July 18 and 19

The evening of July 18 we planned to visit Jeff and Ursula our son in law's parents. They live in Mt. Airey NC just over the border from VA. Mt. Airey is the birthplace of Andy Griffith, but more about that later.
 Jeff and Ursula were very accommodating to our lack of schedule, especially since they were also being visited by their daughter in law Lisa, and grandson Curtis. We had a great dinner of Hamburgers, corn on the cob and two fresh salads. Their house is very nice, and we had a good time. They have a fifth wheel, like ours, and we look forward to camping with them, and the kids when they relocate north.
On the way down, we stopped at the D-Day memorial in Bedford VA. Because Beford was the town that lost the most men per capita in the D Day invasion, Congress awarded them the memorial. Unfortunately they didn't fund it. You may know that Liz's dad was a ranger and was in the group of men who climbed the cliffs to neutralize the guns at Pointe du Hoc, in Normandy. This memorial is to all of the men and women who were involved in getting the soldiers to the beaches, as well as the soldiers. We opted for the guided tour of the plaza, and in our group were 4 students from Normandy France! Our guide was only a bit flustered from having to discuss the invasion of France with French students in a southern accent!





Co-incidently, I had just found and was listening to the recording of the CBS live broadcast of the D-Day invasion on the internet. It was kind of eerie to imagine what it must have been like for parents to be sitting at home in the 40's and listen to the reports from Europe, knowing their son is probably climbing the cliffs into German machine gun fire.
On the perimeter of the memorial there were busts of Eisenhower's generals surrounding a full length statue of Ike in his bomber jacket. There was a large mosaic overhead of a map of  the beaches showing the ships approaching and the regiments landing. There was a great story told of a British toy company given a contract to build a scale model of  the ocean going ships and the soldiers landing. The order was given in pieces, so no one could know where this area was. When it was installed in SHAEF headquarters, the company's people were detained until the invasion was over.
Around the plaza there are plaques mounted on the wall listing the men from the US and it's allies who gave their lives that day to begin the liberation of Europe
There is a combination of sculptures commemorating the actual invasion, showing soldiers coming ashore from a landing craft and climbing the cliffs. There are bursts of compressed air to simulate rifle fire.

There are pieces of metal in the water depicting the obstacles Germany had placed on the beaches, along with mines.At the top of this picture there are sculptures of men climbing the cliffs. You can observe this from many different vantage points, including the bridge on top, where you are looking the soldiers right in the eye, as they climb over the edge. All in all the memorial was very moving and very well done.




The next morning we visited Mt. Airey, The place where Andy Giffith grew up. It is the town on which Mayberry was modeled. It is complete with the Andy Griffith Museum, showing memorabilia from Andy's life as a movie actor, Sheriff Taylor, and Matlock. Betty Lynn who played Barney's girlfriend in the show, grew so fond of Mayberry in doing the show she moved there when she retired, and lives there still, returning to the museum one day a month to sign autographs. Next door there is a Andy Griffith playhouse for amateur productions. A childhood friend is responsible for collecting most of the memorabilia from Andy's career, so it is quite a personal collection. There was a collection of Christmas cards Andy sent, each one showing his wife Cindi, himself, and his current Labrador sitting in or in front of an old car from his collection.

The town has a number of re-creations from the show, including Floyd's Barber Shop, and Snappy Lunch, both operational, and doing business. There is Wally's Service with a real, 60's Ford Galaxy parked in front, and a guy inside taking reservations for trips around town in it. Of course they have a Mayberry Courthouse with the Sheriff and Justice of Peace signs out front. Andy Griffith died last summer, but he visited Mt. Airey often. The street names were borrowed from heavily for the show, as were the surrounding towns. For example, Mt. Pilot has a real neighboring Pilot Mountain.
 Tomorrow on to Spruce Pine for BBQ andBluegrass.