Mount Airy NC and the Mayberry Days Festival

A five-way and two cheese coneys, along with a couple of cups of gas station coffee

What a perfect ending to a fantastic trip

I loved the report and all the photos. You did an amazing job of (almost literally) taking us for a ride. I'm already looking forward to your next trip, whenever that may be.

Thanks for sharing it all with us

Thanks for the EXCELLENT road trip! Very informative & FUN:-)

I really love the trip reports on roadfood and this was one of the best. It must have been a lot of work to get this put together but I really liked coming home from work or later in the evening and seeing what had been posted. 
The shots of the Mt. Airy festival really make me think of planning to attend the next one.

 The whole thing was great. Thanks.

Allan

Thanks, Bob!  This was a great trip!  I can't wait for the epic journey you'll take us on early next year.

I enjoyed this post and hope that others will post roadfood trips and vacations.

Thank you for taking us along on your road trip.  I really looked forward to reading and viewing each segment.  Cannot wait til the next report by you and other roadfooders who can travel let us enjoy your roadfood trip.

nocarolina


Here's the Cannel City School, which my mother attended during the Depression years. Cannel is a grade of coal that at one time was abundant in the valley.
 

Why are the windows and doors bricked in?  Is the building now used as a warehouse or something similar?
 

nocarolina


A five-way and two cheese coneys, along with a couple of cups of gas station coffee, fueled me up for the final 275 miles of my "epic" journey.

You certainly didn't need to stop for gas...
 
Brad

I'm not really sure why the windows and doors are bricked up, but I'm gonna take a guess. In recent years, the population of Caney Valley has dropped somewhat due to a lot of the young folks leaving for the big city instead of sticking around to farm the land like their parents and grandparents did. It's possible that the school's enrollment is so low that they simply don't need that much space anymore. Just a theory, and probably a lousy one...  
 
 
 
 
 
 

In a lot of the older elementary schools in Peoria and surrounding towns, the windows have been partially or wholly bricked up or covered up with insulating board as an energy saving measure.  The old windows were usually huge for natural lighting, but were not double (or triple) paned and had no storm windows on them, causing a tremendous loss of heat during the winter.  The school boards felt it was cheaper to permanently lessen or eliminate completely the window area, rather than re-glaze all those large windows with more energy-efficient glass.  (Plus, it removed one more excuse for the kids to be distracted from their lessons by anything happening outside.)  After all, there were very few classrooms in the area that were able to be completely lit by sunlight from those old windows during enough of the school year to save any electricity that way.

Bob, I finally had a good stretch of time where I could sit down and focus on your report.  I can't promise that I read every word, but I did enjoy your photos and food reports.  You set a high standard for trip reports that I wish I had the time and will power to match.  Maybe I'll get around to posting our recent New Orleans trip one of these days.  I know there will be some portions of that trip that you will appreciate.

Just a quick note about Ale 8-1 that you and others might or might not be familiar with.  The name of the product is a little play on words, meant to be read "A late one".  You see, Ale 8-1 is loaded with caffeine.  It is meant to be a happy pick me up for college students needing some extra energy as they cram for their exams.  So, if you're going to have a late one, you might want to have Ale 8-1!

Thanks for your wonderful report. You manage to cram a whole lot of livin' into a short amount of time!

Buddy

Yes it was a great report. Thanks a lot.