The Andy and Opie statue at The Andy Griffith Museum in Mount Airy, North Carolina. Courtesy: Joe Tennis
Motoring into Mount Airy, North Carolina, I’m amazed at the buzz of traffic on a Friday afternoon in this Tarheel town. But, I find, there’s even more of a boom in business on Saturday morning when a vintage car show rolls down Main Street.
One Saturday in September is when I’m checking out the inventory at Pages bookstore as well as the piping-hot biscuits at the Snappy Lunch, a classic diner that was referenced in one episode of “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Come here to Mount Airy, and you’ll be whistling the theme of that oft-played sitcom, which starred Griffith, along with Don Knotts and Ron Howard. It ran on CBS-TV from 1960 to 1968.
Stars also included Frances Bavier as Aunt Bee. And today, in Mount Airy, many of the late Bavier’s belongings are on display in a room at the Mayberry Motor Inn.
For the coolest trip around town, take the Squad Car Tour at Wally’s Service Station. Here, I climb into the front seat of a vintage 1960s-era police car – a vehicle matches what Griffith drove on TV as Sheriff Andy Taylor on “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Griffith grew up in this city near the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the squad car tours include a stop at his homestead – what is actually now a rental, where you can spend the night.
While in Mount Airy, I send a Friday night at the Mayberry Motor Inn – even taking a dip in the swimming pool on the last official weekend of summer. Inside, I even catch an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” starring Knotts as Deputy Barney Fife.
Later, I devoured dinner at the Loaded Goat, 247 City Hall Street, and learn that the restaurant actually took its name from an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show,” with a plot following whether a goat ate dynamite.
Around nightfall, I arrived back at the Mayberry Motor Inn to hear some folks playing bluegrass music in the gazebo. It was sweet and highly melodic. And, really, it was kind of like the music you would have heard Griffith play on the porch at the end of episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Want to Go?
218 Rockford St.
Mount Airy, North Carolina.
336-786-1604
