Friday morning Mike and I got up and started to work on our projects for the day - but it just wasn't coming together for me. I finally said "I need a day of adventure - and a day having fun with my husband!" So we put everything away, unloaded the van and off we went - on the hunt for treasures to bring back. We hit the back roads looking for garage sales and flea markets and junk piles - anything we could find. We had some cash in our pockets and a totally empty van to fill - we were ready! We went thru small towns with beautiful churches and cute little homes and followed every garage sale sign we saw.
We saw lots of corn fields that indeed were "as high as an elephant's eye" and saw many more rolling fields of soy beans and wheat and potatoes. I started counting all of the big round hay bales - but lost count somewhere after 143.
We saw lots of big beautiful working farms and many smaller farms too. We oohed and aahed over barns and creeks and great old houses. I shouted out hello's to all of the cows and horses and donkeys and sheep that we saw - while Mike just shook his head at me! We stopped at a sale near this farm and met a little dog named Mollie who thought she was very big and tough and a 3 month old pit bull/german shepherd mix named Hootch who was very big but not so tough! We tried to convince the home owner to sell us the puppy - he had the greatest face and ears ever - but we came away empty handed!
We stopped at this home just so I could ooh and aah at the gardens - she had gardens all around their lot each filled with beautiful flowers and lots of rusty farm parts and old beds and lots of other interesting things.
I saw these interesting motorcycle art pieces out of the corner of my eye as we were whizzing by and we had to do a u-turn in the middle of the road to go back and see them! Since Mike is a harley man we thought maybe we should have one of these - so of course we had to inspect them!
We wanted to get out and have a closer look at them but the only one home here seemed to be a big german shepherd - and he couldn't decide if we were friendly enough or not - and we couldn't decide if he was friendly or not!!! He kept wagging his tail at us - and growling at the same time! We decided to just admire them from the van.
We followed a garage sale sign along this teeny little creek and met an elderly woman who said earlier this summer the creek wasn't so teeny - it had flowed up and over the driveway and you couldn't drive up to her home. She couldn't get out for a few days - but fortunately her children waded thru the new creek bed with supplies for her!
The creek made such lovely sounds as it flowed over the rocks and the woman sat down and started to tell us that she was now a widow - since last November - and about her kids and introduced us to her cat who had just had 5 kittens. I think she was so lonely and was so pleased to have someone to talk with. We stayed quite awhile and enjoyed her creek and listened to her talk. Once again we came away empty handed.
We watched clouds gather all day - but not once did we get any rain. We drove from sale to sale - town to town - back road to back road. We had lunch at a cute little diner, stopped in at a few favorite shops and caught up with those friends. We just about drove off the road watching the wild turkeys in one field and the deer in other fields. We discovered a garage sale down a long winding gravel driveway and spent quite a bit of time there. The yard was fragrant with all of the dill and herbs she had planted and she had tons of great old treasures in her garden = none of which were for sale of course!!! We chatted for quite some time and she showed us the beautiful clothing that she makes and sells at the Renaissance festival - all out of organic cotton - and the buttons and other items that she makes. She had a entire tray of them ready to pop in the kiln and boxes of finished buttons as well. They were gorgeous - as were her clothing items - and we enjoyed our time there. We bought a few small treasures from her - some hinges and fabric scraps and a few books and away we went - still looking for those big treasures that we just knew were out there.
We fell in love with this little blue house - it was so sweet and she had gardens all around it and across the road was the river - they had quite a nice view. There was a little old fashioned drive-in near by so we stopped and had ice cream and talked about living in a little cottage across from a river and all that we would do. We laughed a lot and talked a lot and stopped a lot and finally came home Friday evening with just our little bag of hinges and fabric scraps and books. It wasn't a good day for the kind of treasures we set out to find - but as it turned out - the day itself and the people and creatures we met were the treasure. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
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