My Additional Travels After the 2019 Mayberry Meet-Up, Part IV: Chapel Hill, Weenie Dogs Interlude

I am not usually a creature of habit when it comes to eating out while traveling. In fact, I try to avoid chain restaurants while on the road. I always feel that I can go to Olive Garden at home so why go to one while trying to get the feel of an area?

My time has been a bit limited when it comes to anything other than Mayberry Firsts and getting the 2020 Mayberry Day-by-Day Flip Book Calendar ready to go to press so I did not do as much of my usual research into good local restaurants to try in Chapel Hill. The one restaurant I had noted that was close to campus and the parking garage was a place that is known for good fried chicken. I wasn’t as hungry after the drive from Mount Airy to Chapel Hill so I decided to save the chicken joint for Monday night.

Instead, I decided to eat Sunday night after the Mayberry Meet-Up at a spot that was clearly popular with the students who were still around campus during summer session. I can’t deny the restaurant name was part of the reason I chose the restaurant. It was called Sup Dogs which I always now say as a question. Sup Dogs? I had a couple of dogs there and they were excellent.

Of course, I have a high standard when it comes to hot dogs. I had stopped at Hillbilly Hot Dogs in West Virginia on my way to the Mayberry Meet-Up. Sup Dogs did have excellent hot dogs though.

On Monday as I left the library after my first day, I was happy and elated with my experience but also exhausted. I also had quite an appetite. Each day I spent in the library, I skipped lunch in order to have more time looking through Andy Griffith’s scripts. I walked past Sup Dogs and arrived at the fried chicken restaurant. I didn’t even have to walk all the way to the door as there was a large sign was in the window stating they were closed Mondays. Too tired to look around more, I did something I don’t think I have ever done while traveling: I went to the same restaurant for dinner a second night in a row. I had read that Sup Dogs had good hamburgers as well. I have to say, I thought their burgers were every bit as good as their hot dogs.

On Tuesday, I was again whipped and famished and was again looking forward to the fried chicken even more than before. The large sign I had seen the day before that said “Closed Mondays” was gone but I should have actually walked up to the door on Monday. They were open on Tuesdays—until 3:00 PM! They were only open for dinner on the weekends.

So—you guessed it—I returned to Sup Dogs for the third night in a row, this time for a burger and one of their less-loaded dogs, along with an ice-cold Cheerwine. The only explanation I can offer is I was traveling by myself, was tired each night, and the trip was not a traditional vacation.

In this instance, eating at the same place three nights in a row worked out well. The two full days I was there I literally left to drive to campus early, ate a granola bar for breakfast, spent all day doing research while skipping lunch and only drinking from a water fountain (if the library did not allow ink pens to be bought in, you know they didn’t allow drinks either!), having dinner at Sup Dogs, then going back to my single room Air B&B to work on my computer, watch a show on Netflix, then collapse, only to repeat the same pattern the next day.

I actually did the same the third day but had to leave the library a bit early as I had an appointment back in Mayberry to meet with a friend I wanted to talk to about another upcoming book project, So Sup Dogs never had a chance for a fourth night in a row!