Daylight's precious when your a youngen'.

Back.

We had a wonderful time in and about Sparta, North Carolina for the past week or so. We were visiting my father in law who built a beautiful house pretty much by himself just outside Sparta.

Although there were no Civil War sites nearby :( we did get a chance to take in some of the local culture and cuisine. Here's a few pics---

View from the deck of my FILs house. The kids spent a ton of time swimming in that river.

We were surprised when a huge thunderstorm come through out of nowhere.

My FILs cat loves to catch critters. He eats everything but the tail. I think this is what remains of a squirrel.

We spent a day at old Salem in Winston Salem. The juxtaposition of modern buildings with 200+ year old gunsmith shops and bakeries was a bit odd.

This coke machine was behind a stall door in an original barn. Obviously the settlers were way ahead of their time.

George Washington slept in this tavern...

...in this room.

Downtown Winston Salem was hosting their annual ribfest. It was a pigacaust of biblical proportions.

These guys made the best ribs IMHO. Their name was "Sgt. Oink." Were it up to me he would be promoted to Colonel Oink.

Note all the trophies with little pigs on top of them. They take their ribs VERY seriously.

Mount Airy was a quaint little town that plays up the fact that Andy Griffith was born there and based many of the characters in his show on the people and places there. For example you can take a guided tour in one of these show-themed police cruisers.

The famous statue of Andy and Opie which stands in front of the Andy Griffith museum.

My favorite part of the whole day. In the middle of the South at the birthplace of Andy Griffith and the apex of hometown values the first thing we saw when we parked in the visitor lot was this Obama headquarters sign. Did my heart proud seeing this.

Tweetsie's Railroad was a themepark built around an actual coal locomotive ride that gets attacked by bandits.

Some of the wicked desperados.

Fighting off "Red Devil." Sigh.

All in all it was a wonderful trip and we were sad to have to come home. North Carolina was absolutely beautiful and the people were about as hospitable as they could get.