Shazaaaam!

Beautiful southern Kudzu

7-26-11:  We are in beautiful Mt. Airy, NC.  It is loaded with kudzu and crepe mytle.  And it is the birthplace of Andy Griffith, Donna Fargo (she still lives here – remember what she sang?), the largest open pit granite quarry in the US, and the famous Siamese twins, Eng and Chang. Mt Airy is the town that fictional Mayberry is patterned after. We are staying at the Mayberry RV Park, on Andy Taylor St, and I do laundry at Thelma Lou's.  Love, love, LOVE the accents here.  Adorable.  They make me sound like a Yankee!  The young hairdresser I had today was really into my travel stories.  She said, “Now have ya'll been to New York? Cause I hear there's some purdy big waterfalls up there?”  I hesitantly said, “ya mean Niagara?”. She said, “Yayah, I thank that's the ones!”  She was hilarious.

Doesn't this make ya wanna whistle?

vroooom

David and I went to the Andy Griffith Museum.  Small, but great!  I guess we all feel like Andy and the Mayberry peeps are kinfolk.  So when you see the tweed suit Barney wore, and the dresses Helen wore among other memorabilia, it's like looking at family belongings.  We went downtown and had some good southern home-cooking at Barney's Cafe.

Cumberland Knob overlook

Mt Pilot named for this

David and Becky at Betseys Falls

Mountain Laurel or Rhododendron

View on the Blue Ridge Mtn Pky

Tom Dooley

Falls Creek Cascades

Blue Ridge Mtns North Carolina

North Carolina Tobacco field

Christmas Tree Farm

Cone Manor on Blue Ridge Mtn Pkwy

7-27-11:  David, Rocky, and I took the Blue Ridge Mtn Parkway from Virginia to Boone, NC.  Beautiful and loaded with Mountain Laurel and Rhododendron.   At Cumberland Knob we could see Pilot Mountain, which is where Andy got the name for the town up the road from Mayberry, Mt. Pilot. The Confederates frequently used Pilot Mtn as a lookout.  The Pkwy isn't a Nat'l Forest here so there are many privately owned homes and farms – beautiful farms on mountainsides.  We know that NC is home to large tobacco crops, but today we learned where Christmas trees come from.  So many gorgeous Christmas tree farms in the NC hills!  At the Lump Overlook, we saw a sign about Tom Dula. You remember that song, right?  The pronunciation was changed to local dialect “Tom Dooley”.

Stopped for a picnic at Falls Creek.  After eating, David walked down the trail and got pix of the Cascades at Falls Creek while Rocky and I hung out in the shade and kept guard of the place. On the way home, we happened upon the Cone Manor, quite the mansion and visitor center.

down at Wally's

Might be a good job!

let's go find some jaywalkers!  citizen's arrest! citizen's arrest!

Andy's childhood home - now a b & b

Andy's childhood church

Mt Airy Granite Quarry

David Darlin

i wanna be your salty dog

the courthouse

Hello, Sarah?

the sheriff at work

where are those keys when ya need 'em?

remember the cannon episode?

Barney's Cafe

let's go down to Floyd's

Bec and the real Emmitt

7-28-11:  Shazaaam!!  We went for a tour of Mayberry (Mt. Airy) in Andy's and Barney's squad car. I'll be dog if that wasn't a right nice time!  We left from Wally's Station. The driver, DC Rollins grew up with Andy.  DC is African American, so they didn't attend school together (before integration), but played and got into mischief together.  When they were little Andy would fight folks if they didn't think he was funny.  DC took us over to the Granite Quarry.  This granite is used for a lot of federal bldgs, such as the old post offices (like Texarkana's downtown p.o.) and Washington, D.C. bldgs.

We saw the church that Andy attended here with his parents (Baptist), Snappy's, Floyd's barber shop (the real Floyd is still cutting hair), and Andy's childhood home – which is a b & b now owned by a hotel chain.  We also saw Emmitt's childhood home.  Emmitt Forrest was Andy's best bud growing up.  The show's Emmitt Clark is a combo between Emmitt F, and a Mt Airy mayor, E.T. Clark.  And surprise, surprise, surprise! The real Emmitt's Mercedes was in the museum parking lot when we went by, so he was on the grounds.  After the tour, we visited the Darlin Farm & the Courthouse.  Then we thought it'd be a good idee to go back to the museum to meet Emmitt. He was a sweetheart.  He still lives here.  The actress who played Thelma Lou lives here as well. She got robbed and burglarized a couple of times in CA, so she moved here because Andy always talked about it. Last year, she was robbed at the Lowe's Food Store here --- IN MAYBERRY!!   Emmitt says she's doing well and the 2 of them get together often.   Got his autograph and pic.  There is a website that you might find interesting: 

http://www.telovation.com/articles/andy-griffith-show.html.

Andy and his 3^rd wife, Cyndi, (who is about my age) live on the NC coast, about 6 hours away.

Mt. Airy has to be about the friendliest town we've come across!  (In fact, they are in the running for “friendliest town)  Everyone speaks to us like they've known us forever and really and truly want to know how we are.  David and I have spent the week trying to talk like Andy and his Mayberry folk.  Thx for tolerating a bit of it in this paragraph. Much obliged!!

Mabry's Mill

Sorghum presser

David at the mill

Blue Ridge Mtn Pkwy in Virginia

Buffalo Mountain

Rocky Knob Hike

Blue Ridge Mtn Farm

7-29-11:  Took the Virginia part of the Blue Ridge Pkwy drive today.  Oh so beautiful.  Saw deer with a fawn on at least 3 different occasions.  Stopped at Puckett's cabin.  Mrs. Puckett lived to 102 and was an Appalachian midwife.  She delivered babies for $1-$6, depending on how good times were.  She had 24 children of her own, none of who lived beyond infancy. Next we stopped at Mabry's Mill.  Interesting to google. Lots of Appalachian history there.  We saw farm equipment from back in the day.  They used to make molasses sorghum.  Today they did a demo of stone grinding. Chestnut trees were used for practically everything from fences, to toys, to eating.  Early in the 1900's they became infested and by 1929 were gone.  The chestnut fences are still around up here, tho fragile. Pretty and educational spot. 

Stopped at Rocky Knob to picnic, then took the 1 mile hike there.  Easy level of difficulty.  However, “easy” is in the eyes of the beholder.  I could've used my walking stick in a few spots. Signs everywhere saying bears were active and to watch out.  We were hoping to see one, but they weren't out.  Did see a doe and fawn.  Great hike.  Buffalo Mtn is the highest point on this section of the drive. Parents used to tell their kids that they were free to go wherever they wanted as long as they didn't lose sight of the Buffalo Mtn. Stopped at Groundhog Mtn which is a great view as well.

7-30-11:  Today we ate at Aunt Bea’s bbq. If you ever come here, don’t bother with this place.  It’s a little fast food joint. Somehow, it seems to me that a place that’s gonna call itself by her name should be serving fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and some kind of yummy pie. Afterward we went to the “picture show” and saw Crazy, Stupid, Love.  It was crazy and stupid and we loved it!! 

We will wrap up our stay here this week after a visit to Charlotte to see Madeleine.  Then on to Asheville.

Groundhog Mtn Overlook

Be sure to visit my blog again!  Or should I say “ya’ll come back now, ya hear?”

Love,

Barney and Aunt B