June 28, 29 2012 Mount Airy, North Carolina

Mount Airy is Andy Griffith’s home town, and the town that Mayberry is modeled after. We came to pick up mail, see the Andy Griffith museum , go to the grocery store and do laundry. It is 100+ degrees, we didn’t get out for much more. Some of the buildings are the originals and some were made to look like the show.

These are original buildings. Snappy Lunch was a real place before the show, don’t know about Floyd’s barber shop.  A replica of Andy’s patrol car. They do tours of the Andy Griffith sites in the patrol cars, with a member of the Mayberry police driving. This one sits in front of the diner all the time.

John having a pork chop sandwich, Snappy’s is famous for them.  John chatting with Andy.

Sue chatting with Andy. John visiting Floyd’s barber shop. He was disappointed that there was no bench.

They take their music serious here, free lessons for youth on Thursdays. A statue of Andy and Opie.The plaque in front of the statue. The museum. No photos allowed inside.

John posing with Gomer, and John, I mean Barney getting a kiss!

Aunt Bea’s restaurant, Wally’s service station. The police car tours are based out of Wally’s. The lady inside liked my necklace and bought a pendant and set of earrings from me! I made exactly what I paid for John’s pork chop sandwich, our admissions to the two museums for us and a Mayberry Fire Dept. T-shirt for John.

The court house, John is in Otis’s chair and Andy’s office.

Wally’s tow truck. The sign for Mayberry RV park.

The bus at Mayberry RV park, not much like the picture.  Pretty grim after the nice mountain campsites, no trees, no pool, only  1 shower. 103.7 degrees here today. Good thing they had 50 amp power, we could run both AC units- brought it down to 78 inside. We are going back to the mountains tomorrow.  Downtown Winston Salem, North Carolina, seen from the highway. We went to Costco, it was too hot to do anything else.

Pilot mountain seen thru the windshield on the way back.  Yup, we stocked up, don’t need to come back to town for awhile.

Later in the evening a huge wind storm rampaged thru the campground.  80 mph wind gusts. Rocked the bus. John had just put all the awnings in so we would be ready to leave early in the am. Good thing, the wind would have ripped them off.  He even brought the slides in, so it would not damage them.  The wind did blow the awnings off another bus near us. The building with a metal roof, the roof was coming off.  We heard the next day that the storm caused a lot of damage. Power out all over the east coast from the downed trees. I guess we were lucky the RV park had no trees, we might have been wearing some of the branches.

June 27, 2012 Doughton Park, North Carolina

We woke up to 57 degrees this am. Brrrr. But sunny and nice.

The thermometer this am, just in case you did not believe me! The Blue Ridge Parkway stats.

the first concessions on the parkway, a coffee shop and gas station- the removed pumps were in front of the first building. Closed for remodeling now. The little square thing in the middle of the green is the the first cabin built in the area. It is 1500 feet below were we are viewing it, down an almost sheer cliff.  There was a whole town down there, but a huge flood and land slides took it all out, except this cabin.

A panorama of the the Bluff Lodge- the first lodge on the parkway, across the street from the coffee shop.

John on the trail to Fodder Stack, a near by peak.  A BIG rock seen by the trail.

The Bluff Lodge from the side, over a field of wildflowers. Back at the campsite, a great site for hanging out, John reading, I was working on the basket.

These folks are from Alabama. They have been coming here for years to play music. We got invited pull up a lawn chair and listen.  The second photo is Buck on an electric harpsichord thing and Viv his wife on the guitar. He sang country western love songs and she sang Blue Ridge country music.

Our campground host,Keith, on the violin. He is still learning. . . Dot on her violin, she has learned, and her hubby on the harmonica. Lady next to them with a dulcimer.

Blue Ridge country music fest. The basket is coming along.

June 26, 2012 Doughton Park Blue Ridge parkway mm 238

We got up, sucked in the slides and drove 10 miles up the road to Doughton Park for a few more days. It is cooler, only high 70’s/low 50’s. We hiked to the Brinegar cabin.

Martin and Caroline Brinegar were married in 1878 and built this cabin near her parents home. Martin bought the 125 acre farm from Caroline's uncle. It still stands here on the ridge along with their springhouse and granary. Here they raised and provided for for their 3 children.  Inside is Caroline’s loom, she made linsey-woolsey, a combination of flax she grew(linen) and wool and sewed all the families clothing.

the property. John at the root cellar door, it was built low to keep it cool in there.

The trail runs thru their fields that are now grown over with grass and wildflowers.

a cool looking beetle, a milkweed bloom, a spider, an Indian pipe, butterflies on a milkweed blossom, black-eyed Susan's, spider web and basket in progress

we have a nice shaded campsite, but it is hell to get back up to the bus. . .

John cooking dinner, sunset from our site.

June 25, 2012 Thistle Meadow Winery, Laurel, NC

We stayed at another Harvest Host site today. Harvest host is a bunch of wineries, farms and the like that let RV’s stay for a night free, no hookups. It is suggested that we partake of their products while visiting. The last Harvest host stop was a petting zoo and farm. Today is a winery.

Thistle Meadow Winery. The property has been in their family for 200 years. Our camping spot, right on the river in the shade of a huge tree.

As soon as we got  settled, our host, Tom, the owner drove up and introduced himself and took us on a tour. The wine making and staff. We also saw the old homestead, where his mother was born and they now rent out, and he home and he introduced his wife Nancy to us.

Then to the tasting rooms. Here is Tom with a bottle of Tom’s special blend in the tasting room. They have at least 40 different kinds of wine. Tom is very knowledgeable about wine. He has traveled to all the countries and farms around the world where he buys grapes and tasted them all before he bought.  On the side of the barn is their most popular wine, Horse Stomp Red. The wines are all named after local towns and landmarks.  Horse stomp used to be the place where the men would sneak off to and play poker and drink. The horses stomped outside while they waited.

The basket still in progress, in the shade, next to the river.  I went outside the bus later and the cows all ran over and lined up to look at me. Very friendly cows.

My darling husband cooked dinner. BBQ chicken, salad and quinoa with roasted red peppers, fresh basil and jalapenos. The cows came to the fence to check out dinner too.

a couple things in the winery gift shop.

These BBQ sauces were at a trading post we stopped at on the parkway. I loved the sauce for Sissies.

a couple other items at the winery gift shop! We are now all alone at the winery, in the high mountains of North Carolina, alone with the cows, frogs and fireflies. I hear banjo music down the road. . .

Besides cattle and wine in this area they also have Christmas tree farms.