Tuesday, August 11, 2009

"Endless" Yard Sale

Alright, here's Kristy's take on the World's Longest Yard Sale.

Thursday was brutal. After driving/riding in a car all night, and not getting much sleep, all I wanted to do was get out of the car for a bit (not that we weren't having fun in the car or anything). Our first stop was at the Waffle House. You can't go down south without at least one stop there. It was VERY local in there. The farmer guys sitting behind us were discussing guns when we sat down, and the waitress knew them all by name. Our waitress called out our orders to the cooks, which I hadn't noticed were short order cooks right behind the checkout. It was kinda cool. I don't think I've been called sweetie or honey that many times, by the same person mind you, in my life. After we left Waffle House, we decided to fill up with gas. I went in to use the restroom, and thought I was going to die. That was one of the filthiest, creepiest bathrooms I've ever been in! Ew! Thinking about it makes my skin crawl. As we were getting on the road, we were wondering where all of the yard sales were. This was answered as we got to the top of the crest of the hill. There were yard sales, and yard salers, everywhere! The traffic had stopped, and there was a line of cars trying to get onto Hwy 127 from the interstate. We had to stop at one of the first ones we saw. There were a bunch of people set up in areas right off of the highway. I couldn't believe the amount of Confederate flags! I know I'm in the South, but com'on people, you lost the war over a hundred years ago. Get over it! As we got out of the car, there were a few people who asked us where in Wisconsin we were from. Turns out they grew up in Wisconsin, and were going to be staying in the same town we were that night. We stopped at a few more places along the road, and decided it would be best for all involved if we
headed straight to the hotel. Some of us were tired, and some of us were car sick and tired. After sleeping/resting for a few hours, we headed to a local pizza place/pub for dinner. Nothing beat the down home food that night!

Friday was a fun day. We knew kind of what we were looking for when it came to the sales. We realized on Thursday that the HUGE places (where there were many vendors) had antique dealers and people who do craft fairs. We wanted real deal yard sales, where people were more likely to haggle with us. We found a couple like that on the way to our next stop for the night. At one of the stops, there was a little dog that had come down from the house near the sales to see all of us. He kept following us, and I of course kept petting it. At one point an old lady shooed him away as I was calling him to keep playing. I thought this was why she was glaring at me, but it turns out she was glaring because I was walking around the sales with a book (Cooking with Miss Piggy) from her sale. I also got excited when told a shot glass was only $1. I may have said, "You've got yourself a deal!" to the guy selling it. Everyone thought it was the funniest thing. We ended up getting to the town to turn off to get to our hotel for the night at about noon on Friday. We decided to stop at a fairgrounds of some sort to see what was all going on in there. It was nice because it was covered, and we wouldn't get as hot under there. We found some things, but didn't buy much there. I wanted to get a Confederate flag throw for our apartment, but decided against it. Erika found a kitty that was being given away at one stand. She couldn't take it though since everyone was allergic. Sue was able to haggle with someone for a Cookie Monster clock for our kitchen. I got a little overstimulated, and had a laugh attack, to the point of tears rolling down my cheeks. My sisters then were almost laughing as hard as I was, but they were laughing at me. That night, we stayed in a hotel that was in the middle of corn fields. We went to dinner at a real down home place. People in there were wondering who the people were from Wisconsin, and then stared at us. We weren't doing anything to draw attention. The only thing that could've brought us attention was my "Great Lakes, Good Times" Wisconsin T-shirt. The food was pretty decent, and at the right price.

The rest of the weekend blurs together. It got REALLY hot and humid down there. At one sale, I had to go back to the car because I was getting lightheaded from the heat and all. A nice slush from Sonic rejuvenated us, and we were back to yard saling. We kept eating at down home places for meals. No one really looked at us at the other places. We made friends with some waiters who had lived in Wisconsin at one point too, or lived close enough to Wisconsin (and were Bears fans...Boo!). We didn't tend to find many treasures, but it was fun looking at all of the things that were out for sale. On Sunday we started looking at some of the sites I had found online. We started with the Dixie Cup water tower, and went on from there to the World's Largest Mortar and Pestle, Big Bone Lick State Park, and a random castle we passed. I'll be posting pictures and descriptions on my blog that I have for those types of things at tackytraveller.blogspot.com. We saw a lot of things that day.

Monday was a good day, just because we knew that we were going to be getting home. We just made a few stops on the way to see some roadside oddities. A bulk of those oddities were in the Chicago area. I didn't know how many weird things are so close to home! Let me tell you though, Chicago drivers have now been bumped up to the top of my list of crappy drivers. I don't know where they go for driver's ed, but from the way many drivers were driving, it seems like the school was in the back of some guy's van. I think we were all ready to cry with joy when we saw the city of Madison city limits sign on the interstate.

All in all, I think we all had a blast. No one killed another person, who was traveling with us, and no one really snapped at anyone. I know I can't speak for the others, but I know I had a good time spending time with my sisters and Erika. I don't know if I need to spend that much time with them anytime soon though...

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