Our first night stop was near Charleston WV at the Mardi Gras Casino. We were parked at the outer edge of the parking lot as per their instructions. Now it is all uphill if we plan to leave the motorhome! Sounds like good exercise for both of us.
We did find the walk worth while when we saw the price on their burgers!! We'll save the lunchmeat, cheese, veggies and fruit in the motorhome for another day.
Day two was on through the rest of WV and then Virginia and the mountain tunnels. Wonderful scenery in spite of the rain!!
Victor, this sign brought back a few memories!! Do you remember?? The Scout trip when Mr. Beck drove our blue van back to Bluefield where we had previously had lunch at McDonalds - - -
Hope you appreciated his dumpster dive!!
Day two ends at Mayberry Campground at Mt. Airy NC. It looks nice and is clean and an easy access with full hook-up. Sounds good to me!!
A drive into Mt. Airy to see the lay of the land finished our day. Mt. Airy was where Andy Griffith grew up. We hunted up his childhood home which he lived in from 1935 to 1966. It is available to rent for anyone wanting simple living while in the area.
We continued to drive around town checking out Wallie's Service Station and the vehicles of their day.
The next day we went on to the Andy Griffith Playhouse, Museum and the Siamese Twin Museum. Unfortunately for us the Playhouse will not be open while we are here and we are about ten days too early for their annual Mayberry Days.
The Andy and Opie sculpture is a newer attraction near the street.
The school that Andy attended, where he first experienced performing on stage, has since been torn down to make way for the Playhouse and Museums. The Museum was full of photographs, shows playing on TV monitors, clothing (including the suit from Matlock), and the desk, chairs and other items from the sheriff's office in Andy Griffith Show. All very interesting.
We then parked near the downtown historic district and walked the streets.
We were surprised by the size of the town and wondered what their industry is to support this large of a community. We asked at McDonald's when we got our ice cream treat for the day and the gal said that there were many "meels" that have since been moved to Mexico. I asked what kind of "meals" only to realize that she meant mills. There were textile mills as well as furniture manufactures to name a few. The move of those mills to Mexico put about ten thousand people out of work! Thus the Society for the Arts used the connection to Andy Griffith to build a tourist town. It has helped, but not near what they needed to put ten thousand back to work.
We found this sock knitting machine in the window of the Renfro outlet store, a symbol of days gone by.
We went on to Barney's Café' for a break and a soft drink where we found Steve again. So we chatted more about full timing. Wishing them safe travels, we moved on about town.
Many crafty things, candy and many toy stores. Enough to make a full day for us.
After leaving Main Street, we drove up and down other streets and the town is on many hillsides.
We found this Bed & Breakfast,
many churches and homes built from the granite from the local quarry.
As we drove out looking for the North Carolina Granite Quarry here in Mt. Airy, it was obvious from this home that it is granite territory!!
Finding the quarry, we got out and took pictures through the fence. It was difficult not to have the fence distort the picture. But I managed some!! It was fun to watch the activity. We could tell from the sound that they were busy.
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| Note the numbers on the huge slabs. Wonder if that means they have removed over 50 thousand slabs? |
By this time we were whipped. Time to go home and kick back. Hope you enjoyed this as much as we did!!
We will be moving on to Lexington SC tomorrow to meet up with our friends there. They are busy planning activities for the week and we are looking forward to it!!
Stay tuned.
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