Oh little town of Bethlehem!

A Christmas greeting from the Southern Weather Brigade for those of you who don't check the team site:

Also, check out this link for the rest of the team... Merry Christmas!!!

I am up in Winder now, staying with my dear Winder friend, while I visit everyone for the holidays.. What a fascinating trip it was coming up here! First of all, I drove through Ashburn, Georgia, which actually is the city where one death occurred during Saturday's severe weather outbreak, when a tornado dropped that night and traveled across the interstate throwing a semi truck off a 50 foot embankment. I was in heavy traffic, so I couldn't photograph it, but I have asked Meso Magnet Mike to stop and shoot it while he travels up to Byron today, and he said he would for me. (Look for that on the team blog.) Anyways, I saw just with a quick look driving up the road, 3 billboards destroyed and a clear path through the trees on the east side of the interstate. One of the billboards that was completely destroyed (happened to be on the side with the embankment); it was one of those with the huge metal column support, so I would imagine that prior to the tornado, it sat about 50 to 100 feet above the interstate, but as I drove by, it was a crumbled pile of rumbled, the pole bent in half like it was nothing. Thank God it didn't fall across the interstate. It would have been more than just one life... Mini-Dew and I were both speechless driving by it. Afterwards, Mini-Dew said to me, "I want to see a tornado!" Got her hooked. She just can't imagine something that would have that much force. My future chase partner. I can see it now, "Two Dews Chase team".

Well, we made a nail appointment with Mini-Dew, myself, my mom, and my grandma, where we asked the Vietnamese lady to take a picture of us, and she thought that we wanted pedicures... uh no. Finally, after breaking through the language barrier and holding up the camera several times, they figured it out. We had our 4 generation shot, and we were on our way. Driving up the road, I spoke briefly with Meso Magnet Mike, who allowed me to experience a first. He said, "Hold on a sec, ok, Dew?" He puts the phone down, and I hear, clear as day (except yesterday, where we saw thick fog through most of the day, and a very low cloud cover), a gunshot. He came back to the phone, "OK, I'm back, you there, Dew?" Me, "Uh, yeah. Was that just a gun firing?" Mike, "Oh, yep. I had to take care of some squirrels trying to get into the pecans." I can honestly say that no one has EVER put me on hold to shoot a squirrel!!! lol He told me he was just out to scare it, that he could never shoot a squirrel while it's playing with its nuts (eye roll). He and I talked until I got to Bethlehem. No lie. I drove through Bethlehem yesterday. It was nothing like I would have expected. It was funny though; I drove down Christmas Ave, passed Angel Street, Manger Street... etc. Kinda cool. Of course, I had to stop and take a picture of the street sign, but I pissed off a FedEx driver at the same time... of all the driveways in Bethlehem, he had to choose mine... Anyways... I came across this sticker at a gas station. Too cool.Merry Christmas!!
~Dewdrop