Vanishing Point

That's a quote from the TV Guide describing The Andy Griffith Show and reproduced on a plaque at the base of this statue: Andy's hometown is Mt. Airy, North Carolina. I learned this because during Labor Day weekend, the local TV station in the Havelock area did a feature story about the town and the Andy Griffith Museum. I did a bit more research and learned that the nearby town of Pilot Mountain was his actual inspiration for Mayberry, but since Mt. Airy is where he grew up, it lays claim to the tourist business generated by the show. A few of us photo opportunists took turns taking pictures of each other with the statue.  On the way to Mt. Airy, I saw a dome-shaped mountain up ahead. They're fairly common in Southwest Arizona, but I wasn't expecting to see one in North Carolina. I stopped and took a photo of the mountain (with the obligatory crepe myrtle tree) and of the plaque that goes with it. Sure enough, the blurb about geology mentions bot

The area of North Carolina that I visited was pretty seriously impacted by Hurricane Florence about a year ago. In many ways, the cluster of smallish towns are still recovering from all the damage. According to my friend, this tree fell during the hurricane and the business associated with this truck just closed up and went away. When I got to my friend's house, it looked like smooth weather for the duration of my stay. The first few days were amazing for August on the Carolina coast. I expected to be blown away by heat and humidity, but it was actually pleasant -- overcast with highs in the upper 70's! Then as Hurricane Dorian developed, the weather started to change. The mugginess started to return and the community was on edge. My friend reminded me that even outer bands of a hurricane would have winds that would make driving my van questionable, maybe even impossible. So I moved up my departure date by several days to get away from the coast well ahead of Dorian.