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Here is a photo.

See title.

You have to clikc on add photo, upload, then scroll to the bottom of the box-page-thingee and click “insert into page” or something like that.

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Run away!!! Run away!!!

So, today we leave Tennessee and head into Kentucky.  One state full of endless yardsales down.  Another night of camping before we hit the great rummage.

Or so we thought.

Start tuning your banjos, folks…

 Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs – Dueling Banjos

At first,  we thought the decline in the quality of the yardsales we were visiting was due to the lateness of the hour.  Things were sort of shabby, and, well, *junkier*.  Whereas the stuff for sale in Tennessee tended to be arranged by category at any given yardsale, things here in the next state were more jumbled…

Some stuff was actually dirty. Fairly nice antique carnival glass had dust and a free helping of dead bugs.  We supposed that the dust and bugs were intended to add to the “fresh out of grandma’s attic” ambiance.

One place made the Salvation Army As-Is store (see previous blog entry) look like Bloomingdale’s.  This not so fine purveyor of used goods had a heap of rocks on the ground next to an old tire, and each of them was priced at five dollars.  Perhaps thinking that they might be some interesting geologic specimens that she could tote home to Mr. Pea, your intrepid yardsaler picked one up to examine it…

Was it a geode? some sort of local mineral?

One of the locals ventured over…she *wishes* she could imitate the hillbilly twang in text.  Just imagine what the shallow end of the gene pool sounds like.  Then imagine it shallower…

“yew innerested in that?”

“Well, I might be…what makes this rock worth five dollars?”

“its a perty white rock…”

Now imagine PeaPod gently placing the rock back in its pile and backing slowly to the car…

It got worse as the evening waxed…it was definitely time to call it a day and follow our trusty GPS to our campground and a nights rest.

But first, we did have to make a small side excursion and get some supper to nosh while in our tent. We didn’t feel up to cooking, and we wanted something that would still be tasty cold, since we had a distance to travel.  We decided on KFC, because we were in Kentucky. 🙂

So, provisions secured, we headed off into the evening.  Which changed into twilight.  Which deepened to dusk.  Which became nighttime.

Still no camp ground in sight.

Such niceties as lane markers vanished…the road grew narrower, then became a gravel track…The GPS told us we had arrived…but we weren’t sure where…

Allegedly there was a lake out there, but we couldn’t see it.  Apparently streetlights hadn’t been invented in this part of the world…there were a few “houses” around that we could see only because there were lights on inside…but no campground in sight.   No tents, no campfires, no RVs. No office, no showers, no loo…

Finally, we saw someone light a fire and we bravely went to investigate…the, ah, gentleman in question apparently hadn’t never seen no city fold before, but he did tell us that the camp ground was on the other side of the lake, so, back we trooped to the care and prepared to wend our way back up the scary track in the dark.  Apparently the locals use the force when they drive these roads, because we were nearly killed by pickup trucks hurtling through the blackness at breakneck speed twice.

Long story short, we came to the other side of the lake and still didn’t see anything resembling a campground…

We found a pair of porta-potties, and a couple guys “fishing*…  We called the reservation office again and got a message that the manager was mowing the lawn…

Apparently the small patch of grass in front of the lake was the “campground” and the porta-potties were the “facilities” for campers…

It was time for Plan B.

Plan B was to hie us to the nearest interstate and drive until we found a nice safe hotel.

Hampton Inn, we love you.

Not as much as we love the Krispy Kreme Man, but purty darn close.

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And the second day dawns :)

Camping was nice…slept well 🙂

Peapod woke up at one point to the howling of coyotes which was all sorts of cool…and for those of you who know her well, no, she is not bringing one home with her.

And yes, for those of you wondering, we have purchased stuff 🙂

Glasses, a bit of china, a basket, some vintage tupperware.

We would show you, but apparently tech support has not yet read the addendum to *yesterday’s* blog, so tech support has no idea we are unable to upload all the nice pictures of bean pots we have.  And we *need* to have pictures of bean pots on the blog.  It is missi0n critical. Seriously.

*waves frantically at tech support*

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Bean pots 🙂 better late than never. 🙂

 

Another Bean pot 🙂  but, actually Pea covets the really nice enamelled metal table it is sitting on more…holy 1930, batman 🙂

This could be Art 🙂 “Yard sale still life, with Bean Pot”

Our stratetgy today is to wait out the worst of  the heat in a nice Cracker
Barrel we found by the side 0f the road, and then attack m0re sales.

We are still in Tennessee…and we hope to reach kentucky by tonight.

Keep watching…if tech support pays attention, and can sort things out, there might even be visual aids!

And, for those of you checking back, *thanks* lots to tech support, who did teach us how to upload the bean pots.  Yay!!

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Kismet :)

When we started out on the great yardsale adventure, we expected to find a lot the usual yardsale stuff, and we did 🙂

Toys,  broken and otherwise,  seriously out-of-date clothing, “vintage” jewlery…you know the stuff.

One of the staples of our yardsales at home is the appleseed necklace. Peapod seriously finds one in every box of old necklaces she roots through.  Apparently they were some sort of sixties fashion necessity.  Now, in spite of seeing these things all over, Kristin has never seen one.  In fact the whole notion of stringing appleseeds into necklaces puzzled her, so, Pea rashly promised to show her one on our adventure, sure in the belief that we would find tons.

We haven’t found one so far.  Luckily, Kristen is a dear friend, and is taking the existence of appleseed necklaces on faith 🙂

Still, we have found a ubiquitous item at all of the sales we have so far attended…the bean pot.

In an ideal world, there would be a really adorable picture of a bean pot, taken at one of the yardsales along the route, but, alas, the software is obtuse.  Peapod will consult with tech support tomorrow to try to resolve the issue.

a bean pot

So far, virtually *every* sale we3 have been to has had its bean pot.  In fact, a lovely McCoy pot was one of the first things we looked at at the first sale we went to.  The only reason it got left behind is that Pea already has three bean pots…

But we didn’t know than that bean pots were going to be the theme of the yardsales in Tennessee…

If the World’s Longest Yardsale were in Massachusetts it might be more understandable…but it ain’t…

Anyway, once we ralized that bean pots were the thing, we started taking pictures of them, to post, but we can’t do that just yet.  We will, we promise…sort of like the  “Bridges of Madison County” only this will be “The Bean Pots of The World’s Longest Yard Sale”

Now, where the kismet comes in…

We decided we wanted barbecue for dinner, and went in search of Lucky’s Barbecue, which we found, and it was yummy.  It was also on PEAVINE road 😀  How cool is that.

And, on the way to the restaraunt, we found a campground called…wait for it…THE BEAN POT CAMPGROUND.

No kidding 🙂

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pea’s hero is *officially* the Krispy Kreme Man :)

Ok.  It is two thirty in the morning, and we are finally in our hotel, the lights are out, we are jammified and pea’s sockbaby is unpacked.  We have officially *arrived*

Well, maybe arrived is too final a term…it took us a while to actually get to our room…which is on the fifteenth floor…but, no matter which elevator we tried, we couldnt get the button for the fifteenth floor to work….we managed to get all the way to the *fourteenth* floor, but then we couldnt find the stairs…so we went back down, changed elevators, went to the ninth floor, and then changed elevators hoping to trick one into letting us get to our floor…

Hilarity did *not* enbsue, but, it might ensue retroactively, when we aren’t *quite* so tired…

Before we go on, please take note of the time.  Don’t expect any editorial niceties such as going back to the spell checker.  This is a wysiwyg post.

Once we got past the jack knifed truck, we got here without further incident, other than the lateness of the hour.  We did pause once, just because if we didn’t get up and walk around we would be shuffling through the first day of the yardsales like a pair of Groucho Marxes.  And we had to pee. And Kris needed coffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffee.

So, we pulls off at a rest area that is certain to have coffee, and at this cute little gas station…(the name escapes pea…Kristen knows, but, Kristen is sleeping right now…pea promises that the proper nafame of the little gas station will be edited in…we find Krispy Kreme donuts.

We used to have Krispy Kreme donuts in Buffalo.  We even used to be able to get them Hot Now…thirty second old glazed rounds of love.  But, alas, no longer 🙁  Krispy Kreme left the area. 🙁  Pea has not had a Krispy Kreme in a *long*  time.

So, da PeaPod is having little raptures over the donuts, when she looks over and sees little travel mugs, filled with Krispy Kreme bites…like TimBits, only Krispy Kreme.  In a travel mug.  So they ca sit in your cup holder.  Why did they never have this innovation in Buffalo?  Now what to do? a regular donut? a little cute half dozen window box? The travel mug of itty bitty donut joy?

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Greed wins out. PeaPod picked the half dozen (natch) and contented herself with taking a *picture* of the travel mug, to show the folks back home.  (No, in case you were wondering, she doesn’t get out much)

Of course, as she is doing this…photographing the donuts…the Krispy Kreme man arrives, with new donuts, and is understandably confused and concerned about the wacky lady with the upstate twang taking pictures of the donuts.

His name is Gary 🙂 We love you Gary 🙂

Long story short, we explained to Gary the Krispy Kreme man how we hadnt had a real Krispy Kreme in *years*  He looked properly horrified, and Gary (we love you Gary) *gave* us a box of  a half dozen still warm new donuts to take with us 🙂

Isn’t that *amazing* 🙂

As we finished the last gruling leg of our later than expected journey, the Donuts of Love kept us going.

Thanks Gary 🙂

We love you!!!

Oh…PeaPod almost forgot…Not only does Krispy Kreme make donuts…they make *fruit pies*  Those never made it to Buffalo either 🙁

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Chattanooga here we come!! Again!!

Yay!! Forward motion has been achieved.  Better late than never we always say.

And, just for the entertainment value, we get to play the new travel game of “count the people stuck in the swamp” as we go 🙂

Yes, we are still smug.

Next post when we actually are in Tennessee 🙂

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Sometimes the longest way ’round is the shortest way home :)

Well, Sherlock Holms would be proud of us 🙂  based on the giant flatbed tow truck that went creeping by on the shoulder of the road we deduced that it is probably a jack-knifed tractor trailer impeding our progress.

Since we haven’t moved in more than an hour, we are starting to get friendly with our auto-neighbors…and the lady four cars up told us that she called her boyfriend, who called the local state police, and yes, virginia, it is a jack-knifed truck, and we are here for the duration.

Several people, probably locals, decided not to stay here and risked crossing the swampland that serves as a median here in the great state of Kentucky.

The lady with the boyfriend has been going up and down traffic advising everyone to swampe…er…*median* cross, and providing helpful directions back to I-75 on the other side of the accident.

We debated doing the same…we are equiped with a GPS, and probably wouldn’t get lost…but, we had fear of the swamp-cum-median.  A four foot snowdrift, no hesitaition…a twelve foot swamp…we don’t think so.  This strikes your intrepid yardsalers as a not good plan.

Our wisdom paid off when the folks behind us tried to gun across and got stuck in the swamp. 🙂

Not that pea is happy about another’s impatience…she is just smug that she made the right choice 🙂

Just so that no one wonders, a few of the strapping local guys helped push the impatiend ones back to the road.

Eventually 🙂

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…Annnnd everything comes to a grinding halt….

Here we sit, in what is our first major hair in our travel kischka…

We have been in a traffic standstill for about twenty minutes now, not quite to the tennesee border…can’t see anything but cars for quite a ways up ahead…

Of course, this is why we left a full day early 🙂 so we could get all the annoyances  out of the way and just concentrate  on bargains bright and early in the morning 🙂

Keep your eyes here for new updates, same pea-place, same pea-channel 🙂

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The quest for other people’s crap has begun!!!

Peapod here…reporting from an Arby’s (home of the famous salt lick on a bun) just outside Columbus, Ohio. We are currently en route to The World’s Longest Yardsale!!!

The trip technology as been behaving itself…all wireless devices are up and working.  🙂

Watch this space for more on what we find, what we mock and what we feel compelled to drag home . 🙂

Offical map modified from official website: http://www.127sale.com/:

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Cold is Relative…

 

This is the sort of thing that goes on where pea lives 🙂 Yeah, this is meant to be sarcastic and funny…but some of these she actually *Does*… And, a nod and a wink to Someone and hopes He likes the artwork 🙂

At 50 degrees people in New York City turn on the heat. People in Buffalo plant gardens. (gotta have tulips)

When it is 40 degrees Californians shiver uncontrollably. People in Buffalo sunbathe. (but, really, the Californians are probably shivering at 80 degrees…)

At 35 degrees Italian cars won’t start. People in Buffalo drive with the windows down. (she does this. or has the AC on)

At a temperature of 32 degrees Distilled water freezes. Buffalo water gets thicker. (It is 18 degrees as of this posting and she still has unfrozen puddles)

20 degrees means Floridians wear coats, gloves, and wool hats. People in Buffalo throw on a long sleeved-shirt. (a sweatshirt is her winter weather gear)

At 15 degrees Californians begin to evacuate the state. People in Buffalo go swimming. (sorry to pick on the California people…they are just easy targets…)

At Zero degrees cheap flophouse landlords finally turn up the heat. People in Buffalo have the last cookout before it gets cold. (pea wouldn’t turn the heat on for herself…but mr pea complains about it being too cool)

When it reaches 10 degrees below zero People in Miami cease to exist. People in Buffalo lick flagpoles. (Triple Dog Dare!)

At 20 degrees below zero Californians fly away to Mexico. People in Buffalo throw on a light jacket. (We throw on scarves and earmuffs too…we are just don’t usually admit it)

When the thermometer reaches 40 degrees below zero Hollywood disintegrates. People in Buffalo rent videos. (nothing cozier than curling up with a movie and cocoa)

At 60 degrees below zero Mt. St. Helens freezes. Buffalo Girl Scouts begin selling cookies door to door. (Actually, they don’t go door to door. They set up camp outside Wegmans and Wal-Mart.)

At 80 degrees below zeroPolar bears begin to evacuate the Arctic. Buffalo Boy Scouts postpone “Winter Survival” classes until it gets cold enough. (The rest of us go to the zoo to watch the polar bears play. 🙂 we have tougher polar bears than the arctic)

When it is 100 degrees below zero Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. People in Buffalo pull down their ear flaps. (she doesn’t have a hat with ear flaps…but she wears earmufs *and* a hat*)

At 173 degrees below zero Ethyl alcohol freezes. People in Buffalo get frustrated when they can’t thaw their kegs. (she doesn’t know about this one. she has never tasted beer because it smells bad)

At 297 degrees below zero Microbial life start to disappear. Buffalo cows complain of farmers with cold hands. (mmmm ice cold milk and girl scout cookies)

When it 460 degrees below zero All atomic motion stops. People in Buffalo start saying “Cold ’nuff for ya?” (she hasn’t actually ever said this, and is annoyed when people do. yeah, it is cold. hush up and deal)

And at 500 degrees below zero Hell freezes over. Buffalo wins the Stanley Cup. (or the superbowl, depending on your sport of choice…)

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