Summer's Around the Corner

- Next on "North Carolina Weekend" summer is around the corner.

We'll sample hot dogs in Greensboro, take Fido to a doggy retreat in Asheville, and I'll spend a fun weekend at the Blockade Runner Resort in Wrightsville Beach, coming up next.

- [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by: Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains, across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat banjo music] ♪ [upbeat banjo music continues] ♪ [upbeat banjo music continues] - Hi everyone, welcome to "North Carolina Weekend."

I'm Deborah Holt Noel and this week we're exploring the charming town of Sanford with summer just around the corner.

This town has really taken off with lots of places to explore, like a mural trail, antique shops, a historic theater, breweries, bakeries, you name it, we'll explore Sanford throughout the show.

Now there are plenty of places to grab a hotdog across our state, but we found a venue in Greensboro that's unlike any other.

- [Restaurant Worker] Good morning.

- Hey.

- Hey, what can I get for ya?

- [Customer] Nine, all the way with extra chili.

- Is that it?

- Um-hm.

- [Restaurant Worker] Alrighty.

Can I get nine all the way extra chili?

[upbeat rhythmic beats] [background talking] [pans clanging] [paper scrunching] - [Deborah] What is Carraway known for?

- We're the Hot Dog Church [chuckling].

[celestial organ music] [celestial organ music continues] [background talking] It's where everyone comes to get a hot dog during the summer months, from the first Saturday in May until Labor Day.

- [Customer] They put a sign out front that says, hot dogs, and anybody that wants to come get a hot dog can come.

This is homemade chili, it's a secret recipe that somebody back there has.

- [Steve] The White Oak Plant of Cone Mills Corporation was right across the street, and then there was was a block of shops.

There was a drug store, a YMCA, a hotel, a company store, and they started making that chili from scratch to sell on the hotdogs in the company store.

- They've been making the chili out there in their old company store for all these years and then when we started our building, 48 years ago, they gave us a copy and we've kept it all these years and make it ever Saturday the same way.

Carraway, has a lot of members here, a lot of our top men was going to church down there so if we're not making hot dogs, they make hot dogs, they do the same thing like this to us.

[background talking] [indistinct] - [Person] Oh really?

- [Steve] The Friendship Class is our oldest class in the church with an average age of probably 85, they actually started the hot dogs in the 1990s.

- I'm now 87 years old, I helped build this shelter.

Every year I cook chili, 80 pound every week.

A lady that used to come to our church taught me how to do the chili.

- When C.L.

first started learning to make the chili from her, she would actually make C.L.

walk outta the shelter while she added the spices.

And then it became apparent that she had to eventually pass it down to someone so she finally had to show him the amounts and what the ingredients were rather than run him out and and add it herself.

The chili is what really brings everyone back here and we sell it individually and people take home a lot of chili to prepare and put on their hot dogs when they grill out during the summer months.

- Absolutely no grease, I don't know how they do it, but when it's cooked it's not greasy at all.

- We do come here every Saturday, for the most part, from May to September.

I usually start out with one hotdog and then I go back for a second [laughing].

- [Sherry] There's not a hotdog that I could get anywhere else that would be tasting like these, you know.

- They're definitely worth the trip.

- It's definitely worth a trip, yes.

- It's a social event.

They don't just come and get a hot dog and leave you see some of 'em sit here for hour, hour and-a-half, it's the place to be on a Saturday for them to come and get a hot dog and then enjoy the camaraderie with their friends.

- Yes, enjoy.

- Thank you.

[background talking] - [Customer] Yep, we'll see ya a little later.

- [Deborah] Carraway United Methodist Church is located at 1301 16th Street in Greensboro, and they serve hot dogs every Saturday until Labor Day.

If you find yourself craving a hot dog, after the summer months, be sure to stop by the American Legion Post 386 located at 1206 American Legion Street where you can get a hot dog every Saturday until 2:00 p.m.

This is the San-Lee Park Nature Center where they have an amazing collection of native wildlife on display.

It's a great place to get up close to nature.

Now, since the weather's gotten warmer Rick Sullivan's decided that he and his best friends need a vacation.

By best friends, I mean his dogs, and by vacation I mean, doggy retreat.

So he headed west to Barkwells in Mills River.

[light ukulele music] [background talking] - So this is Roxy, Roxy is five months old, this is Nugget, Nugget is 10, she's a golden mix, this is Greta, she's Roxy's sister.

- [Rick] A shared love for dogs is one very big reason.

Pattie Moore and Jeff Krider fell for each other as a couple.

[dogs barking] And this doggy paradise is what made them jump into business together.

- We have a beautiful area in the Asheville area.

We're down by Mills River and we have another campus up in Brevard, very close to the mountains.

- [Rick] This is the Mills River location and headquarters for Barkwells Resort.

It's a privately, double-gated, and completely enclosed neighborhood.

- Have a good one.

- See ya.

- [Rick] And the site of Oscar and Archie's excellent adventure for this weekend.

Eight cute and practical cabins smartly equipped for our boys, as my wife Lisa and I like to call them.

- [Jack] The places here are really designed around dogs.

So the property's double-fenced, each house is fenced- [dog barking] Everything has a doggie door, dog sheets, dog towels.

- [Rick] As instructed by the resort, we used Barkwells clean dog sheets and towels to protect and prepare any surfaces which might look appealing to our pups.

Well, that pretty much means every couch, chair, bed, or a soft pushy surface available.

Oh, is this the one you want?

Next, Oscar and Archie make sure the outdoor facilities are up to their standards.

Big lawn for running, check, one-acre pond for swimming, check, friends to play with, check.

Archie even signs off on the yoga deck.

The boys agree, this place rocks.

Hey Oscar, how you digging Barkwells, huh?

Archie, you good with it?

- The biggest thing, in my mind, that makes this work is the staff.

- Working here has been a real blessing.

- Barkwells has been amazing.

- It's exactly how I feel.

[dog barking] You know, you feel like part of the family here.

- It's just a really positive environment.

- And we work together, constantly, 24/7, to make sure that it's the best place that anyone can come and enjoy with their pets.

- And the biggest perk of all is I get get to bring my little puppy to Lee to work most days.

- Trigger doesn't get to come with me all the time because my job is mostly to get dog hair out.

- It is not mandatory to have a pup, but it is- [water splashing] Mandatory to love them wholeheartedly.

- [Rick] Visitors to Barkwells appreciate that company mindset.

Karen and David Griner come back routinely with their three dogs from their home in Florida.

Chris and Lisa Callaway, and little Will, of Atlanta, have traveled the world, but they come to Barkwells and it's one of their top three trips ever.

- First was our honeymoon in London, which we absolutely loved, the next was a riverboat cruise up the Rhine River with both her folks and my folks, and the last one was coming here and spending the 10 days here.

- Our dogs are part of our family, and so when we go places and we wanna take them with us, we'd like to be able to truly take them with us and here we can, it's almost like being at home.

- Barkwells is different, it's not dog friendly, it's dog centric.

We just came to find it in 2016 and we now come up a couple times a year.

It's one of our main vacations because we can include our pups and they, it may sound funny, but we can see how much they enjoy it.

- They really look forward to seeing and meeting the dogs that are here.

This is Annie, and she's 13 1/2.

- Hi, Annie.

- [Karen] Barkwells just reinvigorates her.

- It's been a real blessing and a joy for us to see how she has acted in the last couple weeks that we've been here, so we're very fortunate to have a place like Barkwells to see our dogs, particularly an older one, have such a good time.

- Yeah, we've had a few guests that will come without dogs trying to decide if they're ready to have a dog or what it's like being around dogs.

- Oh this'll get 'em- - That can happen.

- This'll train 'em up.

- Yeah, for sure.

- [Deborah] Barkwells is at Barkwells Lane in Mills River.

To book a cabin for you, and your four-legged friend, give them a call at 828-891-8288, or go online to barkwells.com.

[upbeat guitar music] Sanford has its own mural trail that highlights some of the town's notable citizens and events and right now I'm here with Wendy Bryan of the Sanford Tourism Development Authority.

Wendy, tell me how did the mural trail get started?

- Well, in 2015, we have a wonderful historic planner, Liz Whitmore, who looked at our downtown and saw all of our beautiful brick buildings and had a vision that they could be really a beautiful art display and showcase our history in town so she started with one building and here we are now with 15 murals.

- Well, she was right and they are beautiful, especially this one right here, tell me about this one.

- [Wendy] This is the Wings mural, it was painted by artist, Chris Dalton, and it's our number one most Instagramable spot located in Charlie Watson Lane, which is a total art alley including some interactive art as well.

- I love it.

Wendy, if somebody wants to get started on a mural trail where do they go?

- Well, there are so many ways to get involved.

First of all, every mural has its own Otocast narration that tells you what the mural is.

So if you're actually at the mural you can just take your own self-guided tour.

We also have a visitors guide that shows you all the murals with directions and a brochure also at the Visitor Center, so you can interact in multiple ways and we know it's one of the number one reasons people find us online, is because of our mural trail.

- So this is actually a destination mural trail?

- This is a destination mural trail.

We've had people blog, vlog, and write about it and we are very proud of all of our murals.

- Wow, sounds like fun, let's go see more.

- Follow me.

- Oh, so this isn't really a mural, but it is a piece of art, right?

- It is, it's interactive art.

We have several installations around the county and it was first inspired by a piece that was after Hurricane Katrina for people to share their experiences and now we have one in Sanford and our residents and visitors love to come and share their dreams, and we'd love for you to write on it while you're here as well.

- Oh, well, I've got a dream, let's see here.

[chalk clunking on chalkboard] [Deborah laughing] - Awesome, nice.

- Wendy showed me other murals honoring athletes, visionaries, artists, and war heroes.

Wendy, what can you tell me about this mural?

- This mural is, Silent Wings, and it honors three of our Glider pilots from World War II I'm happy to report returned home safely at the end of the war and were very, very brave service members.

- Well I just love the detail in their faces.

- [Wendy] It's beautiful and muralist, Scott Nurkin, painted this mural.

We're very proud of the work and also to honor our service members.

- Wow, Wendy, this one is spectacular.

- This is an interactive art piece on our actual mural trail, it's called, Bringing the Arts Together, and it celebrates the 50-year heritage of art in Sanford and you can give it a spin.

- Ooo.

[Deborah laughing] I'm not that strong am I?

[both laughing] What a great way to wrap up the Sanford Mural Trail.

- You did great.

- $100!

To plan your visit to Sanford, go to visitsanfordnc.com.

This mural represents Fairview Dairy, which supplied milk to the Sanford area way back in the 1900s and look, it's in 3D, isn't that fun?

You know nothing says summer's right around the corner like ice cream and Teresa Litschke found a fun spot in Union Grove that makes these amazing ice cream creations.

Let's head to Mason's Sweet Shoppe.

[upbeat ukulele music] [upbeat ukulele music continues] - Union Drive is, it's just a unique cool little town.

- Everybody comes together to support each other.

- It's just a little quaint city where everybody knows everybody [laughing].

- You know we have no stoplights and it's just a small town with an elementary school, and some restaurants, and a hardware store, just your typical small town in the South.

- [Teresa] Thanks to Erica and Josh Goodnight, Union Grove now has a sweet shop along with everything else that's going on in town.

Folks travel from miles to taste their delicious treats.

- This was my wife, Erica's, idea, I was the skeptic.

- I posted a Facebook question, what does our town want, and I listed a few options, and overwhelmingly the response was an ice cream shop, I think it was over 90%, and so I said, "Well, here we go."

And I had no idea about ice cream, but we jumped in headfirst and here we are.

- [Worker] Hi, welcome to Masons, what can I get for ya today?

- So we decided on the name, Masons, because of where we are.

Everything tastes better in Union Grove when you drink it from a Mason jar.

And we, of course, serve our signature shakes in the Mason jar, and those jars go home with the customers, it's included in the price of the extreme shake.

- [Teresa] Those shakes are the talk of the town.

- [Sammy] My children go crazy, yeah, my children go crazy about that, especially that milkshake.

Lord have mercy.

They say, "Daddy, when you get outta work, please get ice cream."

I say, 'Daddy can't afford to stay two hours" [laughing]!

- [Teresa] The extreme milkshake, they call, The Coma, definitely hits the sweet spot.

It all starts with the Ashby's Sterling Ice Cream Erica imports from Michigan.

- The Ashby's ice cream has 18% butter fat and so it's creamy, the flavor profiles that they create are very good on their own without us having to put additives in them.

So we chose them because it is just the top quality that we could find.

- [Worker] You want it to be creamy, not too thin- [machine whirring] Not too thick either, just a good consistency for the customer.

So now it looks perfect.

- All of the shakes that we create were just the brainchild of us thinking about some cool concoctions, but the Chocolate Coma, it's a chocolate-based ice cream and then it is rimmed with chocolate sprinkles, the jar has chocolate sprinkles on the rim, and then there's sky-high whipped cream with hot fudge poured on top and then a nice Amish baked gooey brownie plastered right on the side.

So if it's not enough chocolate for the chocolate lovers, we're not sure what is?

- [Teresa] On any given day the lines outside of the shop could be long, that just translates into satisfied customers.

- It's the best, the best ice cream.

- Mm, I love the chocolate in there.

- Anniversary Cake, caky, it has cake inside of it.

- [Sammy] Oh Lord have mercy, and the [indistinct] ice cream right here, I believe that's the number one ice cream.

[light upbeat music] - Well, first of all, it's very exciting and it's brought a ton of happiness to Union Grove in a time when we needed it.

- They are saying they've never seen anything like this before, they enjoy, they love the ice cream, they love everything about it.

They have no complaints.

- I love seeing the kids.

They come in here and order 'em and they just, their eyes get huge and they try to drink all that shake and eat the cupcake on top and it's just a blast watching 'em.

- [Deborah] Mason's Sweet Shoppe is at 1475 West Memorial Highway in Union Grove, and they're open Saturdays and Sundays.

For more information give them a call at 704-681-2828, or find them on Facebook.

Check out this massive number 12 engine that's located at the Railroad House Museum in Sanford, you gotta see it when you visit and did you know that people used to take the train to Wrightsville Beach?

Of course, people drive now and when they do a lot of them stay at the Blockade Runner Resort, it's been delighting guests for over 60 years [upbeat music] With access to one of North Carolina's prime destinations for surfers on one side, and the calm waters of the Sound on the other, the Blockade Runner Beach Resort in Wrightsville Beach is a rare gem that offers vacationers all the comforts of resort living.

For me, it was a great choice for a family weekend getaway starting with the Blockade's chartered sailboat ride with Captain Matty.

He was really great at making all of us feel really comfortable and shared tidbits about the environment and geography, he even let us steer for a while.

- Well, what we'd like to do is spend as much time as we can in the calm protected waters, make sure everybody's comfortable.

We've gone over how the boat works and how to, you know, get the boat sailing.

And then we have this great ability to have this progression where we sail along the Bank Channel here, in the protected waters, and we only have to go about a mile or so when we get to experience the wind, the waves, the ocean, and everything that the Atlantic has to offer.

[upbeat music] - [Deborah] Sailing along Banks Channel was a relaxing adventure and a unique amenity you can enjoy at the Blockade Runner Beach Resort.

Also unique, and quite exceptional, is dining at the East Oceanfront Dining Room whose kitchen is commandeered by the award-winning Executive Chef, Jessica Cabo, a finalist in the first season of Gordon Ramsey's, "Hell's Kitchen," who has since won awards for her creative and delicious cuisine accented by flavor profiles from California to the Mediterranean.

There's someone else at the Blockade Runner Beach Resort whose genuine warm hospitality makes this a one of a kind destination.

- I'm Mary Baggett, and I've been at the Blockade Runner since 1984, and my family has owned it since 1971.

[light guitar music] As a family, I feel that my three brothers and I have worked hard to give that feeling of welcome.

So once you come and stay with us you're part of of the family too.

I especially love meeting the guests.

We do advertise ourselves as a classic beach hotel and we are a boutique hotel because we have every floor in the property with a different theme and therefore that creates an atmosphere inside the room that's different and then you come downstairs and it's a very tropical resort feel.

When you walk in the doors it's an entirely different feel.

We were built in this early '60s and consequently we have a real mid-modern architecture.

This is considered one of the most iconic beach towns in America right now.

[waves crashing] [bells tinkling] [seagulls calling] - [Deborah] With the sound of crashing waves from the ocean, seagulls calling, and tingling wind chimes in the breeze, a stretch of lush green lawn, surrounded by floral gardens, becomes a perfect playground for children and adults to relax, or participate in the Blockade's onsite activities.

- Yoga is actually just about breathing so when you're by the ocean and the wind it just elevates your whole experience, so that's my favorite way to teach.

[light music] - [Deborah] In addition to the beachfront, outdoor lawn and gardens, and the Sound side at the Blockade Runner's Sailing and Kayak Program, guests will enjoy a shimmering pool with private cabanas you can reserve.

It's another way to cool off at the resort with fun cocktails and Chef Coba's tropically-inspired poolside menu featuring fresh ceviche, lobster nachos, classic American burgers, and plenty more.

[light jazz music] Whether or not you're an overnight guest at the resort consider Sunday brunch on the East Oceanfront Dining patio, destination dining.

- We have a jazz trio that plays, sometimes it's a quartet, and every two months we change the menu for the brunch.

We have a theme that every two months, it's a different jazz festival that's worldwide.

It's a wonderful place to come and have culinary experience, plus you get to have this incredible resort environment with a lot of wonderful young people to make you comfortable, hopefully - The staff and servers throughout the hotel are extremely polite and friendly perhaps emulating the same genuine care that Mary extends.

And whether you're trying your hand at Tai chi, dining with friends, or sailing out to a barrier island in the Atlantic, it's how you're treated in these beautiful surroundings that makes your guest experience at the Blockade Runner Beach Resort, most memorable.

The Blockade Runner Beach Resort is at 275 Waynick Boulevard, in Wrightsville Beach.

To plan your visit, give them a call at 866-884-5781, or go online to blockade-runner.com.

[gun firing] As we leave Sanford we wanted to stop by one of Lee County's most visited attractions.

Deep River Sporting Clays is just a few miles outside of Sanford and it's a popular place to learn the art of shooting clays.

Well, that's it for tonight's show.

We've had a great time here in Sanford there's definitely a lot to see and do.

And if you've missed anything in today's show just remember you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org.

Have a great North Carolina weekend everyone.

[lively upbeat music] ♪ [lively upbeat music continues] ♪ [lively upbeat music continues] ♪ [lively upbeat music continues] ♪ [lively upbeat music continues] - [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by: Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains, across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.