Mount Airy NC and the Mayberry Days Festival

It was after crossing into Virginia that I realized that my carefully-made plans for that evening and the next day were going down the ol' flusher. My plan was to take 52 to Wytheville VA, and from there take Interstates 77 and 40 to Hickory NC, where dinner was to be at Butch's, a great Lexington-style BBQ place that I discovered a few years ago. From Hickory, I would head down to Gastonia NC and get on I-85, which would take me into northern Georgia where I planned to spend the night. Assuming that I was able to get an early start Thursday morning, the plan was to get to Chattanooga in time to ride the incline railway to the top of Lookout Mountain, have lunch at the Roadfood-reviewed Zarzour's, and then head up to Mount Airy for a three-day weekend there. However.....      

When making my plans, I neglected to take into account just how much time my frequent photo stops along the road would eat up, and all those dozens of stops played havoc with my travel schedule. I never got to either Georgia or Tennessee, but I did get as far as southwestern NC before heading north to Mount Airy, along with getting to visit a Tarheel tourist attraction that's just as spectacular scenery-wise as Lookout Mountain. This photo is of the tiny community of Rocky Gap VA.

This is Bland VA ( I love that name. )

nocarolina


... and this is it: the East River Mountain Tunnel, which I-77 and US 52 use to bypass the time-consuming mountaintop route. The drive that used to take an hour can now be made in less than a minute. 

And had you taken the drive (which doesn't take an hour now... maybe 15-20 minutes to go over East River Mountain), the overlook at the top into Bluefield would have given the following view...

Bluefield overlook pics

My son Tanner, the rib inspector, in in these.  We took these last October.

We live in Princeton, about 15 minutes from Bluefield and the East River Mountain tunnel.  At the top of old US 52, they remodeled an old overlook about 15 years ago.  Too bad they let the vandals come up and make a mess of it, but the views, especially in the fall, are gorgeous.

Too bad we didn't know you were passing this way... next time let me know and we can find a place to at least say hi.

The BW Country Store is located on top of Big Walker Mountain in Wythe County. The view from this mountaintop is simply breathtaking.

These pictures are great. I really want to ttravel up that way.
Did I miss Mt Airy and the festival or can we look forward to part II?

My arrival in Mount Airy is still twenty-four hours away; see posts #121 and #122.

Here's several shots taken on top of Big Walker Mountain...

Thanks, jimcfs1, for posting those great photos. It's really a pity that there's so many brainless, immature idiots who think that defacing other peoples' property, both public and private, is so funny. Years ago, it took at least an hour to get up and over East River Mountain on 52. How is it that it can now be done in twenty minutes? 

Coming into downtown Wytheville...

... and then, due to the terrifying effects of unregulated atomic testing, an innocent young pencil was transformed into a monstrous man-eating mutation more than one hundred feet tall!... 

Thanks to my obsessive photo-taking in West Virginia, I didn't arrive in Hickory NC until after 8 PM. I then spent the next half-hour driving from one side of town to the other and back on US 70 in a futile attempt to find Butch's BBQ, where I enjoyed a great Carolina 'que lunch a few years ago. After a while, I gave up the search and started looking for an acceptable alternative. Unfortunately, Hwy. 70 in Hickory has nothing to offer but chain eateries.

After looking over the rather meager dinner options available to me, I decided to go with Nashville-based O'Charley's, an Applebee's-type chain found primarily in the midwest and mid-south. A few years back, I had a pretty decent hamburger at the O'Charley's in Lafayette IN, so I figured that it was as good a choice as any. All O'Charley's are not created equal, however, as I learned that evening. I didn't even bother taking a photo of my mediocre burger, but I did find out from my server that Butch's had packed up and moved their operation west to the town of Morganton NC. Oh well, nice try... 

After a good night's sleep at yet another Red Roof Inn ( my favorite motel chain ), I got on the road before daybreak and quickly located a Biscuitville, home of the second-best fast food biscuits in North Carolina. One of the things that I like about this little chain is that you can actually watch the biscuits being made, which is even more entertaining than watching the donuts travel the assembly line at Krispy Kreme.

Here's my Biscuitville breakfast: a biscuit n' gravy combo, a sausage biscuit, and a hashbrown pattie. While it is a fast food chain, they still manage to turn out some mighty good food.

After breakfast, I took US 321 from Hickory down to Gastonia NC, and then got onto I-85 which took me to Greenville SC. Up until this point, I was hoping that there was enough time to go on to Chattanooga, do the Lookout Mountain thing, and still get up to Mount Airy by mid-evening, but upon reaching Greenville, I realized that the plan was a lost cause.

Here's the famous giant peach water tower alongside I-85 in Gaffney SC. As buffetbuster pointed out in a recent thread, it also resembles an enormous human butt. 

After giving up on the Lookout Mountain plan, I headed west from Greenville on SC 183 to the town of Pickens, and then turned north onto scenic US 178. Along this route I found an old roadside sign from the long-defunct Bay gas station chain.    

I'm really enjoying your trip report, NoC. Great photos that speak volumes! The mister and I are moving to the Asheville area next summer, so I'm eager to see your Mount Airy pics and commentary. Mount Airy is definitely on our list of NC places to visit--maybe at next year's Mayberry Festival. I've wanted to go ever since I saw a "Pink Floyd" t-shirt (pink with a silk screen of Floyd the barber) from a recent festival.

Hmmm...I wonder if the burgers at Sweetwater Tavern are any good!

Brad

They're really good, Brad, assuming that dust and cobwebs are your preferred condiments.  

nocarolina


Thanks to my obsessive photo-taking in West Virginia, I didn't arrive in Hickory NC until after 8 PM. I then spent the next half-hour driving from one side of town to the other and back on US 70 in a futile attempt to find Butch's BBQ, where I enjoyed a great Carolina 'que lunch a few years ago. After a while, I gave up the search and started looking for an acceptable alternative. Unfortunately, Hwy. 70 in Hickory has nothing to offer but chain eateries.

Have you tried Smokey's BBQ in Wytheville?  You probably drove right past it on the way out of town back to the interstates... it's easy to miss.  It's tucked in behind the GoMart by the shopping center.  We haven't been there in a while, but they weren't bad. 

Assuming you went through Statesville, NC on the way to Hickory, you missed a few good options including Carolina Barbeque.

Thanks for posting the Smokey's link, Jim. That GoMart station was one of my fill-up/potty stops on this trip, and I remember seeing Smokey's and wondering if it was worth a visit; I'll have to check it out someday. I did see signs for Carolina BBQ along I-77 ( or was it I-40? or both? ) in Statesville. If I'd known in advance that Butch's had skipped town, Carolina would definitely have been my dinner stop instead of O'Charley's. That's what I get for not doing a Google search before starting the trip.

Another "roadfood" type place in Wytheville is Ocean Bay Seafood just past that GoMart, across from K-Mart and Applebees.  (Sorry, they don't have a website.)  It's owned by a greek family.  Everything is homemade.  They specialize in fried seafood, but their broiled or boiled shrimp are good too.  

We don't get down to Wytheville as much anymore, for an eating destination.  We usually stop at one of the truck stops or Sheetz for cheaper gas before we go back home to WV on the way back from visiting my wife's sister in Charlotte.

The place in Wytheville that interested me was Skeeter's Hot Dogs.  But they might not have been open as late as you got there.  We ate a place right near that named Troy's Cheesesteaks.  It was pretty good.  My wife had a cheesesteak and I had a cheeseburger sub and they had some great homemade chips.

I don't think I could get near Statesville and not go to Keaton's.  Actually I don't know if I could get near North Carolina and not detour to Keaton's.

jimcfs1 - I'm familiar with Ocean Bay as I pass right by it on the way to NC. Seafood and I don't get along though, so I've never eaten there.    hatteras04 - I share your passion for Keaton's, and, if I didn't have my heart set on 'que that evening, it probably would've been my first choice for dinner.