Friday we left Ashville with the intention of taking the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way to Mount Airy. Google maps is not very good at letting you take the roads you want, I won't blame it all on google but we got the extensive tour of downtown Ashville on or way to the BRP.
It took about 30 mins to get to the BRP, and we climbed our way to about 3500 feet for the big views.
We were only on the BRP for a few miles when we ran into the road closed barrier. Apparently they close sections in the winter, they just don't tell you what winter is. Google detoured us around the closed section but it was not good at getting us back on the BRP. We finally pulled over and routed ourselves via a paper map. We got back on the BRP but did not drive all that much of it. It was probably the wrong time of year being very grey, it would be a great ride on a motorcycle. We also wanted to get onto Mount Airy with enough time left in the day to see a few things, so we bailed off after only about 75 miles. The BRP reminded me a bit of the Great Smoky Mountains, but not quite as scenic.
We made it to Mount Airy around 2PM, there is free parking in town...nice. Mount Airy is where Andy Griffith grew up. It is synonymous with Mayberry since it was the inspiration for the Andy Griffith Show.
This was across the street from where we parked. This town clearly appreciates what Andy Griffith did to put them on the map.
We walked the town which is a mixture of today and yesterday, you can get tours in the 60's cop cars like Andy and Barney drove.
Don't try to take the car your self or you get to see the inside of Andy's court house.
We spent about 2 1/2 hours walking the town, touring the museum and getting ice cream. It was worth the stop and being 80F with sun made it all the better.
Our next stop after Mount Airy is Pikesville, NC where we will visit Eric and Myra. Eric is June and Jean's nephew. We debated the 3 1/2 hour drive but decided to stop in Greensboro for the night, yep..another Cracker Barrel.
We dropped one RV at the Cracker Barrel and drove 4 miles to the Oden Brewery. The place was hopping, the beer was good, the food was good and the music was just awful. I know we are old, but what they were playing was just terrible, if you looked around no one was into the music, only the entertainers seemed to even know what it was. Other than the music it was a great venue.
Today, Saturday, we will have breakfast at the CB and head for Eric's a bit over a 2 hour drive, we should be there before noon.
We almost had to make a citizens arrest! Fred kept jaywalking.
ReplyDelete