With the help of the fog and rain we came to the conclusion that our plan to drive the entire length of the parkway was a little too ambitious.
Thus we drove north from the Pisgah Inn to a visitor center near Asheville so that we could have someone there confirm what we already knew.
We then left the BRPW and drove east on I-40 and then north on I-77 to Mt. Airy, North Carolina; the town that inspired Andy Griffith’s Mayberry.
While the Andy Griffith Show is long gone Andy and Opie and Bea Taylor, Barney, Goober, Floyd, Howard, Helen Crump and Thelma Lou live on.
Indeed, Mt. Airy has a deep, lasting and slightly-creepy embrace with the long-gone, fictional town of Mayberry.
A life-sized cardboard cutout of Barney Fife greeted us at the large, well-marked, well-staffed visitor center where a very helpful lady produced a map of Mayberry-esque sites for us to see and a helpful list of cross-references between people who actually lived in Mt. Airy when Griffith was growing up and the characters they became in the television show.
It was a long list that started with Floyd the barber.
She also pointed out several sites on Main Street, including a two-chair barbershop named – of course – Floyd’s. She also mentioned that, for $30 we could take a guided tour of all of the Mayberry sites in a replica of Sheriff Andy Taylor’s “squad car”.
Mt. Airy is a much larger than Mayberry and I feel certain that it is patrolled today by more than one sheriff with only one deputy and one squad car.
It was interesting to me to contrast Mt. Airy’s full-throated embrace of its connection with fame than the decidedly more understated approach that Tupelo has taken. Don’t get me wrong, Tupelo does not shy from the considerable benefits that come from being Elvis’s hometown. For instance, the complex at the birthplace (where the photos in the earlier post were taken) is at least partially city-funded.
However, Elvis does not dominate Tupelo in the same way that Andy dominates Mt. Airy.
Unfortunately we did not have time for the squad car tour of Mt. Airy and we pressed north into Virginia where we were soon back on the BRPW – and back in the fog and rain.
Our late picnic lunch stop was brief because it had turned downright cold.
About 5:30 and shrouded in a dense, cold fog we arrived at our destination for the night; The Peaks of Otter Lodge.
All of the lodges along the BRPW (I think there are five or six) are nice but very basic accommodations that were constructed in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Otter opened in May, 1974. There are no phones (except a payphone or two), no internet and no cell phone signal. This lack of communication technology forces patrons to read material printed on paper, converse with one another or –if they get really bored – to walk around outside in the woods and observe up close the Dogwood blossoms that have plentifully adorned the roadsides for our entire trip on both parkways.
The man at the front desk told me that there are two inns that will not open this year because the park service has been unable to find a suitable concessionaire. I will say that the concessionaires running both Otter and Pisgah are doing an exceptional job. The places are clean, the food is excellent and fairly priced and the staff is friendly and helpful.
I’m certainly no fan of “privatization” for the sake of privatizing and there is nothing wrong with having a federal park operated by government employees. However, there are some operations the government is not well-suited to operate and hotels and restaurants are two of them. My compliments to NPS for realizing this and for finding good concessionaires.
The visitor center in Asheville was new and equipped with modern technology but for the most part the facilities along the parkway have that distinct 60s and 70s feel. That said, everything seems to be in good repair, including the road surface which has been grade A for the entire route with only a few grade B exceptions.
No comments:
Post a Comment