Eye On The Road, Day Three

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

Like every other kid with an older brother, I spent a good part our family vacations defining and negotiating the real estate of the back seat of my parents Jeep Wagoneer.

The line that separated my brothers' part of the back seat from my part occasionally moved, but the consequences of putting even a finger over it were always the same — he'd try to kill me.

Road trips are a quick way of learning a lot about a person. On this trip, I'm traveling with six guys. Six "big brothers" who keep me entertained, fed and generally in line. Unfortunately, I can't always keep THEM in line.

Yesterday, we were all together in Sylvania, Ga. We were doing our story about how gas prices are affecting farmers. I was in the hotel room, working on our script while my photographers, Mark Laganga and Jim Zurich, set up a live shot nearby.

Hours later I left the room to meet up with the guys at a nearby farm where we would be doing the live shot that night. Right away, I saw Jim. He's hard to miss at, like, 9 feet tall.

"Where's Mark?" I asked. Jim pointed up. Mark had scaled 150 feet up a silo to shoot part of our live shot from overhead. He was attached to a thin ladder with a climbing harness. I know and am very fond of Mark's wife, Judy. This was not good. Mark, however, seemed delighted. It was hard to tell if he was fueled by adrenaline or Red Bull. I suspect it was both.

The live shot ended up looking great. Mark and his camera made it down safely. A Blackberry that was attached to his belt did not fare as well. Anyway, we had a lot to laugh and talk about last night, which was a good thing since we also had a 300-mile drive ahead of us.

Taking a road trip with people you like really does make the trip go faster. Just ask any of the guys who play for the Carolina Mudcats, a minor league baseball team out of Zebulon, N.C. That's where we are headed today.

The team travels about 13,000 miles a summer on the bus. The cost of the team's transportation has gone up 40 percent since last year because of rising gas prices. Some of the players, who are hardly making a "Johnny Damon paycheck," say they've had to sell their own cars and carpool to the stadium. (Is this what they mean when they talk about the "bus leagues"?)

Of course, fuel prices are also affecting their fans. Many say they can't make the trip out to the beach this summer; a minor league baseball game is all they can afford. We'll introduce you to some of those folks tonight.

Right now, I'm off to shoot some interviews. Truth be told, I want to make sure Mark isn't climbing the foul pole while Big Jim takes batting practice.

We hope you'll watch tonight.

Go Mudcats!