Mayberry, USA

We said our good-byes to the last of the RV Quilters, and got hitched up and on the road.  We had slightly over 200 miles to go, just over the mountains to north-central North Carolina – the the little town of Mt. Airy, a.k.a Mayberry.

It was a beautiful day for a drive through the mountains!

Crossing Black Mountain

We arrived at the Mayberry Campground, and got set up on our site on Opie Taylor Avenue!

It’s a very nice campground in a beautiful area – you wouldn’t know you’re just a minute from the interstate!

We had a nice view out our front window, too!

We both remember the Andy Griffith Show from when we were kids, but I can’t say that I remember too much of it – enough to be interested in checking out the sites, though!

From what I understand, this was Andy Griffith’s hometown, and much of the locations in the show were inspired by actual locations here.

Like Floyd’s City Barber Shop . . . it used to be just City Barber Shop, but so many people would come in looking for “Floyd” that the barber decided to welcome the tourists and added “Floyd’s” the the name of his shop.

The “Barber” is a female today, but the son of the original barber hangs out in the shop in the afternoons to greet visitors, talk about the history of the shop, and take pictures.

Lots of pictures from Mayberry!

Tom was able to sit in Andy’s chair for a picture . . . but he couldn’t get a haircut!

We walked through the town and checked out some of the small shops along Main Street – Mayberry fame is pretty good for Mt. Airy – it’s one of the more prosperous small towns we’ve been to in our travels!

Back in the Jeep, we drove around town to check out the other tourist spots on the map – including Andy Griffith’s home,  which is owned by Hampton Hotels and available for nightly rentals.

It’s a cute little house . . .

and we just happened to be there when one of the Police Cruisers (tour cars) pulled up in front.

Next stop was the Mayberry Courthouse,

and jail.

Wasn’t there a town drunk who used to come in and sleep it off in the jail!?!

Next door is Wally’s Garage,

where we stopped to say “Hey!” to Goober and check out some more Mayberry memorabilia.

There’s a small gift shop, and this is where you can take a tour in one of the Police Cruisers for $40.

Or, you can just sit in one for free!  Tom had a good time talking to the guy driving the cars, and telling him how he used to drive one of these to high school!

We finished up our visit to Mt. Airy by stopping at an Amish market (nice, but nothing like E & S in Shipshewana), and a local meat store.  I love finding local meat stores in small towns we visit, and they never disappoint – we got a couple of really good beef tenderloin filets, and a pound of tasty bacon!  We had the steaks for dinner on the weekend, but saved the bacon to have with Nicolas.

On Saturday, the downtown area was taken over by the Mayberry Farmfest.

They kicked off the festivities on Friday evening with a tractor parade, and then filled the street on Saturday with all the tractors on display, and various vendors and exhibits.

We decided to check out the parade after dinner on Friday, and it was a lot of fun – LOTS of tractors!

There were a lot of old Ford tractors, and a few newer ones – several were very similar to Tom’s old tractor,

but none exactly the same.

Several were equipped for carrying passengers!

Big and Little . . .

There were a few newer ones . . .

and even some green and yellow!

At the end of the parade, they let the kids loose on their little tractors . . . they were so fun to watch . . . you just had to stay out of their way or you’d get your feet run over!

The next morning we walked through the festival . . . after getting breakfast sandwiches at our new favorite fast food breakfast spot – Biscuitville – it was really good! 

They had bluegrass music,

plant sales,

and animals – llamas and cows!

I also spotted a barn quilt (raffle prize),

and we got a free bag of freshly-ground cornmeal!

It was a nice little festival, and brought out lots of people from the community – nice to see!