Mount Airy NC and the Mayberry Days Festival

After about three weeks of procrastination, I finally decided that it was time to get started on this rather overdue trip report. Late last month, I made yet another roadtrip down to Mount Airy, North Carolina, both to visit relatives and to attend the 20th annual Mayberry Days Festival. Mount Airy is Andy Griffith's home town, and the inspiration for the fictional Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show. For the past two decades, the town has held this festival to celebrate Andy's career and the show itself. As many times as I've been to Mount Airy over the years, I'd never been to the festival, so I figured that this was as good a year as any to change that. Unfortunately, unlike last May's NC roadtrip, this trip didn't yield very much in the way of roadfood-type eateries. Due to some less-than-brilliant planning on my part, I ended up eating quite a few meals in chain restaurants; in most of those cases, though, the chains were small regional and local operations. Also, since I'm a creature of habit, a number of the meals were identical to ones that I posted photos of in my NC trip report from May, so I didn't bother taking pictures of those meals.  

Just as I did back in May, I started the trip with breakfast at the Round the Clock restaurant on US 30 in Schererville IN. I ordered my usual at RTC: scrambled eggs, sausage patties, American fries and white toast. As you can see from this photo, I managed to get on the road somewhat earlier than I did the previous trip.

Looking at this photo, you'd never guess that, until the mid 1960s, this desolate stretch of two lane road was the primary route connecting Chicago with Indianapolis and Cincinnati. It's the former US 41 / US 52 that was replaced by a four-lane bypass around 1965. By the early '70s, the then-new I-65 had stolen most of the traffic from the bypass.

Passing through Fowler IN on eastbound US 52, I was greeted by these three smiling faces at the Senesac facility.

This faded old Mail Pouch Tobacco sign is located in downtown Otterbein, just a short distance from Hwy. 52.

On the northwest side of Indianapolis ( Lafayette Ave. ) is the Roadfood-reviewed Nick's Chili Parlor, which is an Indy institution. I stopped here for lunch #1...

Here's the aforementioned lunch #1: a chili dog with onions; it was pretty good. I would've ordered more, but I had other plans for lunch #2 ( sorry about the blurry picture. )

Driving south on Meridian St. towards downtown Indianapolis...

... and arriving at the site of lunch #2, Skyline Chili on E. Washington St. Back in mid-May, I participated in the RF Cincinnati Chili Crawl, in which we ate at six different Cincy chili parlors, deliberately excluding the Skyline and Gold Star chains. Camp Washington was, IMO, the best of the six, but I still prefer Skyline over any other.

There's really no need for me to look at the menu; I know just what I want.

Here we go... a small five-way with oyster crackers and sweet tea. Ordinarily I'd get a medium-size five-way, but, after all, this was lunch #2.

This is a very long trip, so far. I like it. Thumbs up. Keep it coming.

I've always wanted to try a Skyline 5-Way....one of these days I will

This is downtown Rushville IN, where US 52 turns in a southernly direction. Rushville is the hometown of beloved Chicago children's TV host, the late Frazier Thomas ( Garfield Goose and Friends, Bozo's Circus. )

About twenty miles past Rushville, the terrain begins to change from wide open farmland to the hills of beautiful Whitewater Valley.

Great picture of the five way. Every once in a while I have to get in the car and drive out to Columbus, Ohio to get a fix of 3 way skyline chili, cheese on the side and extra crackers. Usually two or three different visits with an equal number of stops at Graeters.

 I also like the way you can really get a taste of what the areas are like when you do your trip reports. The town of Rushville and the next two photos of the road you're on really brings out the road aspect of the trip. Love reading them. 

Allan

Many thanks, Allan. I guess that my love of the open road is pretty apparent, huh? No interstates, though... there's only so many exit signs and Flying J truck stops that you can look at before massive boredom sets in.

Shortly after winding down into Whitewater Valley comes one my favorite places to visit, the restored 1800s canal town of Metamora IN.

Roughly ten miles past Metamora is the town of Brookville, the county seat of Franklin County.

This restaurant, on 52 in Mound Haven IN, is currently called Kenzie's On The Mounds, but until a few years ago was known simply as The Mounds ( different owner. ) I had dinner there about five years ago; good fried chicken and an especially tasty thousand island dressing of their own making. I have no idea what the food's like under the new owner, but I intend to check it out one of these days.  

Shortly after passing through Mound Haven, I crossed the state line into Ohio. This photo was taken on Harrison Ave. ( old US 52 ) in Cheviot, one of Cincinnati's western suburbs.

Approaching downtown Cincinnati, Harrison Ave. crosses over the huge CSX railroad yard on the Western Hills Viaduct, a massive bi-level structure that dates back to the Depression.                  www.cincinnati-transit.net/westernhills.html

Central Parkway, on which I was driving southbound towards downtown Cincy, has a secret far beneath its pavement; approximately two miles of never-used subway tunnel. This double-track tunnel, complete with station platforms, was built in the 1920s as part of a planned rapid transit system for the Queen City. Unfortunately, the coming of the Depression in 1929 put an end to the project, and the tunnel, which has never had a single foot of rail laid in it, has sat there abandoned and empty ever since. Well, maybe not completely empty. Rumor has it that rats the size of water buffalos inhabit the tunnel, but of course, that's never been proven...          www.cincinnati-transit.net/subway.html

That water-buffalo-rat bit sounds like the beginning of a great Halloween story.  :)

As always, Bob, your pictures are great!  I didn't know there was a Skyline Chili in Indianapolis.  I'll have to check that out.

nocarolina


This is downtown Rushville IN, where US 52 turns in a southernly direction. Rushville is the hometown of beloved Chicago children's TV host, the late Frazier Thomas ( Garfield Goose and Friends, Bozo's Circus. )

This intersection looks familiar...this past summer I went through it NB on 3 and 2 years ago it was EB on 44.  But I have never actually stopped in Rushville.
 
Indiana's not a bad state to drive through.  It'd be nice if the speed limit was higher, though...at least for me, not everybody.
 
Brad

From downtown Cincinnati eastward to Portsmouth OH, US 52 runs more or less parallel to the Ohio River and is part of the Ohio River Scenic Byway. Here along Cincy's riverfront, 52 passes under the historic Roebling Suspension Bridge. More about this structure during the "heading for home" segment of this trip report ( roughly 25 or 30 pages from now. )

For years I've been curious about the dead-end side street in this photo. It runs, on an uphill grade, for less than a half a block before ending abruptly, and there's no room for a building on either side. Which begs the question: why does this street exist? Every time that I travel this route, I find myself pondering this. Yeah, I know... I need to find something of more importance to occupy my little brain.

This is the main street of New Richmond OH, a small riverfront town about fifteen miles southeast of Cincinnati.

Point Pleasant is the next town along the river. It's the birthplace of President Ulysses S. Grant; the house that he was born in has been preserved as a historical site.

nocarolina


For years I've been curious about the dead-end side street in this photo. It runs, on an uphill grade, for less than a half a block before ending abruptly, and there's no room for a building on either side. Which begs the question: why does this street exist? Every time that I travel this route, I find myself pondering this. Yeah, I know... I've got to find something of more importance to occupy my little brain.

 
What would Robert Frost do?

If you can locate it on a map I'll bet someone in city operations could tell you and maybe even provide an old photo.  My guess is that it was the original road but at some time the route was relocated to the right and regraded.
 
I notice things like that, too.  Any time I see a sign for "Old <something> Road" (like "Old OO", "Old D" and "Old US-63" in NW WI, for example) I'm strongly tempted to see where they lead, although in this case it's pretty obvious!
 
Brad

Brad, I don't mean to scare you, my friend, but you think a lot like I do ( don't panic... they have pills for things like that. )  Seriously, being a passionate "roadologist", I'm always intrigued by the numerous stretches of abandoned two-lane highway that I see in my travels; many of them, much like that one in Cincy, are only a few hundred yards long and end rather abruptly. There's a number of them on US 52 heading down to NC, as that highway has been relocated in quite a few spots in recent years, especially in West Virginia. Maybe I should start a photo journal of all the ones that I stumble across ( and then again, maybe not... )  

Further east along the river is Ripley OH. This town has a notable place in American history; it was a major "station" along the so-called Underground Railroad that escaped slaves in the South used to reach freedom in the northern states during the first half of the nineteenth century. The Reverend John Rankin, a prominent abolitionist of the period, lived in Ripley and aided in the escape of nearly two thousand slaves.
                www.ripleyohio.net/htm/rankin.htm     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

In Aberdeen, US Highways 62 and 68 cross over the Ohio River on the Simon Kenton Bridge, which takes them into historic Maysville KY. We'll take a short tour of Maysville on the way home from NC...

It was almost 9 PM when I finally arrived in Huntington WV, where I had a room waiting for me at the Red Roof Inn. As I hadn't eaten since back in Indianapolis, I was really hungry, so I headed for my favorite place to eat in Huntington, the Roadfood-reviewed Stewart's Original Hot Dogs on 5th Avenue. The Mandt family has been running this great little stand since the early '30s. I ordered my usual, a BBQ pork sandwich with slaw and a mug of root beer, plus a chili-slaw dog with mustard and onions ( traditional West Virginia-style. ) Everything was delicious, and the meal's low price didn't hurt my tight travel budget at all.  

The next morning ( Wed., Sept. 23rd ), I awoke to a pleasant, sunny day; quite a difference from the weather that I encountered enroute to Mount Airy back in May. A good breakfast is always a must before hitting the road, so I headed over to my usual breakfast spot in Huntington, Tudor's Biscuit World.

Tudor's Biscuit World is a small ( approx. fifty locations ) fast food chain that specializes in breakfast. In fact, all TBWs close at 2:00 PM, right after serving lunch; the similar Biscuitville chain in North Carolina keeps the same hours. Most of Tudor's outlets are located in the southern half of West Virginia, but there are a few in Ohio and Kentucky.

Being that it's a fast food chain, the food at Tudor's is, of course, not in the same league as that of a good roadfood-type restaurant, but it's still tasty and hearty fare; I can't remember ever having a disappointing breakfast there. One of the things that I especially like about TBW is that they have fried apples available. That's a favorite dish of mine that you don't see on too many breakfast menus.     www.tudorsbiscuits.com  

I can almost smell that breakfast...mmm. For a "fast food" place that looks half decent. I like the milk carton in the background. How was the biscuit?

ETR, the biscuits at Tudor's are okay, but, IMO, the best fast food biscuits are the made-from-scratch ones at Hardee's, with those at Biscuitville a very close second. The biscuits at McDonald's and Burger King are passable at best, and the ones at KFC are simply inedible.  

nocarolina


ETR, the biscuits at Tudor's are okay, but, IMO, the best fast food biscuits are the made-from scratch ones at Hardee's, with those at Biscuitville a very close second. The biscuits at McDonald's and Burger King are passable at best, and the ones at KFC are simply inedible.  

It's been too long  (almost 20 years since I lived in Durham) since I've had Biscuitville, but I will concur about Hardee's.  Nothing else comes close to their biscuits to me.  I will go out of my way if I have a need for a biscuit to get theirs.

You know, I would throw Chick-Fil-A in there, at least close to Hardee's if not surpassing them in some places.  CFA's biscuits tend to be lighter and not as greasy as Hardee's.  Bojangles also makes some good biscuits.

I've never had a Chick-Fil-A biscuit, but I have had one from Bojangles; it was part of a very disappointing meal that I had during this NC trip.   

After breakfast, I passed through downtown Huntington before heading into the mountains of southern West Virginia.

Many years ago, the owners of this tobacco warehouse on Huntington's south side had their building painted to resemble one of the famous Mail Pouch Tobacco barns that at one time blanketed much of the eastern part of the country. Most likely the work was done by the late Harley Warrick, who gained considerable fame in recent decades as the last of the Mail Pouch barn artists.

Bob, do you know if Harley Warrick ever did work in southern Wisconsin?  There's a tobacco warehouse near me with a similar Mail Pouch paint job.

Brad

Brad, I just looked at the Wikipedia page on Mail Pouch barns, and Wisconsin is included in the list of MP barn states, so I'd say that there's a very good chance that Harley Warrick is responsible for that warehouse's paint job. Mail Pouch's barn-painting program ended in 1992, the same year that Warrick retired; he died in 2000.
                                 
                            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_Pouch_Tobacco_Barn 

chili-slaw dog with mustard and onions

I thought you hated mustard???!?!?!?!?