A weekend of yard sales and outdoor markets.

This weekend it was officially Fall and that could only mean one thing…bargain shopping outdoor style. I love shopping at outdoor markets. It was cloudy with mostly sunshine. The perfect temps with a nice cool breeze every now and then.

We didn’t have time to stop at every table or every sale. There were so many scattered around from town to town. Too many to keep up with and some went off on dirt roads to large farm areas.

We went on Thursday and went back Saturday. Saturday was our big day. On that day we went to multiple towns.

I didn’t take my camera with me on Saturday. I took a day off. Plus, there were lots of Amish out selling and they are not comfortable with getting photos taken I have heard. Is that true? They are so beautiful to me and their children are so adorable, rosy cheeks, and always so healthy looking, just really good people. They had jams and plants for sale. I bought some blackberry jam.

Saturday we drove through some towns that had creeks, rivers. And caves everywhere with tavern like cliffs hanging above the road as we drove under them with a beautiful river running next to us on the other side of the street. It was like a scene in a movie, like being on a movie set I told my husband.

“This is so beautiful, like we are driving in a movie”.

Sometimes I leave my camera at home…and, as most of my followers know…I don’t have a phone. I think those things are tools for something really evil, just my opinion, but I won’t get into the reasons for that. People accuse others of being crazy when they don’t like what they say. There is always someone around me that has a phone anyway.

I have never had a cell phone. This tends to make some people angry I’ve discovered. They look at my camera which is a rare sight to see nowadays and some are curious wanting to know what make it is, how long have I been taking photos (since I was 10 but that was a different camera) and those are the nice conversations.

Then there are the ones that give me stink eyes and sneers, with their hidden ugliness inside themselves that they will never understand that some out there can pick up on that. Trying to hide the anger they carry with them in their hearts with their resentments that some people have not gotten into the line they did…haven’t taken their path…taken their road. They sure get mad about that. I walk around those types. They stay away from me anyway. There are some weird people out there in the world lets just say.

So Saturday was the prettiest day to shop outdoors, and I’m glad and not so glad that I left my camera at home, I needed a break from the stink eyes…hey, it happens, it really does.

We got a tour of an old building in one town. The lady was selling her items inside a giant stone building and told us…

” I remember being a kid and coming back here to play Pac man and all kinds of arcade games while my momma did her shopping in the front of the store. All the kids hung out in the back at the pinball machines”.

Then I looked up at all the stain glass on certain doors and windows. I wish I had my camera with me when that was happening, that I do regret. The woman saw me looking at the stained glass…

“That’s all original too, all the stained glass you see”.

It was a rare tour as the building is usually all shut up she told us.

I might go back and just take outside photos to share with you all in another post…it was an amazing building. It has stars at the top of it though…why are there stars I asked my daughter…

“Look, all around the top floor, surrounding the whole building are small five pointed stars”

The building was huge so there were a lot of these stars. This isn’t Texas…is this an old Free Mason building? I forgot to ask the woman. Sometimes I just let others talk and I just listen. It’s amazing how much you can learn by just being a listener.Everyone should give it a go and try it out occasionally.

I looked around for any signs on the cement in front of the building and found none. Usually there is a marking somewhere if it is Masonic.

The lady did not have a key to the upstairs level, which is the level I wanted to explore. Before we have ever bought an old building to remake, first I have to walk the whole building, inside and out, as there have been some old places that I will never go back into…they gave me creepy vibes. I wanted to tour the upstairs. But that was all boarded up and all the doors inside that led into it were all locked up.

It wasn’t a church though, it was three old store fronts with huge living quarters upstairs above the three stores, like a whole other giant building was upstairs. It was a cool building, very interesting,

It’s for sale the lady said…then told us the price. Which we don’t have any money to buy anything else right now, we already have too many projects on our plate that we are trying to finish.

“It will need at least another $100,000 to bring all three buildings back to life” I said to my husband as I stared back up at all those stars that circled the upstairs structure…were they carved in somehow I thought to myself…I couldn’t tell because it was too high up.

When I was really little my dad would drive around with me and we would look at old historic homes. It was so much fun. I had my little one ten camera and I would take photos. Some of those places were huge and empty, and I always wondered why doesn’t the city find a way to fix this up and use it for people who have no home. It was just an empty space and building rotting away back into the earth. What a waste.

Now here I am, decades later looking up at an old historic building with my husband and adult kids thinking the same things I did back when a kid with my father.

“Look at all the stones” I said out loud. Made me think of the Three Little Pigs and their house of bricks. Huffing and puffing, it never blew down. I wonder if this place has an old basement I thought to myself. It looked like it has so many rooms in it.

Maybe they added those stars for decorations, like some added detail to make the building stand out. I didn’t like them. The building was beautiful though and it had so many original items, like giant windows and huge glass French Doors. The biggest French doors I have ever seen. The ceilings inside reached 15ft I believe, and there were tin ceilings. A great investment for someone.

They are building the highway up, adding more streets and building the airport up in the area my husband said as he looked at me…I knew what that meant. Also one of the more popular and expensive cities about 30 minutes away is overcrowded and having a home shortage.

“The investors are already looking at the small towns outside that city” I told my husband months ago.

“They are going to spread out if the area keeps increasing and so far all patterns are pointing to that.” I added

People will not mind driving 20 to 30 minutes away for work if they have a nice home to live in. Those little towns are so pretty. I do hope these towns are able to come back to life again . The people in those little towns are so kind. Only time will tell, so we will see.

It was a really fun road trip adventure. I bought all kinds of fun items that maybe most people would think were silly but I liked them. Everyone has their one style and what they like. We met so many nice people too, some were locals and some were from other states like us. We all shared our stories. I would love to write those stories out here but this post is already getting a bit too long. Maybe I will share another time. Here are some photos of our weekend shopping adventure.

There are so many hummingbirds here. We already have two feeders at our house.

I love the stuffed toys, I always have. They are so cute and are always nice to add to children’s birthday gifts.

This wagon would be so nice with a bunch of garden pots in it, a mini garden in the wagon.

Someone was making hand made purses, very fuzzy and colorful.

This used to be an old door but the bottom rotted out. I thought it was a window when I first walked up and saw it.

Lots of coins for those coin collectors.

This red bird display was pretty big, it caught my eye.

Everyone is buying these up right now. On porches everywhere these are sitting out by doors and pumpkins.

Eventually I want to buy some bikes but not this time. We barely have time for our walks anymore.

Garden art was a big seller too, lots of garden themed items for sale.

I always like checking out those tables with a mix matched assortment of items for sale.

The cowboy table reminded me of Arizona.

I never heard of it this way…pickin time.

I need to buy one of these but these were so expensive. I passed for now.

This would look so cool on a wall in an old country home.

I need a pitcher to either hold cold water in or orange juice. This was plastic though and we only use glass now as much as possible.

I wanted to buy this cute farm container with the metal roof. It was $10 but I already have enough. I just love organizing with unique containers to store things in.

I love the art work in Children’s books.

I bought some old vehicles to add to some Christmas packages this year.

There were lots and lots of jars everywhere.

Can you imagine cleaning all this silverware.

I collect these cast iron figurines. I buy one a year and so far have about 8 in my collection.

You know what I like about the yard sales in my new home state?.all the trees around here, they are everywhere. They keep things so nice and cool with shade.

Wow, haven’t seen this type of furniture in awhile. Old western type furniture.

This cat was like those lizard and frogs you buy made from the same material. I’ve never seen a cat before though.

There were lots of tables filled with Christmas and Halloween decor.

I will share what I bought in another post.

We packed a lunch like I always do. What was in our lunch case- Three home made pizzas with garden tomato sauce I made from scratch from our cherry tomatoes (cold pizza left overs for traveling), green olives, cheese slices, cherry tomatoes, graham crackers and apple slices (for anyone with a road trip tummy ache) Swedish Rye crackers with grilled chicken salad with cucumbers and carrots and mustard and mayo, and one fried egg sandwich on bread with Dijon mustard and cream cheese. Oh…and cold bottled water.

We try to stick with packing our own food to eat as much as possible. Here in America the food is not so good and even when you eat out at the fast food places you will sometimes not feel so good the next day from all the sugar and high salt they put in restaurant foods on the road. It taste yummy, but it is so high in salt, sugar and fat, plus crazy ingredients that I can’t even pronounce…you do feel sluggish the next day after eating out or eating America’s high processed foods. You have to be careful and read labels and make as much as you can…but that is getting harder and harder to do sadly.

Happy road trip adventures everyone.

This is a pre- scheduled post that I wrote up days ago. I just found out that there was another tragedy at a church in my country today, and some people lost their lives. Christians are being targeted with hate everywhere right now.

Please keep everyone in your prayers. Pray for protection over your family everyday, for your neighbors everyday, for your friends and relatives, for strangers and especially for the broken ones that are so full of hatred. Pray for the victims of this latest tragedy and pray for their families.

Put on your full armor of God and pray up….this is a spiritual battle and we are all in it now. There is a level of hatred out there that I have never felt in all my years, and I am feeling it strongly now. We all know where that hate comes from. All the deadly sins, envy, jealousy, greed, vanity, materialism…and so much more. But mostly this hatred is fuel by the liars of the world. The father of lies is behind it all.

Stay safe out there and God bless you and yours always.

Psalm 91:11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;

Share this: