Mount Airy, North Carolina

We arrived at site 59 in the Mayberry Campground in Mt Airy, NC, and settled in to enjoy a bit of television nostalgia as well as beautiful Blue Ridge mountain scenery.

This is the view from our front door. The park is terraced into a rolling hillside, with sometimes confusing, but very nice, spacing.

Mt Airy is the boyhood home of Andy Griffith of television fame. He grew up in this (at the time) small town, and several of the downtown locations appeared in “Mayberry”. Floyd’s barber shop and the next door Snappy Lunch appeared in numerous episodes and were mentioned in many more.

Andy’s boyhood home is now a private residence.

Downtown has been decorated with numerous murals, very well done. This one is easy to identify!

This mural was a surprise. We had no idea that Donna Fargo was a Mayberry girl.

This is a refurbished sign exactly like the original.

Near the Mt Airy downtown area, the Andy Griffith Museum showcases memorabilia from Andy’s life. We were surprised to learn that Andy Griffith was an accomplished singer, with several well received albums, including a platinum album.

Andy Griffith also had a very successful stage presence, playing lead roles in No Time For Sergeants. The film A Face in the Crowd was his introduction as a dramatic actor.

Other Mayberry cast members are included in the displays including, of course, Don Knotts as Barney Fife.

Mt Airy is also home to the largest open pit granite quarry in the world! 

Seen from space, “The Rock” is seven miles long, a mile wide, and 8,000 feet deep!

A disgruntled farmer could not figure out why he couldn’t grow anything on the land he had just bought and practically gave the land to a pair of railroad entrepreneurs who immediately saw a market for the flawless, even colored stone. 107 years later, the sound of drilling, sawing, and polishing still echoes across the eastern side of Mt Airy.

Tours were once offered, but federal and insurance regulations have put an end to them. The near 100 year old office building has a small display explaining the operation and has photographs of many projects that used this granite.

It’s said that a slab of granite quarried from here today will exactly match one quarried a hundred years ago as well as one quarried 100 years in the future. There is an estimated 500 years of stone remaining here! North Carolina stone has been used on projects around the world, including the World War II memorial in Washington DC.

As a small side note, the roads in Mayberry Campground are paved with crushed leftover granite from the quarry.

Mt Airy is just a short distance from the Blue Ridge Parkway, so after an awesome sunset, we made plans  to take a short daytrip to visit a section we had not seen in the past. 

The Blue Ridge Music center, on the Parkway, is an incredible narrative of the history of Blue Grass music, as well as a collection of priceless instruments, written music, and more recently, videos of Blue Grass pioneers.

This early America banjo is clearly of West African design, but incorporates modifications, including flat fingerboards and tuning pegs.

This 18th century violin, on the left, was of a design widely imitated in America.

This Appalachian dulcimer, in a unique coffin style, was built by Howard Duff in 1940.

A separate building houses a display of moonshine stills, along with a number of photographs depicting some of the thousands of stills operated (and perhaps, operating) in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Every day during the summer season a group plays Blue Grass music from noon to four at the Music Center. The groups rotate, and we were fortunate to see Scott Freeman and Willard Gayheart.

We stayed for a two hour set, clapping and humming as the duo played a variety of old tunes, as well as Willard’s original work, while Scott played the mandolin, violin, and banjo. Great times!

We had to keep moving, so after a rousing version of “Roly Poly, daddy’s Little Fatty”, we headed into Galax, Virginia, the site of the Old Fiddlers Convention. The worlds oldest and largest Bluegrass festival is an annual event, with more than $20,000 in prizes to be awarded this year. Sadly we will miss the festival, so we contented ourselves with lunch at the Fiddle Head Diner. We were the only patrons so we got to have a great conversation with the server, and learned that she was absolutely not looking forward to the fiddling festivities!

Back home, another wonderful cloud formation at sunset called an end to a great day.

Rest in Peace, Norma.

Asheville, North Carolina

 We moved at least 35 miles from Maggie Valley to Asheville, and we did it all in one day, can you believe that! We’re in site 32 at Ashevilles Bear Creek RV Park and Campground.

The park is compact, but easily accessible for larger rv’s. The water pressure seems a bit low, but the view from the back of our site is an easy trade off!

Nice park, and the lady at the check in desk, Terry, is so friendly and informative that guests feel right at home from the first thing.

We’re in Asheville to reunite with our good friends Larry and Debbie from Florida. Like so many other friendships, ours suffered under Covid mandates and we’re happy and blessed to see them again. Debbie and Larry have been on a long summer tour, visiting Texas, Michigan, and now North Carolina. We stayed  near them years ago in Florida and enjoyed time with them and their Pug, Max.

Max and Sasha established a special relationship when they first met, years ago, probably because they were both very young, and it has continued over the years as they have been able to spend time together. We were a bit worried that the two would have forgotten each other, but to our relief, they play like pups and provide a great many laughs!

First one would control the ball, and then the other, but they share at the same time! Great fun! 

Asheville is, of course, the home of the Biltmore Estate, one of the most recognizable examples of the homes of the Gilded Age. Built between 1889 and 1893 for George Washington Vanderbilt, it remains the largest privately owned home in the United States at 178,000 square feet. What is not so extensively known is that Mrs. Vanderbilt established schools for the children of the estates employees that taught woodworking and weaving. The schools were so successfully that they became self sustaining as Biltmore Industries. The business was purchased in 1914 by Fred Loring Seeley and moved to land adjacent to his Grove Park Inn on Sunset Mountain, just outside Asheville. 

The businesses flourished and crafted wood furniture and fine wool cloth was in high demand.

Today, the buildings that once housed the spinning machines and woodworking machines have been converted to other uses, one of which is a collection of unusual automobiles.

This 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham 70, number 149 of 703, was handcrafted under the tutelage of the legendary Harley Earl, and included every option available. Self leveling air suspension, 325 horsepower engine, power seats and windows, silver glove box, gold drink tumblers, mens and womens grooming sets, Arpege perfume, 44 leather interior and exterior colors to choose from and the first full fins. This beauty sold for $13,074, more than a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud at the time! Frank Sinatra owned one in this shade of blue, which became known as Sinatra Blue after Old Blue Eyes.

Other cars include this 1913 Model T, known as “The Copperhead” because of its brass radiator.

A 1950 MG TD, which had no fuel gauge, only a light on the dash that lighted when 3 gallons of fuel remained.

Adjacent to the shops is the Omni Grove Park Inn. Built in just over eleven months in 1913, without benefit of contractor or architect, it is an Arts and Crafts marvel. 400 men worked 10 hour days, six days a week to haul granite boulders from Sunset mountain to the site. Advertised as “having walls five feet thick, of granite boulders”, it was used during World War II to house detained axis diplomats. In 1944 and 1945, the facility was used as a rest and rehabilitation center for returning sailors. The Phillipine government in exile operated from the Presidential Cottage on the grounds during the war.

Today, the Inn is a luxury resort with a private golf course and a 43,000 square foot subterranean spa. Rooms are available at a price north of $400 per night.

We joined Larry and Debbie for a daytrip to waterfalls south of Asheville. Our first stop was Sliding Rock Falls. Watching the slide into a pool was great fun, everyone had a different technique! The water temp was about 55 deg F, so we didn’t participate….

We ventured on to Looking Glass Falls, catching a glimpse of some delicate flowers along the way.

Our last stop was at Slick Rock Falls. This waterfall was a bit tougher to find but the others, involving a narrow gravel road with steep drop offs, but eventually we found it.

Back home, it was playtime for Max and Sasha!

Downtown Asheville is bustling and alive with restaurants, shops, and tourists. We wanted to taste a bit of the action. The first thing we saw after leaving the parking garage was a sculpture celebrating shopping!

Asheville is home to one of the last F W Woolworth stores in existence. It’s two floors have been converted to an extensive gallery of works from local artists and craftsmen.

The original lunch counter is still in operation!

Then we stopped at the S and W Market for a chicken sandwich and a cold drink.

On our last evening in Ashville, we took a short drive to the little town of Marshall, North Carolina, where we enjoyed a great dinner at Zadies, on the banks of the French Broad River.

Afterwards we tucked into the Marshall Depot. 

Originally a train stop, it has been converted to a music venue, with local groups playing every Friday night. 

There were two groups playing the night we were there, but the festivities didn’t end there! A cakewalk and a 50/50 raffle were great fun!

So, after five days of wonderful time with good friends, we need to move on. We’re starting to head toward the northeast but are struggling with leaving the South. Good people, good food, and good scenery.

Goodbye Asheville.