The North Carolina Piedmont!

October 10 – 17, 2022

Forest Lake RV & Camping Resort, located outside of Advance, North Carolina, was home during our stay in this beautiful state!  It’s a Thousand Trails campground, so we were able to take advantage of our membership.  The fall colors continue to be stunning and this park was filled with beautiful trees.  

The entire east coast is filled in!

North Carolina has several different climates within the state and we pretty much stuck to the Piedmont portion of the state, as there were more than enough things to see and do in this beautiful area!  Next time, we will have to visit the outer banks and take in a little more of the beach scene!

Mt. Airy was 65 miles north of us, just close enough to be irresistible to visit!   I think everyone of our generation grew up watching The Andy Griffith Show.  After all, there were only three television networks to choose from, so odds were we all watched the same shows!  This show not only taught strong values and life lessons, but had Barney Fife to provide moments of comedy!  The show was based on Andy Griffith’s hometown, Mt. Airy.  While there, we found Floyd’s Barber Shop where we met Bill.  Bill’s father was Russel Hiatt and was the inspiration for Floyd the Barber.  Russel cut Andy’s hair when Andy was young and it was fun to sit in the vintage barber chair and picture Andy getting his hair cut in the same chair!  

We also grabbed a bite at Snappy Lunch, which has been the “Home of the Pork Chop Sandwich” since 1923 and is mentioned in at least one episode of the show.  This delicious, giant sandwich was $5.00 and served with no frills.  Andy also ate at this restaurant while growing up.  It’s probably not a surprise Andy ate there, as it was the only restaurant in town at that time!

A short walk away, we saw found Wally’s Service Station, the Mayberry Courthouse and several other replicas of locations featured in The Andy Griffith Show.  

It was fun discovering the school Andy attended, knowing he played roles in the school plays there.  Next door to the school is The Andy Griffith Museum, well worth the $8.56 to tour.  It was a four to five block walk from the school to the home Andy lived in from 1935 to 1966.  The home is now a vacation rental.  As we walked past it, the current renters were enjoying the swing in the front yard and invited us to go inside to see this modest home.  On the wall inside the home was a signed guest registry with Andy Griffith’s signature on it.  Andy stayed here as a guest when he was 76 years old!

As we walked around town, we had many sightings of Andy’s squad car!  There are several vintage replicas driving around, taking visitors to all of the sights in town.  Their siren was often whooping as they drove past us!

Another day took us to Winston-Salem.  There, we discovered Old Salem, which was settled by the Moravian community in 1766.  We had read a strong recommendation to go to Winkler Bakery for the not-to-be-missed traditional sugar cake.  While I do recommend going to the bakery, we enjoyed their apple strudel way more than the sugar cake, but it was great to at least try the desert they are famous for.

We enjoyed lunch at Muddy Creek Café where we tried a pimento cheese panini.  It included bacon and sliced tomato, which all together was wonderful!  Pimento cheese is a southern thing and, if you haven’t tried it, we highly recommend it!  Eating at Muddy Creek Café was a fun experience in itself, as it is located in the basement of what was originally the tea merchant’s home in this Moravian settlement.

We also found Mickey’s Coffee Pot in the area.  This giant coffee pot was created in 1858 by tinsmiths as an advertisement for their tin shop.  It’s a symbol of hospitality and has become an iconic symbol of Winston-Salem.  

We had also read about Trade Street and decided to check that area out.  It was a big retail area in the early 1900’s and is now a historical district.  It felt a little run down, but has huge potential for being a great attraction for the area.  We did enjoy shopping at Mast General Store!  It seemed to have a little of everything (old fashioned candy, dog supplies, seasonal gift items, kitchen utensils, bar supplies...) and a really large selection of both men’s and women’s activewear!

Thomasville is a small town not far from the campground we stayed at.  The city is known for its furniture production; in fact, Thomasville Furniture operated there until 2014.  Their icon is an 18-foot-tall Duncan Fife chair!

Lexington was only seven or eight miles from our campground and is a very nice city.  All of North Carolina is known for barbecue, but it was in Lexington where we learned about Lexington-style barbecue.  The sauce is basically a salt and pepper seasoned vinegar with a small dollop of ketchup added to it.  It’s a much lighter style of barbecue sauce than I have ever tasted and was quite wonderful!  It’s even used to replace the mayonnaise when making coleslaw!  If you ever run across a light red coleslaw, you know it is Lexington-style slaw!

Next to the visitor’s center, we found Conrad & Hinkle Food Market.  The current owner is Lee Hinkle, the fourth generation of Hinkles to run it!  It was Lee’s great-grandfather and grandfather that founded the store in 1919.  It’s well known for its fresh meats, pimento cheese and fresh produce.  In fact, they are so well known for their pimento cheese that Lee makes over 300 pounds of it every day!

If you are a NASCAR fan, you probably have heard of Richard Childress.  Childress no longer drives, but now owns a NASCAR team in addition to Childress Vineyard.  His vineyard was only four miles from our campground, so we made it a point to stop by one afternoon and enjoy a glass of his Piedmont-produced wine.  This vineyard is quite the venue!  There was even a wedding scheduled for the evening of the day we were there.  

Located between Winston-Salem and Mt. Airy is Pilot Mountain.  You can’t miss it, as it has a very distinctive knob at its summit.  It turns out that Pilot Mountain State Park has lots of hiking trails and is also a popular place for rock climbers to practice their sport!  While rock climbing may be the popular thing to do there, I resisted the pressure to join the local culture and stuck to the trails.  It was a beautiful fall day when we were there and the autumn colors were beyond spectacular!  Random trivia:  the fictional town of Mt. Pilot, often referred to in The Andy Griffith Show, was based on the nearby town of Pilot Mountain.  

Our entire time in North Carolina was wonderful, but our day in Greensboro was definitely the highlight of this stay for me!  Shortly after we arrived in North Carolina, I received a Facebook message from Laura!  I met Laura at the University of Iowa my freshman year, fall of 1975.  There was a small group of us who often hung out together which also included Kim and Joan.  We all gathered together the next summer in Arlington Heights, Illinois to celebrate Laura’s birthday, but Laura and I haven’t seen each other since, as I changed majors and ended up transferring to Iowa State University at that point.  What fun to learn Laura lives in North Carolina!  After 46 years, it was simply delightful to meet for lunch and catch up with each other!  Laura and Garrett live in the Raleigh area, which was two hours from our campground.  Laura suggested meeting for lunch in Greensboro as it was pretty much halfway between us.  Our time at Crafted – The Art of the Taco flew by!  We’ve promised each other to meet up again, possibly in New Mexico this spring.  It even got us dreaming of an Iowa reunion for the four of us!  

L-R:  Joan, Laura, Kim and me summer of 1976!

While enjoying lunch, Laura mentioned Cheesecakes by Alex was close by and is well known for its superb cheesecakes.  We love doing the local “thing” so, although we were full from lunch, we picked up a couple of pieces to take home!  Yep, they are a successful business for a good reason!  Very yummy!

With over 20 flavors to choose from, it was a difficult decision!

We also walked past a former Woolworth store on our way to have lunch with Laura.  It turns out that this is the site where the sputtering Civil Rights movement was reignited!  Jim Crow laws were in full force on February 1, 1960 when four Black freshmen students from North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University went, dressed in their Sunday best, inside this Woolworth and sat at the lunch counter.  This was a “whites only” counter, so when they ordered a cup of coffee, they were refused service.  However, they remained sitting at the counter.  When they were asked to leave by the waitress, they remained sitting.  When they were later asked by the manager, they continued to sit.  The manager ended up closing the lunch counter early in frustration, but the next day the four were back and they were now joined by 20 other students.  By the fifth day, at least 1000 people were there!  Despite having hot coffee poured on them and being spat upon, they remained peaceful.  Word of this sit-in spread and, a month later, there were sit-ins going on in at least 70 stores across 13 states.  I love this story –  the story of how four friends can peacefully have such a large impact on such a huge wrong.  

Greensboro has a wonderful farmers market that we were able to fit into our day there.  We found lots of yummy local items including stone ground flours from the Old Mill of Guilford and Roney’s Secret (sweet and savory) Sauce!

Mass at St. Pius X was a perfect way to wrap up our day in Greensboro.  The priest was wonderful with a strong message of the power of prayer (P.O.P. as he called it).  He managed to have a homily with a serious topic but at the same time have the entire congregation laughing.  I’m not sure what the crime rate is in Greensboro, but the police officer that was stationed outside the church doors got our attention and we kept to our policy of heading “home” before it got dark.

North Carolina was such a warm and friendly state!  Everyone we met was wonderful, including our fellow campers.  Kenny and Evie joined us for a campfire one evening, making for a fun time.  We learned another neighbor was having difficulties getting one of his tires inflated to the correct pressure, so Dick loaned him our air compressor.  When he returned it, he gave us a bottle of wine that was delicious!  People are amazing and we certainly enjoyed our time in North Carolina!

Next up:  Knoxville, Tennessee