A Slice of Life
Bill Lites
Day 14 (5/29/2022)
Since I couldn’t find anyone to talk to at the Planet Chopper, I just continued southeast another 25 miles on US-52, across the border, to visit the Thunder Road Museum located on the west side of Mount Airy, NC but it was closed. I was disappointed as I remembered the 1958 movie “Thunder Road” with Robert Mitchum, about the running of bootleg moonshine in the Tennessee & Kentucky hills during the 1950s, and I was looking forward to seeing the museum’s car collection. Bummer! But, it was only a few miles east to where I visited the Andy Griffith Museum there in Mt. Airy. This attraction includes the Andy Griffith Playhouse, as well as the Museum which displays a large collection of artifacts and memorabilia related to the life and times of Andy Griffith, who was born and raised in Mt. Airy.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
Now I headed southeast 35 miles on US-52 to visit The Winston Cup Museum located in Winston-Salem, NC. This museum displays a marvelous collection of NASCAR Winston Cup winning cars. Visitors can walk thru the history of NASCAR racing with the very cars that won those races dating from the inception of the Winston Cup Series of races. What an impressive collection of racecars!
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Photo Credit: Bill Lites
After that exciting trip down memory lane, I drove over to the ‘Old Salem’ part of town to see and learn about some of the old Salem home and building restorations. Wikipedia informs me Salem was originally settled by a Moravian community in 1766, and the area has now been restored into a living history museum that tells the story of how that small community lived and worked in the 16th and 17thcenturies.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
Before leaving the Old Salem area, I stopped to get a photo of Mickey’s World’s Largest Coffee Pot, which has become an Old Salem landmark.
This 7-foot, 3-inch-tall coffee pot was originally designed and built in 1858 by two Moravian tinsmith brothers Julius & Samuel Mickey to advertise their coffee shop and has been an item of legend in the Old Salem area over the years.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
It wasn’t far from Old Salem to where I stopped to take a photo of the last Shell Oil clam-shell Service Station in America. I had never seen one of these stations, but maybe that is because they only lived in North Carolina before I was born. The story goes that local distributors, Joe Glenn and Bert Bennett built six of these clam-shell shaped stations in Winston-Salem during the early 1930s to help boost their businesses. After the stations closed in the 1950s, the ones that remained standing were used for various types of small business shops until the 1980s when they all but this last one disappeared. I believe this one is still standing only because it is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Photo Credit: /www.bing.com/images/search/oldshellstation/
Now it was time to head for the motel there in Winston-Salem for the night. On the way to the motel, I saw a Chick-fil-A and stopped to have an order of their Grilled Chicken Nuggets with Bar-B-Q sauce and a big cup of iced tea. It was quick and delicious.
https://www.bing.com/chick+fil+a+grilled tenders
Then it was on to find the motel, which Greta (My Garmin) did expertly. I got checked in and got my things into the room, after which I took the time to record the day’s activities and fell asleep trying to watch TV. ZZZZZZ.
—–To be Continued—–
Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 65 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing. He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville. Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.
One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is: John 10:10
Old Things R New 