Home after a roadtrip to Mayberry…err, Mt. Airy, NC to visit the corporate offices of the company that acquired ours in November. I rode shotgun with my office mate in her “El” (Element), which was not a bad way to travel. The car is a bit of a rough ride but carries a bicycle upright in the back with wheels, seat and handlebars firmly attached…a very reasonable trade off according to my office mate.
Our route took us through Kingsport-Bristol, to Wytheville, VA where we took a right and dropped into North Carolina. Along the way we discovered that global warming has not affected Virginia just yet. The 10 minute snow storm that blew through Tennessee on Tuesday morning left a fine ground cover of several inches on the hillsides in western Virginia. (Oh course, pre-global warming, this could have been a foot)
Snow in the countryside somewhere past Damascus, VA
Snow covered hills as we turned right and dropped steeply into NC. Lots of salt used to keep the roads clear resulting in a very grimy, salty El.
We arrived in Mt. Airy around 12:30 pm and considering the fact that Terri arrived to pick me up 30 minutes early, I was relieved to discover that I had my work, samples and clothes in tow…everything but my computer plug. We spent the afternoon working with our counterparts and getting to know more about our new company, a very nice afternoon. At 5:00 pm, everyone left the office, so we did too.
After struggling to decide whether to walk on a dark greenway (a foolish idea to be sure) or walk in downtown Mt. Airy, the lightbulb finally went on and we headed downtown under the street lights. It was cold, we were not really dressed for the weather but we walked briskly pausing on occasion to look in a shop window or browse through the bookstore-soda shop. We stopped in a restaurant on Main Street, Pandowdy’s, to get warm and consume a delicious dinner of grilled red trout. We watched the locals who were probably watching us and I even talked a little TN football and basketball with the owner when he noted that we were not familiar faces.
I pause here to tell you about Mt. Airy. Through a Google search, I learned that the population is about 8,500, 85% white, 54% female. Through my own experience I learned that smoking is welcome, nay encouraged, and everyone does. Mt. Airy is also the hometown of Andy Griffith and the model town for the TV series Mayberry RFD. Mt. Airy has built a business around their Mayberry image, autographed photos and life size cutouts of the cast can be found in most every establishment. “Down the street” from Mt. Airy, about 30 miles, is Pilot Mountain, aka Mt. Pilot in the TV series. Unfortunately, we were not here to explore the trails on and around the mountain, but to work.
I return to the story with two directionally challenged females lost on the roads in Mt. Airy calling the hotel for the 3rd time in the same day to figure out where we were in relation to where we wanted to be. Remember, I said the population of Mt. Airy is 8,500 people, this is not a big town. By 9:00 pm we were safely tucked in for the night with the realization that a map would be a very good idea. (Map-#1 on the ten essentials list for car tripping as well as backpacking)
We departed today about an hour past our target. Terri was tied up, then I was tied up and we couldn’t break away. Of course there was our 4th tour of the city (in daylight this time), while we struggled to figure out where we were and where we wanted to be. Finally we were on the road for what turned out to be a long, tiring drive home. All in all, the town is lovely, the people are nice and we had a fine visit.
Floyd’s Barber Shop. I understand you can have your picture made with Floyd and hung on his wall of fame. Guess we were lucky the shop was closed when we walked by, I might have been tempted.
Main Street, Mayberry RFD
