Mayberry Surprise!
Crossing over the North Carolina state line turned out to be full of nice surprises for us. We started with uncertainty if our Kentucky Derby get together with pals Michelle and Jim would happen. The rocket launch project they were working on suddenly entered a schedule critical period right around the year long planned get together in North Carolina. And it was this uncertainty that led us to all of the nice surprises.
We ended up changing the place we were going to stay, and that's where the fun started. Instead of pulling Penelope back westward and up into the mountains, we decided to stop at a point along the route we will be continuing on to the east. Thinking if our friends come out to NC we will drive just the truck back west, because we are close enough to do that; if they can't come out we will just continue pulling Penelope east at the end of our planned stay and save an unnecessary trailer pull up narrow mountain back roads.
We found Mayberry Campground in a perfect location to agree with our planning, and everybody wants to go to Mayberry, right?! It turned out to be a really nice campground in Mt. Airy, NC owned by very nice folks. We noticed right away in the park, Andy Taylor Street, which we are parked on. That made sense in Mayberry Campground. We also noticed some signs saying things about Eng and Chang.... wasn't that the famous Siamese Twins??? It turns out it sure was! They lived the last part of their lives right here in Mt. Airy, just like Andy Griffith! And this RV park was part of the 110 acre farm that Eng and Change Bunker bought way back in 1839. We had no idea.
Below are a few shots from around the Mayberry Campground.
We had a few pretty good rain showers during our stay, one had about 30 minutes of hail and was followed by a nice rainbow gift.
There is Steve on Andy Taylor Street.
The park has about 100 sites and two fishing ponds. The family started with 10 sites and have built the park on their own site by site. They have done a really nice job and keep it maintained beautifully.
That's us on Eng & Chang Way. It turns out this park is part of the 110 acres that Eng and Chang bought here back in 1839!
This is a house right behind the Eng & Change Way sign in the park that was built by one of Eng's sons. Eng had ten children and Chang had eleven!
This is a picture of Steve with Kila, Great Great Great Granddaughter of Eng Bunker. That's her sweet Husky Quila.
There they are, Eng and Chang Bunker, right here in Mayberry! They were born in Thailand and traveled the world as a curiosity before they ended up in Mt Airy, NC. They didn't have a last name when they came to the US, so they borrowed the Bunker name from a family local to this area. They are the reason the name Siamese Twins was coined for conjoined twins.
This is the small lake behind Eng's house. We fished a little bit in both ponds.
Another very nice surprise was that we got to visit with our Cousins in Winston-Salem, NC. We drove over to Ella's barn and watched her horseback riding lesson, and then followed Tiffany back to her home where Joel and Tiffany treated us to a wonderful Steak & Chicken Shish-Kabob Skewer dinner, yum!
Ella jumping with no hands!
Wells hangin' with Cousin Spur.
No hands, easy peasy for Ella!
We met our neighbors in the Mayberry Campground, and the husband Bobby told me he was a preacher man. OK I thought, we have nice neighbors... but then he gives me his fancy business card/pamphlet and it says he is the Smallest Preacher in the World!
OK now that makes Bobby famous, so I had to ask for pictures!
Bobby, Cathy and Gari
A few fishing pictures to round out this post...
Steve caught a few nice Bluegill
Gari has a Largemouth Bass on!
Gari won't touch that fish so Steve holds it up for documentation. We released all the fish unharmed in the making of this Blog.
Gari casts her 1/8 oz. spoon bait.
There's Spur trying his best to catch a bigger fish than Gari, unfortunately this is futile.
We have a couple more stops in this area and we will save those for a follow on post. That will be a tour of Mayberry and a hike to the top of Hanging Rock Mountain.
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