After a great, and filling, breakfast of strawberry pancakes with bacon for me and county ham, eggs and hash brown potatoes for Andy, we waddled back to the car.
The Blue Ridge Music Center, on The Blue Ridge Parkway, has free music for museum visitors. Willard Gayheart (pencil artist) and Scott Freeman are local musicians who have been playing at the music center every Thursday for years. They are good. Willard and Scott, who plays multiple instruments, play old and new bluegrass songs with a few country tunes just to mix it up a bit. We listened for around an hour, visited with them on their break and headed down the parkway toward Mount Airy, N.C.
Mount Airy, N.C. is the home town of Andy Griffith and a pretty little place with small town feel even if the business folks have capitalized on the Mayberry theme. Andy (my Andy, that is) and I visit Mount Airy a couple of times a year. There is a very good museum dedicated to Andy Griffith's movie and TV career. There are shops featuring Andy, Barney, Opie and the Darings in the form of CDs, photographs, candy, tea towels, books, and most anything else you can imagine.
You may dine at Aunt Bea's restaurant or the Barney (Fife) Café, but we like the Blue Bird.
The Blue Bird Diner and Ice Cream Parlor has been around for years. You may sit at one of two U shaped counters or one of many booths lined up against the wall. We sit in a booth, write a little note giving our names and where we are from, and slip it under the glass table top along with hundreds of other little slips of paper. And....we always order the Blue Bird's famous pork chop sandwich. Yum.
If you look closely at the last picture, you may see a little bite mark. After I had take that bite, I thought to snap the picture. Opps!
It was a fun little day trip but all those calories called for a low cal dinner. Some days are like that, yeah, they are!
