Back in 2009, I made my first pilgrimage. I had to visit the farm in Dyersville, Iowa where Field of Dreams was filmed in 1988.

Last week, it was another bucket list visit...to Mount Airy, North Carolina, where Andy Griffith was born and raised AND the town on which fictional and iconic Mayberry was based.

In fact, the entire week I referred to it as Mayberry.

I can't be the only one.

First of all, the town does not look like it does on TV. That's a standard-issue movie set.

But there are locations and names borrowed from Andy's life that occupy a special place in the small town of just over 10,000 North Carolinians.

The Andy Griffith Museum features props and costumes from the series as well as some of Andy's recordings.

I had to get a picture of Barney's salt-and-pepper suit since it may be the only costume I ever saw Don Knotts wear on the show outside of his deputy uniform.

There's also the sidecar from the motorcycle Barney bought in one particularly funny episode. (Although they were ALL funny.)

One of the town's diners is Snappy Lunch, which you might remember from the show.

There are also replicas of the courthouse and Wally's service station.

And what looks like a replica of Floyd's Barber Shop really isn't because it's a functioning barber shop run by the son of the actual Floyd.

Oh, and Mount Pilot from the series is actually Pilot Mountain. And we went up near the top of it where I got a really cool picture of a huge thunderstorm...from ABOVE. It moved past us.

Mayberry...in all its glory:

 

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