Hello everyone,
I set out from Lynchburg, Virginia this morning at 9:00 in the pouring rain. I drove back over to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I reentered the parkway at the same point I left it last night. It rained pretty much the entire drive with some occasional very thick fog. Even though the weather was lousy and stopping at any of the overlooks was pointless, it was still a pretty drive.
When I got down to Roanoke I visited the Star Overlook. You usually get a nice view of downtown Roanoke from the top of Mill Mountain from here. But today there was nothing to see through the fog. Below is a picture of the Roanoke Star. This is the world's largest freestanding illuminated man-made star, constructed in 1949.
I continued south from there for about sixty miles until I reached Mabry Mill. I was thrilled. After over a hundred rainy miles on the parkway, something I can take a picture of.
I exited the parkway shortly after the mill. I drove down to Mt. Airy, North Carolina for the night. Within ten minutes of leaving the parkway it was suddenly sunny and seventy degrees. I've never seen such a rapid weather change. Mt. Airy was the birthplace of Andy Griffith and the inspiration for the fictional town of Mayberry. Most everything in this town tries to cash in on that Mayberry connection. There is a statue of Andy in front of his museum and playhouse.
You can visit the Mayberry Courthouse...
You can grab a bottle of pop at Wally's Service Station...
You can even go for a ride in the vintage squad car. It will drive you past the real Homeplace of Andy Griffith where he lived during his adolescence until his high school graduation. Andy's boyhood home is available for nightly rentals.
After taking in some of the Andy Griffith sites I checked into the Quality Inn for the night. I was hoping they would be broadcasting the Colt game here. But as I suspected, no. But I did get to see the last couple minutes of it when the game they where showing ended and they switched to the Colts-Texans game. Yay! They won! I then went and got my dinner at Bojangles.
That's it for today. I'm hoping for better weather tomorrow.
Tim
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