Kitty's High School Stomping Grounds

We recently had a wonderful visit to Elizabeth City, NC where Steve's mom grew up on her folks farm.  Some of the old farm is still there, but progress has definitely visited Elizabeth City.  We parked on Cousin Sherry's farm in Weeksville, NC and that worked out great for us.  Cousins Danny and Wanda live just a few houses down the road toward town.  Cousins Courtney and Jon live the other way down the road right near the river.  Uncle Buddy and Aunt Diane aren't far either.  We were very fortunate that we were able to visit at least a little with everyone during the week or so that we were parked.  Everyone was looking and doing so well, it was a very happy and fun visit for us.

We got to visit with Cousins Rob and Joyce at their home in Tulls Creek near Moyock, NC.  They were both looking sharp and their home place as magnificent as ever.  Of course Joyce couldn't let us get away without a feast, so feast we did on a delicious rack of ribs!  Thank you Joyce & Rob!

We found Cousins Courtney, Jon, Neil and Mack in their new house down by the river.  Everyone was very healthy and very busy with life.  The new house is fantastic, lots of room for Neil and Mack... and mom & dad!  Courtney also has the instinct to feed visitors, so again we enjoyed a massive and delectable barbecue feast.  Thank you Courtney and Jon!

We found Cousin Sherry at work one day in downtown Elizabeth City.  It has been many days since we last saw Sherry, so we had a really good catch up visit even though it was short.
That is Sherry and Spur in front of the Federal Courthouse in Elizabeth City, NC

It was a beautiful day to see our lovely Cousin Sherry!

On the weekend we rode down one day to Buxton, NC right at the Hatteras Lighthouse and enjoyed a day of fishing with Danny and Wanda.  It was a gorgeous day and we all had a blast.  Lunch was the delicious grilled venison burgers on the beach, and then we were treated to a fine meal at the Buxton seafood restaurant by Danny & Wanda!

It all starts with catching the bait, Sand Fleas!  Wanda shows us how it is done.

Wanda leads the way with a Kingfish, this woman Cousin even takes the fish off the hook!

Gari and Danny both have a fish on.  It's a Double!  We even had a few triples that day!

Gari presents her catch of a nice sized Kingfish.

 Cousin Danny assists with the unhooking process.

Danny & Wanda's fishing friend Larry presents a Spiny Box Puffer or also known as the Striped Burrfish, for inspection.

 Very interesting and porcupine-ish

Gari catches another whopper Kingfish.

Even Steve got a Kingfish...

But now Steve has a shark on...

There it is, and it is wiggling for all it is worth.  Don't let it bite you!

We went back to Danny & Wanda's new camper, parked very close to the foot of the Hatteras Lighthouse, what a great place to spend time!  There's Gari & Wanda on their deck.

Danny has a great storage shed that goes with their campsite.  The lighthouse is behind the trees about 1/2 mile away.

Steve also got to meet Lacy, the campground dog.  She barked at him for a long time.

After a while, Steve decided to try and pet her.  He wasn't sure if she would bite him or not.  Lacy didn't bite, she enjoyed the attention very much!

What a wonderful visit we had.  Thank you very much to all our relatives that made us feel so welcome and loved.  We love you all!

Our New Friends Forever, Hannah and Hope!

We made some new friends forever while we were in Mayberry and we want to write about that fun experience here and give a great big "Howdy" shout-out to Hannah and Hope.  While we were in Mayberry, we got to talk with Hannah and Hope about NASA things including penguins and kangaroos seen on NASA trips.  We also talked about flying unicorns and other things I am learning more about. 

Hannah and Hope are living in an RV and home schooling as their dad and mom work projects across our country.  Hannah and Hope are excellent students and are extremely bright and full of good energy.  This is a picture of us with our new friends forever Hannah and Hope, right before we left the campground for Elizabeth City, NC.

Hannah is very artistic and gave us a gift of a drawing from her sketch notebook.  I had commented about how I like cactus, and Hannah remembered and a few days later presented us with this original artwork below.  We love it.

Because we talked about NASA things, Hope became inspired and made this sculpture of a Rocket (on right), the moon (upper left) and a satellite (lower left).  She had this sent to us electronically!

We think this is wonderful.  Hannah and Hope, if you are reading this, we encourage you to continue your good efforts with your studies and to always have fun and be safe!

Goobers Gone Fishin'

Since we spent a week in Mayberry, we had a little time to look around.  The first thing we found was the grave site of Eng and Change Bunker, the famous Siamese Twins of the 1800's.  We found it in a country Baptist Church cemetery that adjoined the RV Park to the east.  Kila told us that land was originally part of the Eng & Chang Bunker farm and was donated to the community for the church.  After the cemetery research, we rode into Mt. Airy (Mayberry) and walked around town to see what we could see.  Lastly, we looked at a couple hiking destinations and chose Hanging Rock State Park.

This is the Baptist Church where we found the famous grave site.  You can see the large stone marker just to Gari's left in the frame below.

The historical marker out front.

Eng and Chang's resting place.

Close in on the marker stone.

We wandered into downtown Mayberry (Mt. Airy) and found lots of small town charm.

We found a Bluegrass band picking out tunes in the public square.

 

 

Eatery on Main St.

Sculpture in a small city park on Main St.

Lots of Mayberry references in town.

The Earle Theater downtown. 

This building housed the Mt. Airy History Museum.

Mayberry souvenirs.

Russell Hiatt, the man who  inspired the character Floyd the Barber, passed away while we were here at the age of 92.  His son vowed to keep the barber shop open, and open it was the day we visited.

A peek inside Floyd's Barber Shop.  There were lots of photographs of the old Mayberry cast hanging up.

 Spur found Leon's.

A memorial wall to all war veterans from Mt. Airy.  Each name from every war going back to the Civil War were here on the wall.

Here comes Sheriff Taylor!  I didn't think he was a drinker, but he's going over the yellow line!  Citizens arrest!

Remember Emmett's Fix It Shop?  There it is!

There's the Sheriff's Office, Foley's Market and Howard Sprague's City Clerk Office.

Remember the Darlins?  Here is their farm below, man could they play some Bluegrass music!

Below is the Darlins's old truck

We found the Mayberry squad car down at Wally's Service Station.

Goober's tow truck

We asked for Goober at Wally's Station, but we were told that he had gone fishin' for the weekend.

Spur used the phone at Sheriff Taylor's desk, but didn't pay for the toll call....

...and he ended up in the pokey!

On a tip we found this "late model" Mayberry Squad Car way down at the end of Cherry St. near Riverside Park.  Grandma Josephine left me her 1967 Ford Custom 500 four door sedan, just like this squad car.  I would love to still have that old car!

On a day that it didn't rain we rode out to Hanging Rock State Park.  Below is the nice Visitor's Center.

We hiked out to Hidden Falls and Window Falls first.  It turned out the trail to the falls is part of the Mountains to Sea Trail, which starts in the Appalachians near Pigeon Forge, NC and ends at Jockey's Ridge sand dunes in Nags Head, NC.

There is Gari below at the Hidden Falls.

 

A Skink I think.

On the way to Window Falls Gari photographs the wild Rhododendrons that were everywhere.

Gari walks out on a granite backbone to get a mountain view.

There's the view Gari was after.

Gari making her way down to Window Falls.

 Steve is just below the Window.

 There's the famous Window at the falls.

Window Falls.

 Gari enjoying the close up view of Window Falls.

Gari getting a shot of Steve at the falls.

Steve went way up close!

Around the corner we find a second waterfall which is also a part of Window Falls.

The recent rain has made the falls flow large.

 Gari rock hopping her way down to the second falls.

Steve reaching for the water underneath the second falls.

 Looking back on the way back up the trail.

Next hike is the famous Hanging Rock.

A few shots from the top.

I would say that's Steve and Gari out on that rock, but that would be crazy!

 

A spectacular view.

Looking back from the point at Gari crouching to get a photo from under the scrubby pine tree.

 More views.

Steve out on the point.  It was very windy up there!

 The three girls out on the point.

Hold onto your hat!

Now this woman is truly nuts!

That is the point we were on, photographed from below.  One great big granite rock!

 By Wednesday 5/11 we should be all the way to the coast in Elizabeth City, NC.