Only Five States Left

45 down. Only five to go. Only five states left in our quest to receive comments about North Carolina from people living in all 50 states. But today is the deadline.

Please. Please. If you know anyone living in the following states ask them to either email me today at bleslie@wral.com or comment on this blog about what they miss or appreciate about North Carolina:

Idaho

North Dakota

South Dakota

Rhode Island

Montana

We've had some heartfelt and colorful comments this week all across the fruited plain. Please keep them coming today even if your state has already reported.

Special thanks to the Gary family in Cary for securing comments from their sons living in Hawaii and Alabama.

Tar Heel native Phil Baigus in Wyoming had a long list of things he misses about the Old North State including "the smell of rain in a hardwood forests, front porch folk song pickin’, barbeque, sweet tea, Merlefest and Roanoake River stripers and blackwater rivers."

The eloquent Meredith Carswell-Sheline living now in Alabama longs for the autumn colors of Chapel Hill "in their hues of scarlet and crimson, canary yellows and golden orange." Meredith also pines for " the eclectic culture of downtown Durham and Chapel Hill, the intensity of the nail biting basketball games between UNC and Duke, and the absolute serenity of Carolina’s campus early in the morning."

And from retired WRAL Farm Reporter Dix Harper who lives now in Wisconsin: "I miss the friendly appreciative farmers we’d meet in covering the WRAL-TV area, the Farmer’s Market – what a unique blessing for you people lucky enough to be patrons. And, don’t forget pork barbeque –Eastern NC style—with hushpuppies and lots of sweet tea. Oh, yes, and enjoying a peck of steamed oysters! You can’t get any of these in Wisconsin."