anteces and more

Well, after a long hiatus from blogging I am back to show you the latest and greatest. I went on a journey to the World's Longest Yard Sale. I picked up my sister in Ft Worth and we drove to the Birmingham airport (mapquest directions: exit onto Interstate 20 for 610 miles!) to pick up our mom who flew in from St Louis. Next day was the beginning of Yard Sale overload.
We started at the very southern tip of the 650 + yard sale route in Gadsden, AL. We took all day and into the dark of night to get to Chattanooga and our hotel. Normally a 2 hours drive by Interstate, we wound our way up and down and round and round the Lookout Mountain Parkway thru AL, GA, and into TN.
Even though the yard sale officially opened on Thursday there were plenty of vendors setting up and selling on Wednesday. My first purchase was before we even got to Birmingham, a pair of aqua baby moons.....1950's hub caps bought at a general store in Mississippi. This place was old enough to warrant a brown "historical marker" on the Interstate. They look like giant aqua polka dots to me!
My first yard sale purchase was some vintage jewelry, 3 pair of earrings and a pin for $5.

Somewhere along the way the first day we saw this sign. Anteces and nike (or neke) naks. Gotta love that! I don't think we even stopped at this sale as their "cool things" didn't interest us. But we love the sign!

Yes the yard sales were fabulous. Some folks who were cleaning out the garage and attic but more "professionals" of all levels. One old guy in GA told us he collects all year to set up at three of these long yard sales, one in May, one in Oct and this one in August. (Next time we are definitely hitting the spring or fall one instead because it was H-O-T this year in August.) When my mom asked him how much he sells in a weekend he answered $5000-$6000. Not that is some serious booth sales, baby! And definitely some folks who thought their stuff was worth way more than it really was. But most prices were fair and most folks were willing to bargain.

But even better than the sales was the scenery. Some tour book calls the Lookout Mountain Parkway the most scenic in America and while I can hear all of you arguing this distinction (why not we debated it in the van) it is certainly ONE of the MOST scenic and worth the drive even on a non-yard sale weekend. Get off Interstate 59 and wind your way thru the parkway and enjoy!

And even better than the sales and the scenery were the people. One of the great ones was Laverne. We couldn't pass up this one with the tantalizing signs. jam, log cabin AND yard sale. WOW! The trifecta of junking!
Turns out Laverne is an 81 one year old sweetheart who makes all her own jam--blueberry, muscadine, pear, apple butter and more. I bought some blueberry and apple butter while my sister loaded up on blueberry jam and pear preserves. Laverne also makes quilt tops that she sells.
She was happy to tell us that she met her husband when they were both 18 and were married 59 years when he died at age 78. That was 3 years ago and now she is 81 and still living alone and canning and quilting and loving life. 6 of her 7 children all live on the same property with their driveways forming spokes of a wheel off of her lane. She was eager to tell us that her white hair came along when her oldest son died in Vietnam. God bless her!
Laverne and her daughter in front of Laverne's log cabin (or as my son says, a house made from Lincoln Logs)
Apparently Laverne also does some taxidermy as she also had this little gem for sale. My sister threatened to buy this for her sister-in-law for a Christmas gift but we left him behind for some other lucky buyer.
I know you are probably wondering what I bought. Well, those pictures will be coming in another blog down the road.
After 3 days of yard saling in 3 states I came home with some goodies to share in my booth.