Mount Airy - Mayberry Campground

We arrived at Mayberry Campground on Sunday, 5/29 right after Mary & Charlie (Natalello).  On Tuesday, May 1st, members of the FH RV Club started to arrive and filling in the row.  We were joined by Co-Wagonmasters Karen & Dave Costello, Albaughs, Butters, Davies, Dillingers, Parnells, Pethybridges, Flynns, Harrises and Joy.  The campground location was great and the host were very accommodating (they delivered firewood for our campfires!) and our Club was assigned the use of the big pavilion which worked out great protecting us from a very bad hailstorm that hit during happy hour on arrival day.  We found a great restaurant for the group dinner:  The Depot at Cody Creek.  A large group of us watched eight of our party zip-line and then headed to the restaurant for wine-tasting and lunch.  We had a tour of the Regional Museum and a few did wine-tasting at the BudBreak Festival in downtown Mount Airy (I was DD).  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and there was lots to do in the area.

After the FH RV Club's Open House on April 21st, we packed up the RV on the 22nd and on Monday, the 23rd, we headed to Camp Hatteras on the OBX.  We spent some time with Bobby and Peggy Reichenberger (Bobby took me for a great ride on their Harley). We departed the OBX on Sunday, the 29th to head to Mount Airy, NC for an RV Club trip.

March 25- 31, 2012 We spent a week at Cedar Point Campground in Swansboro.  Eights rigs with the FH RV Club joined us during the week and three more couples drove down and joined us for the group dinner at the Ice House in Swansboro.

In November 2011, we wagonmastered (with Margie & Buddy and Karen & Art) the FH RV Club trip to Ocean Lakes Family Campground in Myrtle Beach.  We were joined by 18 other rigs and we had a great time and there's always a lot of things to do there. 

Two down and One more to go...

We returned home to New Bern on July 31st to meet up with Gary and Carol; they had been staying in our house (where they found a lot of problems after a lightning strike hit before their arrival).

September 8th (Wednesday) we headed down to Goose Creek RV Resort (Newport, NC) for a long weekend with 14 other rigs from the FH RV Club.  We enjoyed the company over daily happy hours, a pot luck, a group dinner out and relaxing time in the pool.  We returned home on Sunday, 9/11.
Link to the photos:  https://picasaweb.google.com/fhrvclub/September2011GooseCreek?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKP_yv_1x7nwJw&feat=directlink 

The October trip with 10 rigs from the FH RV Club was to Williamsburg, VA where we stayed in the Colonial Williamsburg KOA from Sunday, 10/2 to Saturday, 10/8.  Weather cooperated and plenty to do in addition to our daily happy hours, a pot luck, a wienie roast, donuts for breakfast one morning, and dinner out at The Food For Thought Restaurant, and a night out for dessert and Friendly's (we eat a lot on trips!).
Link to the photos:  https://picasaweb.google.com/fhrvclub/October2011WilliamsburgVA?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMajz__fqZ_z8QE&feat=directlink

Mt. Airy, NC - also known as Mayberry from the Andy Griffith Show

 After a VERY rough, bumpy ride down Rt 77 through West Virginia (instead of paying at the toll booths, they should pay US for riding on those roads!!!), we arrived at Mt. Airy, NC on Friday afternoon.  We checked into Mayberry Campground which is still a work in progress but definitely a nice place to stay with cable and great wi-fi.  Upon arrival, the lady in the office mentioned that there was going to be a picnic and we were welcome to attend.  It turns out that it was the start of the Bunker family reunion which is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Siamese twins Eng and Chang Bunker.  We learned a lot of family history about the conjoined twins from their descendants...they married sisters and had 21 children between the two of them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_and_Eng_Bunker) and the family reunion is every year and it's a BIG one.

Hence, Mt. Airy is not only known as being the location of the world's largest open-faced granite quarry, home to Eng and Chang, birthplace of Donna Fargo (country singer) and Andy Griffith, but it was also the town that Andy Griffith based his TV show on known as Mayberry (Floyd's Barbershop, Blue Bird Diner, Snappy Lunch).  Today we rode around in one of the old Ford squad cars that are replicas that they used in the Andy Griffith Show and walked up and down Main Street and checked out some stores. 

We are heading home tomorrow (Sunday, 7/31) and have already been warned by Carol and Gary how hot it's been, is, and will be in New Bern.   We look forward to spending some time before they pack up and head out west to relocate to Arizona.

Heading back....

We spent a week in Traverse City hanging out with Jan (Ed's oldest sis) and her hubby, Jerry and having a good time.  The weather was great, the campground was really nice and the lakes were crystal clear.  We did some fun stuff around the area and the girls (Mandy and Molly) really liked the fenced in back yard at Jan's and Jerry's house.

Last night we stayed at the RV Permit Parking on the Ohio Turnpike and for $20 we had a 50-amp hookup that ran the a/c which was important to keep cool.  When we left there this morning we stopped in Cleveland and parked the RV at the Port Authority and walked over to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and spent a few hours there.  Ed then toured the freighter while I went back to the RV and got the dogs and walked them.  To avoid traffic, we were advised to plan on getting out of town by 3pm or wait until after 5pm. 

NOTE:  When we got back home we found out that Jimmy was at the R&R Hall of Fame the SAME time we were with Bill and Greg!!!

We decided to leave before 3pm and we checked into the Spring Valley Campground in Cambridge, OH.

I guess the closer to NC we get, the hotter the temperatures are going to be.  We've had a good time on this trip doing "touristy" stuff but it will still be good to get home and see Gary and Carol before they head to AZ to relocate and our other friends.