Arrived Home

We left Chattanooga at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning and arrived home at around 8:30 pm. Very good trip home. WE DID NOT GET LOST!! Amazing Vicki drove all that way with no help from us. She did all the driving on the trip and for that she is given our praises. Bravo Vicki!! Saw the most extraordinary scenery as we traversed through the Appalachian Plateau region of the App. Mountains. Up and down the hills we went with great weather all the way. We did find the usual assortment of household items along the way - couches, chairs, oh and a cooler, mattress, and bunches of old cars - all just left because it appears that is how it is done in the south. When an item reaches its' expiration, it becomes part of the landscape. Good to see that trucks are still traversing the roadways - that means commerce is still going on - keep on trucking. We did not stop for lunch on the way home but we did eat trail mix, potato chips, candy, water, mountain dew, goldfish crackers - ya know, road food. It was all good. Only snapped a few pics on the way home cause not much to shoot from a moving car - many trees and hills and all GREEN. That was the nice thing, winter is obviously behind us. So we are done and now the work begins - selling all the stuff we did buy. As I unwrap my stuff I am realizing I did buy some treasures and I did not bring back any of the bugs. Oh we did leave 2 Tennessee flies along the road. They were buzzing around in the van and we finally left one of them in Kentucky and I think the other one we left Ohio. The Red Wings won and so did the Tigers - a good time was had by all.

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Saturday Final Day - Chattanooga TN

We got out of the room around 10:30 a.m. We were told that there were many sales ahead on Route 11. They were right!! Much better day than any other because we did see sales filled with junk intermingled with a few good sales. 1st stop was right down the road at an indoor flea market. We really thought it would be people selling lots of collectibles, etc. It was actually just like Gibralter Trade Center, so we left real fast and hit the road. Check out the Hill Billy Snacks pic. We had to ask a man at a sale to back up the van for us because we managed to end up on a dead end road. I think Judy and Vicki bought something from that sale. Vickis best find on the trip was her Ladies Meerschaum Pipe. She hopes to do really well with that one. Pic below.Most of these sales were way overpriced or filled with sooooooooo much junk it was unbelievable. It had rained last night and they just left the boxes out and the cardboard boxes were filled with water. I was in and old storage unit/junk shop and I went into this back room where a family was looking around. All of a sudden they were all giggling and laughing and I walked right into it - he either SHAT his pants or broke wind. Alas, I was trapped in the back of the room until the air cleared. GEE WHIZ!! Much more fun was found closer to Chattanooga. We have all bought a few things here and there and met some really nice people. One of the dealers had a 1993 station wagon just plastered with decals, car ornaments, cell phones, and even a miniature Bristol Speedway using toy cars mounted or glued, however he did it, to the top of his car. He kept saying check out cobra eyes on the front of the car and when we got close he pushed some button and water squirted out of the cobra. We all laughed and THEN Judy walked up. He said hey check out the cobra and Judy asked us what, should I? Vicki and I said oh yea its real cool - well he got her and we all laughed. I am sure he went back to drinking beer and squirting people. Check out the pics. We did not see any appliances or living rooms on front porches. Oh, wait, Judy saw an overstuffed chair!! But it is so hot down here I imagine you could live on the porch - it would probably be cooler. Many men wanted to know what kind of trailer we had - we said a snowmobile trailer and they all laughed - one wanted to know if we had the snowmobiles in there!! WHAT WHAT - NOT. Who ever said there was no free lunch? We stopped at a restaurant and ordered. I ordered the buffet (pizza and salad) Vicki and Judy ordered meals. I was all done and there food was not there yet. We asked a waitress to check and she came running back and said they had just started it. Well we did not want to waist any more time in search of boxes with water in them, so we said thats ok. We have to leave. And so, our meals were FREE!!

So tomorrow we will hit 75 N and head for home. It has been very fun and interesting, to say the least, trip. The Green Acres characters were not to be found. So we will have to complete the cast at another time. See ya all tomorrow.

Rock City

By the way, the pics of Rock City are for Vicki. She is desperate to see more of the old Rock City signs. So we are gonna throw those in as well.

Day three Sweetwater, TN

On the road again at 10:00 am we knew today would be the day to find treasures, well we came upon a parking lot with people selling tools, clothes and generally old shit. We found little and were directed to the Amvet Thrift Store. The treasures were few but we are hunters and Vicki found mermaid glasses, Colleen found a crazy, colorful, Italian silk tie and Judy found some good books.

So back to the trail, our route dead ended at a detour to no where with no direction to go. We stopped to ask which direction we should go to find 11and a slow talking man tried to direct us through town we don't think he knew where he was, so we turned on Lola the GPS and we ended up driving a very, very, in the back woods road. After seeing the beautiful green scenery of the mountainside and baby animals finally hungry and needing gas we happened upon a country gas station and diner. We had a good meal bbq pork and steak and the people were nice enough to give us right directions to our 11 road.

We were very excited to find two shops on the route, the Flea Market Shop and Cave Creek Antiques. Treasures were definitely there, a nice lady with a real southern drawl sold us some good stuff and up on the top of the hill at Cave Creek, we met Kim and she gave us great deals. Vicki found some glass and jewels and Judy found a Hoosier cabinet to put in her booth back home and its very unusual that Colleen bought nothing. We loaded the cabinet into the so far empty trailer so we hope this is a good sign that we will fill it up on the way down the trail.

Kim told to visit the town of Sweetwater just up the road a bit, by the way Kim was the first one to recognize the Antique Alley route 11 sales, finally. Heirloom Antiques was the next and last stop for the day, big place but we are really want to put our feet up for the night and have a cocktail or two. Major appliances update two portable dishwashers, entire living room set and fridge on porches.

We are very optimistic tomorrow thanks to Kim that we have found the antique alley, flea market tomorrow opens at 8 am. Judy blogged tonight.

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