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Across the Fence:  ILLINOIS gurlfren road trip with SUGARBUCKET  |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 29 2008 : 4:25:31 PM
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well, danged if i didn't take my camera and got to havin' so much fun that i didn't take it outta' the case .. not even once!
kathy (sugarbucket) anthony and i headed across western kentucky early saturday morning .. and hit a big flea market somewhere in illinois .. do not ask me the names of any towns .. we didn't have a map (until our return trip .. and then only after we got INCREDIBLY lost!) got a few little doo-dahs .. but mostly no reeeeeeeeeely early american country! my fav thing was olde postcarads that said GRANDMOTHER and GRANDFATHER ... got a DAUGHTER one too! gonna' frame these! (by the way .. i mostly only buy for ME now .. i have tons and tons of treasures out in that schoolhouse to sell at the shoppe!)
as always, kathy met several dealer friends and stopped to chitty-chat .. i think every dealer in a thousand mile radius must know and love kathy! which is great .. cuz' when i tag along .. i get 'good deals' too!
finally ended up at our destination not fifteeen minutes from the Illinois/Missouri state line! good lawdy miss clawdy! kathy's friend finds wonderful things from old farms throughout illinois. and VERY EARLY things too! she had tavern tables, pie safes, dry sinks, chests, trunks, wood boxes, early tinware, crocks, early pottery bowls .. she had the largest collection of very early tin cookie cutters i've ever seen, wonderful wooden bowls, dough boards, rolling pins, scoops, farm tables, chairs, rockers, baskets, boxes, EARLY EARLY iron fireplace utensils, (BE STILL MY HEART!) betty lamps, EARLY EARLY toy rocking horses, FABULOUS vintage fabrics that i just 'wallowed' in, hooked and woven rag rugs (YUMMY!!) the list just goes on and on and on! we packed kathy's van until we almost didn't have BREATHING ROOM!
after shoppin' and stuffin' the van (she had rented one of those cavernous huge van trucks!) .. we headed to see the new home her friends had built .. yes!!!!!! i said NEW HOME .. but you'd never, ever know it to see it! it was BEAUTIFUL and looked as thought it had belonged in that spot for 200 or more years! oh i do wish i'd taken pictures!
when we walked inside .. i about died on the spot! never in this or the next lifetime will i ever see such a magnificent collection of 1700's and early 1800's WONDERFULS!!! and they mostly built their home themselves out of salvaged wood!!! you could walk into their stone fireplace (which they hauled the stones from farms and built!) the wooden floors were the widest boards i'd ever seen!
this was better than visiting a museum!!!
THEN .. we all drove back to town to their sweet daughter's EQUALLY wonderfully-decorated home! now SHE has the largest collection of olde PEWTER i've ever witnessed and 100's painted furniture to DIE for! We had a devine supper .. and sat at the table until after midnight laughing and telling stories of all our escapades!
AND .. did i mention .. in addition to having such wonderful things that they surround themselves with ... they are genuinely NICE and loving people! so wonderfully down-to-earth! they started collecting many, many years ago .. and have chosen to make collecting their business and their life. and they have educated themselves thoroughly on what is genuine and have a great following of dealers (they mostly sell to dealer friends) who have a clientelle that can afford 'museum quality'.
HA! the only way i could .. was to buy her 'low end' .. which is still 'high end'!
after loving hospitality and friendship and full bellies ... we all gave farewell hugs and hit the road .. we headed part-way home .. only to get up in the morning and hit some more shoppes in our path .. and oh yessssssssss .. where there is a will .. there is a way!!! and we just SQUISHED more treasures into that big 'ole van!
kathy does a lot of 'high end' shows and as i've often said .. has a magnificent shoppe in bardstown .. so she buys TONS more than i do these days!
as it was getting 'dusk' .. we got LOST!! finally, we stopped and got a map .. OH .. and BIG MISTAKE .. i became the 'navigator' as kathy drove! she told me a town she wanted to get to in Kentucky .. NOW REMEMBER . .this was an ILLINOIS map .. so not many towns on the Kentucky border were listed on the map! i did see it down in a bottom-corner .. and kept leading her down back roads to cross the river from Illinois into Kentucky!
We got to the crest of a hill (near where the bridge should have been) .. and i looked up from the map .. and after calling upon the lord for devinte intervention .. i screamed .. "KATHY!!! IT LOOKS LIKE WE ARE GOING TO DRIVE 'INTO' THE RIVER OVER THIS HILL!!!" ... and SURE ENOUGH! THE ROAD ENDED RIGHT INTO THE RIVER!!! (good thing we weren't speeding .. or the coast guard would still be dredging that river for our frozen bloated bodies!)
now it is Kathy's turn to PANIC!!! She screamed: "WHERE'S THE BRIDGE"?
to which i calmly replied .. "there is no bridge .. there is no bridge .. there is no bridge ... but i think i see a 'ferry' coming across from the other side".
WELL, i am sittin' here to tell you that Kathy pooped her pantaloons at that point!!!
Kathy definitely does NOT "do" WATER .. and she sure wasn't going to drive that big van onto a teensy 'ferry' to be hauled half-way across a freezing wide river and become dessert for whatever lurked below!
I told her the 'bridge' was about 50 miles up north (from whence we came!!!) and that a "ferry is fun"!
I swear, her head swivelled like a helicopter blade!!! Her eyeballs were layin' out on her cheeks .. sweat was streamin' down her face like a drugged racehorse .. and i'm sure she was SCREAMING .. because her mouth was opened wide as the grande canyon .. but no sound was comin' out!
the ferry has now docked .. with a loud metal CLANG .. and before she could put that sucker into reverse .. i slammed my foot on top of hers .. hitting the gas and LURCHING us onto the ferry! it's a wonder we didn't drive off t'other side!
DAZED .. all she could mutter over and over about the ferry driver was: "what if he's drunk? what if he's crazy? what if he's drunk? what if he's crazy?" well, the chile' carried on like this all the way to the other side where we did, indeed land safely (albeit with another loud metal CLUNK!
i honestly believe she left indentation treads in the metal as she 'popped a wheelie and stood the van on it's back tires' in her haste to depart!
when she finally hit good 'ole 'terra firma' again .. and regained consciousness .. it was pitch dark and we were on what we hoped was a road! not a light in sight!
oh gurlfrenz .. this is NOT the end of the saga! a few miles through the darkness .. and kathy hit the brakes and spun that 12-ton overstuffed truck into a 'grande jete' leap and twirl that would put the most talented of ballerinas to shame! landing all but upside down in the midst of a 'herd of startled deer'!!!!
O.K. ... O.K. .. MAYBE I 'EMBELLISHED' A 'LITTLE BIT' IN THIS PART OF THE STORY! I guess if the 'truth' be told .. she just HIT THE BRAKES .. GRABBED to keep me from flying out over my seat belt and through the front window onto the back of one of the two deer that had meandered into the middle of the road and stood staring at us!!!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh .. what a grande adventure!
a few hours and several wrong turns later ... like true female antiquers ... and despite the fact that it was 10 p.m. ... WE WERE STILL NOT FINISHED SHOPPING!!! We finally hit the shoppe of yet another friend of Kathy .. and bless her soul .. she had come down and opened her antiques store so we could SHOP!!!
Now i would have put my life .. NO!!! ... HER life on the fact that she would not be able to squeeze a sneeze into that van .. but dang if she didn't get yet another CUPBOARD and beautiful coverlet and an assundry array of other prims in there!
We hit home about midnight .. and i decided to crash on her sofa and dream sweet dreams of roamin' the roads with a wonderful gal-pal!
xoxo, frannie
p.s. next time .. come along! |
Edited by - CabinCreek-Kentucky on Jan 29 2008 4:45:16 PM |
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abbasgurl
True Blue Farmgirl
1262 Posts
Rhonda
USA
1262 Posts |
Posted - Jan 29 2008 : 8:55:01 PM
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Well Miz Frannie! Sounds like you had a WONDERFUL trip! Even better the way you tell it.  I had to stop readin' a time or two to go grab a rag & wipe the drool off the keyboard. I sure look forward to seeing Kathy's shop one day, & Kathy herself of course. I'm not budging for a while though. We are in the middle of a blizzard here-you should HEAR the wind howling! The whole house is squeaking & moaning! I'm stayin' in to stitch the next day or two-my favorite winter sport! Thanks for telling us about your trip Dearie!
Rhonda
I will sing at the top of my lungs, and I will dance even if I'm the only one...
http://www.kattywhompus.etsy.com |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jan 29 2008 : 10:37:05 PM
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rhonda .. i hear tell that weather is heading our way too! tonight .. there was all kinds of banging and clattering going on outside the cabin .. i could have SWORN the door opened at one point .. i got up to go see .. and there was a VERY strong aroma of PERFUME in the room! (now .. i've not ever seen or heard nary a ghost in this house .. but that was kinda' spooky! and i NEVER wear perfume (it was real flowery and flowery smells give me headaches!)
lordy! what an active imagination i have! xo
True Friends * Frannie
HEAR MY STORIES
come, visit my:
"GATHERING ROOM" ..
http://freedomvalleyfarm.blogspot.com
adopt a 'rag-chile'
http://sistermercysfoundlinhome.blogspot.com
treasures .. new and olde .. up for adoption:
http://mudpiemanormercantile.blogspot.com
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jpbluesky
True Blue Farmgirl
6066 Posts
Jeannie
Florida
USA
6066 Posts |
Posted - Jan 30 2008 : 11:25:37 AM
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Frannie - well, girl, I am from Illinois, and I can tell you if you were 50 miles south of the bridge leading into Kentucky, you were indeed in the boonies. Even the bridge leading over into Illinois from the Paducah area is out there in farmland.
Sounds like you had a great adventure. I love those kinds of times when you take to the road, and really do not care where it leads.
Hope the weather is treating you all okay. It was warm in Illinois and Kentucky yesterday, and then dropped like a rock!!!
Farmgirl Sister # 31
Psalm 51: 10-13 |
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junkjunkie
True Blue Farmgirl
1306 Posts
Judy
Lawrenceville
NJ
USA
1306 Posts |
Posted - Jan 30 2008 : 12:54:42 PM
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Frannie - Wow! The part where the bridge wasn't there and you stopped in time was scary! I love reading your posts....very entertaining! It really sounds like a true adventure....not to mention an antiquer's dream!
"To have life in focus, we must have death in our field of vision." Benedictine monk John Main |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
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abbasgurl
True Blue Farmgirl
1262 Posts
Rhonda
USA
1262 Posts |
Posted - Jan 30 2008 : 5:20:46 PM
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That's one reason I have been so blessed to meet Miz Cat! I PRAYED for someone like her to come along...and there she was! We can laugh and talk and drive until we can't keep our eyes open! I't been more wonderful than I could've imagined to have such a kindred soul in my life! Course she is a bigger chicken than me in winter weather...so we are staying put for now.
Rhonda
I will sing at the top of my lungs, and I will dance even if I'm the only one...
http://www.kattywhompus.etsy.com |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
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Across the Fence: ILLINOIS gurlfren road trip with SUGARBUCKET |
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ILLINOIS gurlfren road trip with SUGARBUCKET
