so I think so far I am going in the right direction

Well you're not. XML::Simple isn't suited to that task.

I am sure I am not the only one that has tried to get data from the NDFD, I have run across a few threads in searching google that are here, but using the search here keeps saying that there are none.

None? I find one or two

cpan://NDFD -> Weather::NWS::NDFDgen - Object interface to the NWS NDFDgen Web Service.

metacpan://NDFD -> Weather::NWS::NDFDgen - Object interface to the NWS NDFDgen Web Service.

ddg://perl NDFD -> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythWeather

Tutorials: Perl documentation documentation, Searching Perl Documentation, How to RTFM

If starting from scratch I might opt for and SOAP::Simple/XML::Compile::SOAP/http://perl.overmeer.net/xml-compile/ or xsh /// xpath