and a pair of Vera Bradley glasses. Vera Bradley has glasses?! I know! I was pretty excited. I finally decided to go with that pair. They are red, and have the Mesa Red pattern on them. I'll be getting them in two weeks, and they come with a matching Vera Bradley eye glasses case! Awesome! Until then, I'll have to live in my blurry world.

~Taylor~

I have decided that I want to get a hair cut to go along with my new glasses...look. The problem is, I have no idea what I should do with my hair. I have found some styles I like, I'm just not sure what the best choice would be. Help?!

~Taylor~