Eye On The Road, Day Four

Sharyn Alfonsi Hits The Road To Chart Pain At The Pump

(CBS)  CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi's Web-exclusive road diary on how Americans are coping with the high price of gas.

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On the road to D.C.

After four days on the road, our car is filled with an assortment of empty cups, a half eaten box of cereal, an inverter, iPods, blackberries, cell phones, two-way radios, a portrait of Colonel Sanders (don't ask) and a baseball. The baseball, I can explain.

Yesterday, we spent the day with the Carolina Mudcats baseball team in Zebulon, N.C.

For a few hours, we had the stadium mostly to ourselves. I took off my shoes and walked on the perfectly manicured grass. My producer Mike hit a few balls. Jim, my photographer by day and little league coach by night, checked out all the team's equipment and then gave me some pitching tips.

The team let me throw out the first ball. (Yes, it made it to the catcher. No, it wasn't exactly a strike.)

Afterwards, we celebrated and ate our first sit-down dinner of the road trip — ballpark dogs and peanuts near the first baseline. It was heaven.

Now were back in the Honda headed to D.C. to do a story about how high gas prices would need to go before people who love their cars would be willing to give them up and take public transportation.

Looking at this car filled with the comforts I can no longer live without (read: cup holders, cell phone chargers and a cooler of Red Bull) I see why it's hard for people to give up their vehicles. I mean, where would I carry my baseball?

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Click here to read Day Three of Sharyn's road log.

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