Wednesday, October 19, 2022
We departed home shortly after 11 am to attend the Mayberry RV rally for Winnebago View/Navion owners in Mount Airy. We ate a lunch Jane had prepared while rolling along and arrived at Veterans Memorial Park in Mount Airy, NC around 2:30 pm. Upon arrival, we checked in with our rally hosts, Tom & Kathy, and then backed our View into our designated site (#27). As the afternoon worn on, more and more fellow ralliers arrived until two sides of one of the park’s large grassy fields were lined with a total of about 50 Winnebago Views and Navions (two names used for the same model). Most attendees are from the east coast but there are a few from midwestern states, one from Texas, and one from Tacoma, Washington.
As a View owner, it’s interesting walking around observing the various rigs parked here with vintages ranging from 2008 to 2022. Winnebago designates different floor plans with letters and there are representatives of them all here (D, H, G, J, K, M and V). Our View is a D which designates one large slide-out on the driver’s side and a Murphy bed.
At 5 pm, we all met at the picnic shelter area for Happy Hour and a Meet & Greet. Everyone brought their own favorite beverage and hors d’oeuvres to share. This is our third View rally, so Jane & I enjoyed reacquainting ourselves with old friends and meeting new ones. There was plenty of food so we went back for seconds and called it our dinner. Later at 8 pm, everyone brought chairs and socialized around an outdoor screen showing reruns of The Andy Griffith Show. We chatted with one of our fellow ralliers for awhile, but because the temperature was dropping and the wind increasing, we three soon headed back to the warmth of our rigs for the evening.
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| A View of Views |
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| Another View of Views |
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Today, we slept late, waking to a frosty morning and observed a large icicle hanging from the utility bay of our neighbors’ RV. We enjoyed hot coffee and a leisurely breakfast as we waited for the outdoor temperature to warm up. Then, we took a brief stroll around the premises reading informational signs about the memorial park and exploring adjacent areas (including finding a deer carcass). Around 11 am, the ralliers convened in a circle of camping chairs beside the picnic area for a technical session lead by experts, Len and Kent. One area of discussion was a minor glitch with the newer Views; the outside awning can spontaneously deploy even while driving down the road. The temporary solution is to disengage the motor and secure the awning with zip ties until Winnebago determines a more acceptable fix.
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| Entrance to Mount Airy’s Veterans Memorial Park |
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| M47 Patton 90 MM Tank on Display at the Park |
After the tech session, Jane & I headed to downtown Mount Airy in the toad for lunch and sight-seeing. Remarkably, we found parking along the busy Main Street and had lunch at a nearby Japanese restaurant. We each ordered what we thought would be a light lunch, an appetizer and sushi roll, but went away with heavy stomaches. After eating, we strolled around Main Street taking in the sights including Snappy Lunch Restaurant, Floyd’s Barber Shop, the Historic Earle Theatre, and lots of ice cream, candy and tourist shoppes.
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| We had a Sushi Lunch here in downtown Mount Airy |
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| Andy Griffith ate Here as a Boy and Mentioned It on his Show |
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| Floyd’s City Barber Shop (next to Snappy Lunch) |
We found the Andy Griffith Museum just a block off of Main Street. The museum traces Andy’s life including growing up in Mount Airy, as well as his stage, television, film acting, singing and musical career. Of course, mementos from his popular, The Andy Griffith Show (TAGS), were prominently displayed. One wall documented all of the Mount Airy area sites that were mentioned in TAGS and cited the episodes in which they occurred.
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| Museum Entrance |
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| Barney’s Badge |
The building also includes exhibits on the career of Betty Lynn, who played Barney Fife’s girlfriend, Thelma Lou on TAGS. She was born in California and enjoyed a succesful acting career before eventually settling in Mount Airy where she wrote her autobiography, “On becoming Thelma Lou”. After leaving these exhibits, we rambled around Mount Airy a little longer before driving back to the campground.
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| Entrance to the Surry Arts Council Building |
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| Conjoined (“Siamese”) Twins Chang and Eng Bunker |
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| Betty Lynn played the Role of Barney’s Girl, Thelma Lou, on TAGS |
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| Where the Endings are all Happy |
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| Heading to the Fishing Hole with Andy & Opie |
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| Fall Decorations in Mount Airy |
Back at the campground, the rally pot-luck dinner started around 5:30. Unfortunately, neither of us were very hungry yet, so Jane delivered our contribution and came back to our motorhome. Later we participated trying to moderate our servings despite the wide selection of good food. Because the weather was again chilly and windy, we ate indoors, seated on bleachers overlooking a boxing ring. We headed back to our motorhome aching from too much good food but also full of cheer from the camaraderie.
Friday, October 21, 2022
At 10 am this morning, we and about 30 of our fellow RVers lined up with our bikes and gear eager to pedal the Granite City Greenway. Tom, our host, lead the way and we all followed single and/or double file. The weather, the trail and the company were wonderful. The relatively level seven-mile-long trail followed two waterways, Lovill’s Creek and Ararat River, circumvented downtown, offered many bridges and underpasses, and connected Veteran’s Memorial Park with Riverside Park (and two other parks in between). When we reached Riverside Park, we rehydrated and socialized for awhile. A couple from Greensboro, Gayle and Richard, kindly offered for Jane and I to test their e-bikes. Although e-assist wasn’t necessary for this trail, I can certainly see the benefit for hilly areas and Jane seems set on changing to an e-bike in the near future. At this point, the group dissipated with some taking a short-cut through town back to the campground, some exploring and/or eating lunch in town, and some returning via the freeway trail. We selected the latter and had a nice return ride to the campground where we ate a light lunch in the RV.
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| Ready to Roll |
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| Our End (the real beginning) of the Trail |
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| A Rehydration Social |
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| On the Return Trip |
After lunch, Jane drove us in the toad to Pilot Mountain State Park (PMSP). We started at the park’s Visitor Center which was new, informative, and had friendly staff. Located in the piedmont of North Carolina, the Sauratown Mountains are comprised of a range of monadnocks, ie., isolated mountains resistant to erosion. They extend from Pilot Mountain to Hanging Rock State Parks in Surry and Stokes Counties. Pilot Mountain started as sand deposits but through geologic times via various processes including plate tectonics, has metamorphosed into its current state as a 2,421-foot tall monadnock of hard quartzite.
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| Pilot Mountain State Park Visitor Center |
We drove from the Visitor Center up to the parking area for Little Pinnacle Overlook where we hiked around enjoying magnificent views of the Yadkin River Vally, the Blue Ridge Mountains, Pilot Mountain and beyond. We also hiked the 1-mile-long Pilot Knob Trail around the base of Pilot Mountain. This afforded close-up views of the metamorphosed sediment beds along its face as well as long-range views of Hanging Rock, Mount Airy, the Winston-Salem skyline and above, raptors soaring on thermal uplifts. The crisp autumn air enhanced the inspiring views along the trail.
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| Big Pinnacle of Pilot Mountain |
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| View of the Yadkin River Valley from Little Pinnacle Overlook |
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| View of Pilot Mountain from Little Pinnacle Overlook |
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| Along Pilot Knob Trail |
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| Raptor gliding on a Thermal Uplift |
On the way back to the campground from PMSP, we couldn’t resist driving through the cute town of Pilot Mountain stopping at a local grocery along the way for a couple of items. That evening, we ate a light dinner in our motorhome while catching up on the news and playing board games.
Saturday, October 22
After breakfast this morning, we again assembled with the rally cyclers at 10:30. Together the group pedaled about 5 miles along the Granite City Greenway and lunched together at Chase & Charli’s Restaurant. Afterwards, Jane and I returned to the campground, got updates on college football scores, and then headed out to see Granite City’s namesake.
Adjacent to the town of Mount Airy, the North Carolina Granite Corporation operates the world’s largest open-face granite quarry in the world. Although it was closed on Saturday, we were able to approach and view the quarry from two different sides. As we were observing the operation at one location, sheriff cruisers carrying tourists from town drove and parked nearby to view the quarry. I spoke with the driver of one cruiser who was a local man that grew up in the house next to our quarry viewing area. He said that the surface area of the mine had not changed since he was a boy but the mine was 10-15 feet deeper. The quarry office and many buildings around the area feature granite from the quarry. In fact, the greenway had granite markers every 1/4 of a mile!
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| The Bikers had a Group Lunch at Chase & Charli’s Restaurant along the Greenway |
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| Enjoying Lunch with our Fellow Cycling Ralliers |
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| Solid Granite |
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| One Section of the Quarry |
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| Granite Office Building of the N.C. Granite Corporation |
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| Sheriff Cruiser at the Quarry |
After visiting the quary, we returned to the campground and played a few games of corn hole. (Jane won them all.) We then enjoyed the beautiful fall weather hanging outside and socializing. We especially enjoyed chatting with our neighbors from Illinois, Marla and Larry, from whom we learned a lot about taking care of our rig as well as other rallies and nice campgrounds to visit. Around 4 pm, everyone gathered in their camp chairs around an outdoor stage and were entertained by Travis Frye and Blue Mountain, an excellent local traditional bluegrass ensemble.
Following the show, Jane and I headed into town to check out Thirsty Souls Community Brewing run by a Slovakian couple and featuring an eclectic selection of European-style beers. We enjoyed our beers (a brown ale and whiskey-barrel aged stout for me) along with a vegetarian pizza. The area outside the pub and other businesses was cordoned off and a gypsy jazz band (two guitars, sax/clarinet and upright bass) were entertaining a laid-back audience. We did not catch the band name. One of the guitarists was Chip Newton from Elon University and was fabulous. We lingered and enjoyed several of their songs until the set ended. On the way, home we decided it was our last chance to sample the ice cream at the Dairy Center, a popular spot that we had passed by many times. We were not disappointed.
