North Carolina - Day 6 - east to Mount Airy, Stone Mountain

Stone Mountain State Park, Roaring Gap

Tuesday, 4 July 2023

On our way out of the campground, I stopped to dump the trash and discovered that Dext had vomited on the floor beside the driver's seat.  I did my best to clean it up and used Clorox wipes that, to me, have a strong odor.  But as we were driving on the road, the vomit smell was still so strong it made me feel queasy.  Always something, isn't it?

today's route

The drive from Boone (last night's campground) to Stone Mountain (tonight's campground) was so short that I decided to seize this chance to visit Mount Airy, home of Andy Griffith and supposed model for Mayberry.

As you can see, we crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway, then eventually doubled back to it again for the night.  We went from near Tennessee (west) to near Virginia (north).

The route included a very steep hill with a sign saying "Truckers Warning: 8% Grade - 4½ Miles - Sharp Curves."  And it was all true.

I came to a pair of highway signs: one said "The Great State of Wilkes" and the other said "Welcome to Wilkes County."  The county paid for the "state" signs while DOT paid for the "county" signs - and that's all the information I could find online.  The county commissioners meeting where they discussed this didn't breathe a word about where the "great state" business came from.  Maybe it's the mountain air.

At the town of Wilkesboro - "Where the Mountains Begin" - gasoline costs $2.94, which is substantially less than the $3.17 I paid in Boone.  At North Wilkesboro, I passed the Benny Parsons Grandstand.  No sign about what the grandstand was for, but online I learned that Benny Parsons was a NASCAR legend, so I'm guessing this was a racetrack.

NPR played a bit of the 4 Tops singing "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" and I felt like I'd gotten whiplash.  I was suddenly almost dizzy with the speed of my brain being shoved back into the 1960s.  Strange feeling.  This was one of the songs that the Library of Congress has decided to preserve in the National Recording Registry.  They also selected some recordings of Dorothy Thompson's commentary on the events at the beginning of WWII.  I guess she came by her opinions honestly: she was the first American journalist expelled from Nazi Germany.  A profile of this remarkable woman is at this link.   http://www.theheroinecollective.com/dorothy-thompson

The highway provided lots of green trees and grass and blooming mimosas.  Very pretty.

I came to Yadkinville - "Gateway to the Yadkin Valley" - and found a gas station offering regular at $1.77/gallon.  No surprise, there was a long line waiting their turn.  Surprise, the gas station across the road was charging $3.23.

All over this area I kept seeing signs touting the Yadkin Valley.  It seems to be a very rural area with fewer than 40,000 residents in the very spread-out county.  But they also claim numerous wineries here, which sounds like a reasonable use of all that land.

I also saw all kinds of other crops, of which I recognized corn and maybe tobacco.

Another one of those gas stations (it was the Sheetz brand - I've seen them around here and there) with $1.77 gas was in Mount Airy with an even longer line waiting.

Mount Airy says it's "A Piedmont Triad Community."  I had to look that up and learned that the Piedmont Triad is a rough triangle that extends south from the Virginia border and includes the 3 cities of Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem, which are all south of Mount Airy.  As of 2012, the area's population was 1.6 million, though I'm sure it's larger now.

As I crossed Main Street, I could see the streets lined with folks obviously waiting for a July 4th parade.  And to tell the truth, until then I'd completely forgotten that's what day it was today.  So Happy Birthday! to our country.

Dext and I walked around Riverside Park and the Granite City Greenway, but we couldn't really do it justice.  It just felt too hot - we were there about noon - and we didn't want to be out too long.

I saw a Virginia license plate there that said DGMOMMY

I'd learned from Google's town map that there were several Mayberry sights to see, so I mapped out a little route to take a look.

Mayberry Courthouse and Jail

It actually says so on the building.  And the signs say Mayberry Hotel and Foley's Market and Emmett's Fixxit Shop and Fred's Radio and TV Repair.  I think this is a stop on the usual tour which, of course, they're not having on the 4th of July.

Andy's Homeplace

This house was apparently actually Andy Griffith's home from 1935 till 1966.  That police car pulled up just as I got there, sat there while I took this photo, and then drove away.  Part of the entertainment, I guess.  The sign on the right says the house is occupied and will people please respect their privacy.

Driving through town I also saw the Andy Griffith Playhouse and Bee's B&B.  Mount Airy is a very hilly town, which I guess makes sense since it sits in the Piedmonts.

The state park was about 20 miles west of town, and we were in our site by 3:45.

I'd talked with Anna and David while we were at that park, and told them I was worried about Dext's frequent vomiting.  They urged me to feed him plain boiled chicken and plain cooked rice - no oil or spices on either one.  So I stopped at a grocery store back in town to buy these items and, before taking Dext on a walk or doing anything else I cooked the chicken and rice.  I figured they'd need some time to cool before I fed supper to the critters.  That usually happens about 4:15, but tonight it got delayed.

I put the chicken on and started the water boiling for the rice, measured out the rice and set the cup down on the table to read the directions.  Jimmy decided the measuring cup was a new toy and pawed it.  I stopped him, read some more, saw him reach out his paw again and swatted for him, and either he or I knocked that measuring cup over.  That put at least ¼ cup of rice scattered everywhere: on all 3 dog beds stacked under the table, stuck in my flip flops, stuck into the cushions on the seat, and the kernels slithered down through the cracks all the way to the water pump under the plywood cover that's under the bench seat.

Both the chicken and the rice were cooked by the time I shook out the beds and pulled up the cushions and the sheet of plywood and swept the inside of the water pump compartment and so forth.  By then, of course, Jimmy had forgotten all about it and I was furious.  We have really different attention spans - his is nonexistent.  I guess I chalk this one up to the full moon too.  I saw it when we went out on our first walk this morning, by the way - a big full moon.  Quite lovely and showing no sign of the havoc that it wreaks on our lives.

Dext and I went out for a walk, but it was very warm and Dext was panting soon after we went out.  I was tired from the heat and the driving and the tension so we cut our walk short.

I hope that chicken and rice helps him.