We had to work yesterday. Of course, when your job is playing tourist, that’s not exactly a bad thing!

As I said in yesterday’s blog, Mount Airy, North Carolina is the hometown of television star Andy Griffith, and was the inspiration for the fictional town of Mayberry in the old Andy Griffith show. No longer a small town, Mount Airy still retains a lot of charm, and has made a business out of its connection with Mayberry.

We started our day with a visit to the Andy Griffith Playhouse, the center of music and the arts in Mount Airy. The museum isn’t officially open to the public yet, but a very nice young lady gave us a tour of the brand new Andy Griffith Museum. Outside, a statue of Sheriff Taylor and Opie heading out for a day of fishing is a favorite photo opportunity for tourists.

Our next stop was the Visitor Center downtown, and the ladies there were very friendly and gave us several tips on places to see and things to do. From there we strolled a couple of blocks down Main Street, poking our heads into several shops and soaking up the atmosphere.

Main Street is a lot busier than when Andy and Barney patrolled the town, but Russell Hiatt is still cutting hair at Floyd’s City Barber Shop, as he has for the past 62 years. The walls of the shop are lined with over 20,000 pictures of regular folks and celebrities who have sat in the old barber chair where Andy Griffith himself once got his haircuts, including Lou Ferrigno of Incredible Hulk fame, George Lindsey who played Goober on the Andy Griffith Show, and talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Now my picture is on the Wall of Fame too, and here is one of me and my new friend Mr. Hiatt.  

Next door to the barber shop, you can have a delicious pork chop sandwich next door at the Snappy Diner, which Andy Taylor referred to in the television show. But go early, because they close in mid-afternoon!

We wanted to tour the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, which is supposed to have some excellent exhibits, but when we stopped in, the three people at the counter couldn’t seem to figure out how to allow us to do that, since the director was at a Rotary meeting, and they were sure he would want to talk to us first. Maybe they were afraid we were spies there to steal valuable information so we could go across the street and open our own museum, I don’t know. We finally gave up and went off in search of other things to write about.

At Wally’s Service Station, you can book a tour of the town in a police car that looks like the one Sheriff Andy Taylor drove.

Next door, at the Mayberry Courthouse, they have a replica of Sheriff Taylor’s office, and Miss Terry took a picture of me in the jail cell where town drunk Otis slept off his binges. I’m always worried when she puts me in a cage, because I never know when she might snap a lock on the door and just leave me there! Could you blame her?

A few blocks away, the small house where Andy Griffith lived as a boy is now a bed and breakfast, decorated with antiques from the 1930s and 1940s, including some original Andy Griffith memorabilia.

We had a great day “working,” and we look forward to putting our noses to the grindstone again today. It’s a fun job, and somebody has to do it!

While we were hard at work, Bad Nick was working too, posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled Health Care, Canadian Style. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Right now is a perfect time to be happy.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

After a chilly night in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart in Gallipolis, Ohio, we were up bright and early yesterday morning. There were several things we wanted to see locally, so I went inside the store and obtained permission to leave our motorhome there for a couple of hours while we went exploring in the van.

Gallipolis was settled in the late 1700s by French aristocrats who fled the old country to escape the guillotine. It is the hometown of Bob Evans, founder of the Bob Evans Restaurant chain, and the family farm is now a tourist attraction that includes an RV park offering water and electric hookups and a dump station for $15/night.

While exploring the friendly community, we noticed several back in RV sites with water and electric hookups at a Public Access boat launch on the bank of the Ohio River downtown. I stopped at City Hall to ask about the sites, and learned that RVers passing through the area can stay either for free, for $10 a night, or for $25 a night, depending on which secretary you want to believe. For free or $10 a night, I’d stay a while just to watch the riverboats going by, but for $25 a night, I’d pass.

This trip it didn’t matter, because we had a lot of miles to cover yet. We crossed the river on the Silver Memorial Bridge, and I think I may be getting over my bridge phobia, because I didn’t snivel once. The original Silver Bridge here collapsed in 1967, throwing 70 cars into the river below and claiming 46 lives. Maybe I’m not over my phobia after all, and I just figured lighting wouldn’t strike twice in the same place.

On the West Virginia side of the river, Point Pleasant is a charming little town with enough to see and do to keep visitors busy for several days. In 1774, a force of Virginia militia was ambushed here by Shawnee and Mingo Indians and the fierce battle lasted for hours. In the end, 75 militiamen were killed, along with an estimated 33 Indians. Many consider this to be the first battle of the American Revolution. Today a small park on the riverfront where the battle took place includes an 84 foot high granite obelisk honoring the men who fought and died here.

Point Pleasant also has a place in paranormal history. Here, in 1966, a strange winged man-like creature that became known as Mothman was reportedly sighted. Since then there have been several reported sightings of the creature, usually before disasters. Several people claimed to see Mothman perched high in the girders of the original Silver Bridge before it collapsed. Since then, Mothman has become a worldwide phenomenon, with mention in documentary films, movies and television specials.

Sure, it’s probably just the figment of imaginations gone wild, but the folks in Point Pleasant took it serious enough to erect a state of Mothman on Main Street downtown, and there is a Mothman Museum just across the street.

With our sightseeing over, we returned to Gallipolis, picked up the motorhome, and crossed the river again. On the Ohio side of the river, U.S. Highway 35 had been a very nice divided four lane, but  a couple of miles into West Virginia, it dropped down to a two lane road with no shoulders, and lots of curves for maybe 25 miles, and then it became divided four lane again.

Before long we joined Interstate 64 and followed it east a few miles into Charleston, where we picked up Interstate 77 south past the gold domed State Capitol building. Traffic was pretty heavy in Charleston, but before long we put the city behind us, and Interstate 77 became the West Virginia Turnpike.

For the next hundred miles we climbed up and around one mountain after another, the Winnebago doing just fine. I can’t believe the power this thing has! The constant climbing did affect our fuel mileage, though. The day before, we averaged 8.1 miles per gallon across relatively flat Indiana and Ohio, according to the Silverleaf, and yesterday our average was right at 7 miles per gallon.

It cost $10.50 in tolls to travel from Charleston to the state line, but I don’t think they spend much of that money on highway improvements, because that was one rough road in many places!

We crossed into Virginia, stopped for fuel at the T/A truck stop in Wytheville, and in less than an hour we arrived at Mayberry Campground in Mount Airy, North Carolina.  

Mount Airy is the hometown of television star Andy Griffith, and the picturesque town was the inspiration for the fictional town of Mayberry in the old Andy Griffith show.

Andy and his trusty deputy Barney Fife probably wouldn’t recognize the old town these days. It has a Wal-Mart Super Center, Staples Office Supply, Golden Corral Buffet, Lowes, and other major stores and restaurants.  Unfortunately, crime has come to Mayberry. The day before we arrived, a gunman killed four men in a shooting a few blocks from Main Street.

This is a beautiful area, with a lot to see and do, and we’ll be here a few days before we head on down the road. I’ll have a lot to share with you in tomorrow’s blog, so stay tuned. 

Thought For The Day – Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally