John got up early this morning... apparently "someone" was sleeping a little too well and it woke him up. Here's a hint... it was a female and it wasn't Kylie. To make up for it I made pancakes with fresh fruit sauce and bacon for breakfast. We decided to drive to Mt Airy, about 1 hr away. It's the birthplace of Andy Griffith. Since we watch that show on Me TV almost every morning (I know, that makes us old geezers) we thought it would be fun! And it was supposed to be a beautiful day, so off we went. We stopped at the Family Lodge and Country store on the way out just to check it out. It has a game room and TV area and ping pong table. The Country store has homemade ice cream... yum! We got to the visitors center about 12:00 and got a map and some info as to where to go.
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| All the spring flowers are blooming in NC |
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| The directory was very helpful! |
We headed for "Opie's Candy Shop" first, but then decided to stop in at "Floyd's Barber Shop." We were told that most of the characters on the show were based on real life people from Mt Airy. Well, the barber, Russell Hiatt, was in the shop today. He is 91 yrs old and was the one who cut Andy's hair while he lived there. He quit cutting hair and driving just last year after a nasty fall. He told us that when he finally was able to communicate after his head injury he asked the nurse if he would be able to play the piano. She said, "Sure". And he said, "That's nice, because I could never play before". He also told us about a time a couple from CA came in and told him what small town they were from. He took their picture (all the walls in the shop are FULL with pics) and put it up on the wall. A few weeks later a mother and daughter came in from the same town in CA that the first couple were from. He told them that he had met a couple from their town and the woman said that, being a small town, she knew everyone there. He showed her the picture and she said, "Oh my gosh... that's my husband!!". BUSTED!! I told him that even though I only knew him a short time I already knew he was a troublemaker. He got a kick out of that. He told us a few more stories and showed us a picture of his deceased wife of 69 years. I could have listened to him all day!!
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| Old signs |
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There's Russell who the character Floyd the barber
was based on. John was sitting in the barber chair. |
I gave him a hug and then we went next door to "Snappy Lunch" where their specialty is a pork chop sandwich for $4.20. John and I each got the specialty sandwich, bag of chips and a soda. Our bill was just under $12!! A bologna and cheese sandwich was $2 and a cheeseburger was $2.25! The most expensive breakfast was $3.75, 1 egg with a tenderloin.
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There's the famous sandwich. The menu says, "the only
sandwich that may have you washing your hands AFTER
you finish eating it. |
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| Uuummm...it's good! |
Then we went to the candy shop where you can mix and match all kinds of candy from Sugar Daddy's to coconut slices to horehound drops. Of course, we bought a mixed pound bag. Then we walked about 2 blocks to the Andy Griffith Museum.
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| The bronze statue and inscription out front |
It started with his birth certificate, elementary school and high school years all the way through his TV shows, movies and record albums. He actually had a platinum album of gospel songs! It was a lot of fun!
Then there was a small museum about the most famous Siamese Twins, Eng and Cheng who lived in Surry Co in the mid 1800's and are buried there. They died within hours of each other in 1874 at the age of 63. Between them they fathered 21 children. They were married to sisters. It's a good thing because intimate moments HAD to be "among family". Hard to imagine!!! From there we walked along the main street and stopped in a few of the neat little shops. We bought a couple of things.
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| This jail cell was in one of the shops... John couldn't resist! |
On our way out we stopped at the country's largest granite quarry. It was huge!! No wonder a lot of the larger buildings in Mt Airy are made of granite!
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| They sure can make a lot of tombstones in here!! |
We left about 5:00. It was a wonderful day!! I called my mother on the way home. She and Dad are doing well. We stopped at Walmart and Food Lion for a few things and were back at the CG by 6:30. On the way back to our site we spotted a table out in front of one of the rigs with one of those PVC pipe clothes line hanger I was planning to make when we got home. They wanted $20 for it, so John and I decided it would be cheaper in the long run to just buy it. I chatted with her for a while and then a couple stopped by walking their dog and we all talked for a while. It started to get a bit chilly so we went in and had some Healthy Choice Steamer Café meals for supper. I called Bonnie. She and Ken have run into so many problems with their car and motorhome in the last few weeks. John and I feel so bad for them especially because they are trying to get everything taken care of before they leave for their trip across the country next week. They are very frustrated but handling it all with much grace! I talked with Heather for a while and then John went to bed. I worked on my blog and then went to bed. Not quite sure what we're doing tomorrow but it WILL include going to Sonny's Barbeque... we need to buy some of their barbeque sauce... yeah, right!!
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