Barbecue with Altitude since 2005! We met Greg & Nancy at the Fancy Gap KOA for a weekend of barbecue & Andy Griffiths Mayberry RFD. Friday night we enjoyed a bottle of Buzzed Bee Mint Mead sitting in lawn chairs under their awning, catching up! Our dinner was bbq, smoked mac n cheese, coleslaw, and baked beans delivered to their campsite by Fancy Gap in anticipation of the festival on Saturday!

Saturday we drove over to Galax for the barbecue competition. We each got a cardboard egg carton with samples of 12 different bbqs to taste – after which we cast our votes for The Peoples Favorite competition! It was a fun event that filled Main street & the blocks on either side with booths & bbq hopefuls & live music! But as it was smoking HOT and steamy we headed back to Fancy Gap after about 3 1/2 hours.

Fancy Gap KOA is absolutely loaded with cute, funky metal art! Not at our campsite but at SO many others and you *know* my addiction to offbeat oddities…!

Sunday was all about The Andy Griffith Show in Mount Airy, NC! He grew up in Mount Airy and based Mayberry on his childhood memories. It is a beautiful town which has a thriving cottage industry of all things Andy Griffith!

I have always loved The Andy Griffith Show. I binge watched it again during the pandemic. Such great characters, just a delight! So I have wanted to visit Mount Airy ever since I heard about their magical Mayberry connection!

We arrived at Wally’s garage (Goober says “hey!”) for our Mayberry Squad Car Tour! It was already sweltering at 10:30 when we took off, but what a hoot! On the road out of town our driver gave us a high speed chase experience with sirens blaring!!!

After all the Mayberry memories we wandered over to the Angry Troll brewpub for lunch. Then spent the afternoon doing tastings of wine, mead, and hard cider!

The first winery had gorgeous views from their covered patio – we popped out for the photo then retreated to the air conditioned tasting room for what, charitably, could be described as the Worst Wine in the World…!

The second winery was exquisite! Their whites were tasty, there was live music, a lovely gift shop, and beautiful tasting presentation!

Thusly fortified we headed back to Fancy Gap for a final afternoon happy hour at Chez Greg & Nancy!