Road Trip: Destination Reached!

Since I couldn't work on my blog last night, I ended up getting some much needed sleep.  Both of us woke up early and we got on the road right away. Today was a big day - only about an hours drive to our destination, Divernon, Illinois to pick up our harvester tracks!

We drove through St. Louis Missouri and saw the St. Louis Arch in the distance . .

right before crossing over the Mississippi River!

As we continued north, we drove past some beautiful farms

and lots of fields of corn!

The Dowson family farms 50,000 acres of corn and just built a new dryer to dry it.  Mike said I would know we were there when I spotted the big dryers, as we had bought the tracks from the Dowsons. Corn harvest has already started back here so truck after truck rolled in to unload while we were there. These dryers are the biggest I have ever seen and they still can't hold their entire crop!

As we drove into the dryer yard, I saw our tracks sitting off to the side next to a pickup.

We parked our rig and walked over the check them out again while we waited for Chris Dowson to come with a front loader so we could load the tracks onto the trailer.

Mike dug the chains he brought out of the lock box . . .

and measured out and marked placement of the tracks on the trailer, while we waited.

Chris arrived shortly thereafter, along with "Big Mike" - a 6'8" young man who was driving the front loader.  The guys proceeded to chain up the tracks to the front loader as I snapped these pictures!

The first track was carefully lifted and placed onto the bed of the trailer.

Then the second track was placed next to it.

Chains were run through the tracks

and then hooked onto the bed of the trailer, then tightened with binders.

For extra safety, we added strong straps through the top of the tracks to keep them from tipping during transport.

Finally, Mike toenailed in four boards around the base of all sides of the tracks.  The load was secure but Mike wanted to find out what his load weighed so we drove up the road one exit.  Mike dropped me off at an antique mall while he went to the scales to weigh the load.

The antique mall was out in the middle of nowhere and it didn't look like much but when I walked in, there must have been 200 booths - a whole mall of antiques to treasure hunt in!  I have a whole list of things I am looking for - both for friends, and for clients!

 One client collects these glass chicken/nest dishes and she needs a purple one - I found this one, sent her a picture from my phone, and got a message right back from her that the one she needs has a beaded edge instead of this edge!  So if anyone out there knows where I can find one - let me know!  Until then - I'll keep searching!

I went around the corner to another booth and I was met with this whole case of Candlewick glass!  My friend Margaret inherited some Candlewick from her aunt and she is always looking for unique pieces.

Margaret once told me she was looking for a special cookbook for her mother.  I found a booth full of vintage cookbooks and sent her a text!  She confirmed I had found the one she was looking for - her mother had received a copy of the cookbook for a wedding present and five years later, she and her husband lost everything, including the cookbook, in a devastating flood.  Margaret wanted to replace the cookbook she had received for a wedding present!  But shush if you know Margaret or her mother - it will be a surprise gift!!

Another client is looking for vintage hats with veil netting and I was able to find three for her here and great prices!  I found some miniature bottles for another client, some vintage wooden spools, a vintage birdcage, some piano player rolls,  a dainty rosary, a vintage wedding dress, an off white demi-lune table, and a Catalina Pottery Vase - all for a grand total of $126.00!!  THAT was a great day! 

As I walked out the door with my hands full, Mike told me I had to go into the next building.  The sing on the building said "Crafter's Mall" but he said he went it and found a booth with some vintage stuff he thought was pretty cheap.  He led to one booth filled with antique oak furniture and other home accessories so I started checking price tags - he was right - really good prices - then I saw the find of the day!  A vintage double laundry tub - perfect for filling with ice and beer bottles, or other beverages for a party and the price tag - $22!!  In California, this tub would have cost $150!  We also bought a vintage gateleg table, in excellent condition for $65!!

We loaded up everything without taking pictures because it was about 98 degrees with 75% humidity and we had to get on the road because we had been treasure hunting for about 3 hours and we had to start heading back home.  Look for my posting "Opening the Treasure Box" when I get home to see all these treasures!  We left Illinois, passed back over the Mississippi back into Missouri, and turned west.

Once the air conditioning in the truck had cooled us off, we realized we had not eaten anything since breakfast at our hotel!  So again, I got online, checked Trip Advisor for restaurants in a town called Hannibal - the number one listed was a place called Fiddlesticks.  GPS told us we were just about there so we pulled in.  The service was unbelievable! Our drink glasses were never empty, our salads came within 3 minutes of us placing our order and the main course was not much further behind.  We were in and out of there in about 30 minutes! Pretty good for a sit down dinner and the food was pretty good!

It had been a full day.  Back on the road, it wasn't long until the sun started setting. Now we were heading into the sun towards home, and we still have room in 'the treasure box' so who knows what we'll find on the way home?! Now our cry will be - Westward Ho!!

Road Trip: Corner in Winslow Arizona

Day three of our road trip started in a little cooler weather - Flagstaff, Arizona is at about   7,000 feet so the weather was much milder and the the scenery was much different!  We arrived at our hotel in the dark again last night so it was fun to wake up and see where we were!  This time, the Holiday Inn Express wasn't quite what is was last night.  This hotel had that fifties boomerang wall paper and some cheesy gold accents!

Oops! Sorry the pic is upside down! I guess the management thought we may not be able to determine the difference in the firmness of our pillows, because the pillow cases were marked 'firm' and 'soft'!  The whole idea entertained me for a while as I thought, "What if the hotel maids put the wrong pillow in the wrong pillowcase?  Would people still believe they were sleeping on a firm pillow if a soft pillow was thrown in the 'firm' case?" LOL!!  I can' t imagine how much those pillow cases cost them but I am pretty sure I can figure out if my pillow is firm or soft!!

Enough about pillows! Back on the road!  The terrain was much greener than yesterday and we even saw trees with leaves and pine needles instead of just cacti!

 The highlight of our day today was our stop in Winslow, Arizona - the town featured in the Eagles song, "Take It Easy" - which was our theme for the day!  Here is the infamous 'corner' on Route 66 in Winslow!

And here is Mike "standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona such a fine site to see!"  If you click on the picture it will get bigger, look in the green window area and you can see "the girl in the flat bed Ford slowing down to take a look at Mike!"

As we walked around the small town, I spotted an antique shop and went in - Mike decided to head for the corner store.  The antique shop used to be an art gallery so there was all kinds of local art displayed including dream catchers, ceremonial Indian tools and instruments, woven blankets, and lots of turquoise jewelry.
  

  Beautiful things but I am looking for furniture and vintage home items so I looked closer.  There was a cool old desk with a lift up top and a single drawer which looked German, and had some great detailing - I thought it would be great shabbied so I inquired about the price.  The kind little old lady told me it was a bargain at $1200.00!!  

Not exactly my price range so I moved onto the pedestal table which was standing in the corner - it had seven faux drawers along the apron and one real drawer with interesting hardware so I again asked the price - this one was only $1100.00!  I was so shocked I forgot to take pictures for you! I have seen similar pieces in Sacramento you could get for $125.!

I was just about to give up when I spotted some old books in the corner. I have a theory that there will be no books one day with the advent of Nooks and Kindles!  I found a vintage 1941 Little Orphan Annie book and a vintage 1953 Felix the Cat book that interested me but I was afraid to ask the prices!  When she told me $6 and $3 I thought "There we go!"- paid my money and got out of there!

As soon as I got out the door, I saw my driver sitting on a bench in front of the corner store.  Since his back has been giving him so much trouble I assumed it had seized up again. My worries were laid to rest as I approached and saw the "Route 66 Root Beer" bottle in his hand!  I know it looks like he has imbibed a bit but he is the only one with a Class A license so he has to do all the driving so -Yes, it was root beer!

He hadn't made it to the museum!  So I sat down with him as he finished his beer and he went into the little museum and I turned the corner and found a second hand furniture store. The store had lots of used furniture but not many vintage pieces - mostly stuff left over from the eighties and nineties which don't have a lot of character.  I found this chair tucked away between two cafe tables and was thrilled since it is one of my favorite colors - the light aqua blue!  I started thinking if this guy's prices are like the lady at the antique store I have no hope!  I was delighted when he said $5 - I will recover the cushion and maybe sand it a little more to reveal the some of the pink paint I see peeking out underneath the aqua!

The driver's side door to the truck was opened as I carried my chair to load it so I knew Mike must not have spent too much time in the museum.  As we left Winslow we happened to drive by the high school and saw this huge bulldog 'on the corner in Winslow, Arizona - such a fine site to see!'  I jumped out, snap a picture on my phone and quickly emailed it to my friend Donna to show her husband, a lover of Bulldogs!  

\Back on the road, I started getting really tired since I was up until 2am writing my blog last night so I drifted off to sleep.  Mike said we passed Indian casino, after Indian casino as I slept so sorry, not a lot of pictures today!

We drove into New Mexico and we could definitely tell we were in another state!

 

The landscape looked like picture postcards of the red rock bluffs, cliffs and rocks you see that typify the Southwest. The rock formations were stunning!  We saw a few cinder cones, saw the infamous meteor crater just outside Winslow from a distance because we had spent longer than we planned in Winslow so we had to get on our way.

We made a quick stop in Albuquerque to refuel and I ran into a Estate Sale/ Second Chance Shop.  The place was a mess but I managed to uncover a few treasures!  This wedding cake set was made in England and from the fifties but it had a modern look to it that appealed to me, and it was only $5!

There was a wooden display case with some beanies babies,  some glassware, and Pez dispensers thrown in this dish.  When I saw the edge of the dish, I though it looked like Limoges but I asked the lady to open the case so I could check it out - I was right!  A gorgeous piece with not a chip or even a flea bite! (That's was dealers call little tiny chips!)  I turned it over and sure enough it said "Limoge, France". They clearly did not know what they had when they told me it was $5.!

And I couldn't resist this vintage hat!  All of you who know me know that this is one of my favorite colors and again a steal at $3.00!  There was a Thrift Town next door so I had to run in there as well. There was a hat rack in there that had about 8 vintage hats, some with the net veils attached and even one with feathers but they wanted a fortune for them - $24, $20, $22 were the first three prices I checked and then walked away - they were worth it but I knew I still had lots of shops ahead of me I might find better deals!  We drove another hour in the dark before we got to our hotel in Santa Rosa so I'll have to wait until the morning to see what it looks like outside!

The Flea Affaire

Every year about this time, a fan of Sierra College, in Rocklin, Arts Programs opens her beautiful yard to the public to host "The Flea Affaire" - a flea market in the California foothills!  Here a vintage tricycle welcomes guests with its basket filled with flowers!

As visitors drive through the gate, visitors are asked to donate one dollar to the Arts Programs, but get a raffle ticket for one of the prize baskets in return.  The site is gorgeous - a home site which includes a bass pond, barns, vegetable garden, etc.   The garden theme is repeated in all the vendor spaces as well!

Jennie and Doris, two Melange vendors, shared a space - Jennie brought her gorgeous gray upholstered chair along with lots of darling tutu's and other shabby furniture

Doris has been a regular at the Flea Affaire for years!  Here Doris displays some of her bird house creations on a shabby plant stand.

Doris filled this wonderful little cart with seasonal flowers for her display!

Karryann and Lisa, of Gracefully Vintage in Historic Folsom, brought this whole tabletop of vintage candlesticks along with shabby furniture and a space full of treasures!

My friend, Diedre, teamed up with Lisa and Karryann to display her creations in their space.  I just love these paper wreaths she made - I bought one to use at a bridal shower I am having for my niece!  The addition of the "Je t'aime" tag sold me!

The turquoise blue framed mirror in Heather's space caught my eye - it is one of my favorite colors, reminding me of my beach days growing up!

Saturday is my day to work at Melange, so I had to stop by really early, shop, and then get back on the road to the store.  I was one of the first to drive through the gates and found some wonderful treasures!  

The six Mica chandelier shades I found will be the perfect addition to my rust chandelier.

An original floral, oil painting; a funny mirror that reminds me of my age; some sheer, pink, ruched gloves for my frilly friend; a sweet vintage doll dress to put in my hope chest and the shabby paper wreath made by my friend, Diedre, were my cherished finds this day.

As I was leaving I noticed this baker's rack filled with vintage hats - it was so hard to walk by - but if I had stopped, I would have been late to open the store.  Vintage hats are so much fun and people come into the store looking for them all the time - mostly for theme or costume parties.  "Mad Men" parties seem to be really popular, the Kentucky Derby is always a big hat day, and lastly, the Royal Wedding added to the popularity of hats and fascinators this year!  I recommend the "Flea Affaire" to all shopping enthusiasts and I love that it supports the arts - something my heart will always cherish.