We made it into North Carolina and Bob showed us around his home town, Mount Airy. It is where Bob and Andy Griffith grew up. Not at the same times of course. I have often joked that I married a big Opie. It's a cute town and I was happy to see it through Bob's eyes. He drove us around to all his old haunts and told us what he did here and there. The neighborhood he grew up in hasn't changed much....except a tree his family planed out in front of their house when he was four. I don't know how big it was before but this is it now.
I had a funny interation with the woman who owns the house now. I didn't want them to think I was some weirdo just taking pictures of their house. I said, "My husband grew up in this house. His family planted that tree when he was four." She barely looked up and just said, "Oh." Strange. Wouldn't you say, "Wow" or "Would you like to look around?" or "When was that?" Nope, just, "Oh." Hmmm....
We met up with one of his friends from PK - 11th grade, Kristen and her two sons. It was fun and they are a very nice family.
The next day we wandered around Mount Airy and checked out the town. They are famous for three things (four if you include Bob);
- Mayberry / Andy Griffith
- Chang and Eng Bunker - Siamese Twins
- Donna Fargo, the happiest girl in the whole USA.
They have really done a good job of using and maximizing these attractions. We went to the Visitor's Center and I got the full run down on what to do in Mount Airy from one of their volunteers. It was very thorough and honestly, hilarious. My favorite part was when she told me that we could (Read this in a slow-southern-drawl), "Visit the quarry. It doesn't cost anything but your time to get there and it's only a mile and a half. It's the largest granite quarry in the world and it is so big, and so white they can see it from space!" I didn't say it but no, no you can't. You can barely see it on Google Earth when you only look at North Carolina. Funny. It is big and impressive though.
We left Mount Airy and drove for five plus hours to get to Georgia. The kids were excited to get to Atlanta to see their cousins and sit still for a few days. The plan was to be there for 5 nights. We drove into Lawrenceville first which is where Bob's parents live. We had a nice visit and a home-made dinner. Man, we needed that. We had been eating out every night and I was sick of mass-preparred food. After our visit we went to Bob's sister's house. Ingrid and Brian are great hosts and we were looking forward to seeing them and their kids and again....sitting still.
One of the problems of sitting still is that you relax. When you relax you can get sick. When you get sick, you're no good. I was no good. I got a cold probably spurred on by allergies. Allergies in different states in different hotels.... yuck. Bob got it too. I was down for a couple days and didn't fully recover until we got home!
Our time in Atlanta was packed with friends and family. It made me realize that we need to go to Atlanta for a couple of weeks to get it all in. There are MANY people I didn't get to see. We did get to see our friends the Combs' and the Malm-Cluett's. Barbara put together a beautiful brunch for us. I was so honored. It was fun to catch up and hear about all the goings on of friends from the past.
We spent one afternoon with my Aunt Holly, Uncle Rick and cousin Bobbie Hurt and her family. The kids got to go swimming and and we caught up around the pool until the thunder started. That stopped that part of the day. Bobbie and Holly made a great dinner and again, we were so honored to be in their company.
While in Cumming (an Atlanta suburb) the kids got to go swimming in a swimming hole that had rock water slides. That was a big hit. They even got to jump out of a tree into the river. It was a beautiful setting and such fun.
Guns...not such a thing in Portland but a big thing in the South. Uncle Brown (Brian) had a BB gun and the kids were quite excited to try it. They set up some targets in the back yard and went to town. Coulter and Kees even got to blow up a couple of full soda cans. That was good stuff.
Sophia spent a day shopping and going out to dinner and a movie with her big cousin Jessica. We were also there for her 18th birthday when we went out to dinner. We also visited with Bob's brother Bas and son Austin and caught Bob's sister Connie and her family as they passed through town on a vacation. There were lots of touches but not a lot of long visits. Our time was just so short.
We had nice meals and company. All in all we had a great time in Atlanta. We got do do laundry (ohh, ahh), sleep in the same place for a few nights and plan for the rest of the trip...somewhat. We knew that we were going to head to New Orleans. While in the neighborhood you may as well. Originally we were going to go to Memphis but the kids decided they wanted to go to New Orleans instead. So that was the plan, to leave bright and early on Wed and head to New Orleans. More in the next post.
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