The next morning, we headed for historic Mount Airy, NC, more affectionately known to my generation as "Mayberry". Of course Mayberry, home to Sheriff Andy, Barney, Opie, Aunt Bee, and a host of other characters, was only make believe, and grew out of the memories of Andy Griffith and his boyhood days in Mount Airy. 
The show, filmed entirely in California, used local Mount Airy landmarks to create the illusion of Mayberry for TV. Andy could be seen reading the Mount Airy newspaper, common street names were used in the show, and of course Andy and Barney made frequent visits to Mt. Pilot, aka: Pilot Mountain. Of course we had to visit the Sheriffs Office and the jail cell made famous by the town drunk Otis. Otis is actually from Massena, NY and we found his classic suit and hat in the nearby Andy Griffith Museum.
We found Floyd's Barber Shop, and Guber's filling station. We had hoped to tour around the entire community in Barney's patrol car, but it was down for some maintenance. Maybe we'll get to do that next time. But as the song goes: "If you don't know where you're going, every road will take you there." So we'll continue to visit these unique locations, and enjoy our Going to See America.
Our next move pushed us northward, and we settled in at the KOA at Staunton, VA.
It is a nice campground, and the office staff was very pleasant and even saved us $50 by reminding us of our KOA points. As you can see, we do tend to rough it when we're wandering around. My GMG grill is smoking away in the background with some chicken getting ready to go. Life is tough.
The reason we are here is to attend the First Inaugural All American Indoor Music Festival in Fisherville, Va. The festival, which started on Thursday, included 3 days of bluegrass and country music, and featured various artists from the local area to professional TV performers.
One of our favorite bluegrass bands, Nothin Fancy, were scheduled to perform 2 shows, and we were looking forward to that. I've talked about them in previous blogs, but they always put on a great show and you never know what they are going to do. They really seem to enjoy themselves, and I'm sure we'll travel a few extra miles if we're close to any of their venues. After the show, I hustled over to their table and purchased their newest CD and later on, I grabbed one of their t-shirts. Debbie just rolls here eyes every time I come home with a new shirt.
Rhonda Vincent and the Rage closed out the show on Thursday night, but last night we were treated to a 90 minute show by Dailey and Vincent as the closer.
They put on a high power show, and never faltered for over 90 minutes. And they really seemed to be enjoying themselves, and that fact was reflected in the response of the audience. Their 4 part harmonies were pitch perfect, and every member of the show had something to contribute.
We've got one more music venue scheduled during this adventure, but I would bet that a few more may pop up.
As we came out of the show last night, we immediately noticed a drastic change in the weather. Yesterday morning, the weather was a pleasant 67 degrees, but now were were looking at right around 36! Actually, we knew the weather was going to turn nasty on us, and we had made plans to deal with it.
We had always planned on leaving Big Red somewhere here down south, and drive the Jeep back to MAE's for Thanksgiving. But now we were looking at a massive cold front sweeping across the country. Temperatures were predicted to be in the 20's (yikes!) for the next few days, and we didn't dare leave Big Red parked without doing some winterization work first. We had hoped that we wouldn't have to, but there was no way to escape this cold. So yesterday morning, as Debbie made all the preparations for going north, I went shopping for some little gizmos to get the water out of the rig.
After searching through Staunton for over an hour through Lowes and Aubuchon's, I finally located an RV dealer with a parts store that had everything I needed. I had decided to use Big Red's built in compressor to blow the air out of all the lines instead of adding RV antifreeze to the system. The video I watched looked pretty easy. After finding the connector to screw into the water inlet, Debbie and I spent about the next hour getting all the water out of Big Red. We also drained the water heater, and replaced the anode. No problem at all. Now we can safely leave Big Red without worrying about water lines freezing and bursting and causing big problems. This morning we headed north from Virginia,...destination Plattsburgh, NY. And this is what we ran into as we crossed through the mountains of Pennsylvania and arrived in Binghamton, NY.
This storm even forced a few motorcycles off of the highway.
So tonight we're hunkered down in a very comfortable Fairfield Inn, The storm is scheduled to wind down tonight, and we'll be up in Plattsburgh tomorrow without any problems, 1 day earlier than we had originally planned.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. And let me suggest that when your family starts arriving for Thanksgiving dinner, you leave a basket near the front door, and have all your guest leave their cell-phones in the basket. It may lead to some lively conversations around the table!!!
Our next move pushed us northward, and we settled in at the KOA at Staunton, VA.
The reason we are here is to attend the First Inaugural All American Indoor Music Festival in Fisherville, Va. The festival, which started on Thursday, included 3 days of bluegrass and country music, and featured various artists from the local area to professional TV performers.
We've got one more music venue scheduled during this adventure, but I would bet that a few more may pop up.
As we came out of the show last night, we immediately noticed a drastic change in the weather. Yesterday morning, the weather was a pleasant 67 degrees, but now were were looking at right around 36! Actually, we knew the weather was going to turn nasty on us, and we had made plans to deal with it.
We had always planned on leaving Big Red somewhere here down south, and drive the Jeep back to MAE's for Thanksgiving. But now we were looking at a massive cold front sweeping across the country. Temperatures were predicted to be in the 20's (yikes!) for the next few days, and we didn't dare leave Big Red parked without doing some winterization work first. We had hoped that we wouldn't have to, but there was no way to escape this cold. So yesterday morning, as Debbie made all the preparations for going north, I went shopping for some little gizmos to get the water out of the rig.
After searching through Staunton for over an hour through Lowes and Aubuchon's, I finally located an RV dealer with a parts store that had everything I needed. I had decided to use Big Red's built in compressor to blow the air out of all the lines instead of adding RV antifreeze to the system. The video I watched looked pretty easy. After finding the connector to screw into the water inlet, Debbie and I spent about the next hour getting all the water out of Big Red. We also drained the water heater, and replaced the anode. No problem at all. Now we can safely leave Big Red without worrying about water lines freezing and bursting and causing big problems. This morning we headed north from Virginia,...destination Plattsburgh, NY. And this is what we ran into as we crossed through the mountains of Pennsylvania and arrived in Binghamton, NY.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. And let me suggest that when your family starts arriving for Thanksgiving dinner, you leave a basket near the front door, and have all your guest leave their cell-phones in the basket. It may lead to some lively conversations around the table!!!
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