Okay, my parody of “99 bottles of beer on the wall” pretty much stinks, but it does summarize Dean, Paddy, and my Highway 141 Garage Sale adventure. Yeppers—we went to 99 garages sales in two days. I wanted an even hundred—but somehow that just didn’t happen. I did go to four sales in Ogden on Thursday evening, but Dean said I couldn’t count them. Scroooge.
This year we took our favorite “junior picker” Patrick with us—and he came home with the “pick of the trip.” We were very early in our adventure Friday morning at farm outside of Woodward. I was paying for a fire pit ($5!) and a runner’s water pack (also $5—but not as good of a deal since I don’t know what in the heck a runner’s water pack is), and I notice Paddy helping the owner unload a trailer. I told Paddy how nice it was of him to help the lady move her foosball table. She said, “Oh, he just bought it.” WHAT?? Paddy just BOUGHT a full-sized, wooden foosball table?? Yeppers—for ten bucks. It took up the entire back of the van , leaving very little space for other bargains. By the end of the day we had collected so much stuff that Patrick had to squeeze himself into a space the size of a postcard. The foosball table was a great deal and the kids are having a lot of fun with it, but we have absolutely no place to put it, so—you guessed it—my Jag is now parked in the driveway while Paddy’s pick sits in the garage.
My best find was a HUGE outside umbrella with its own stand for five dollars. Problem was—it was broken. Handyman Dean was able to fix it and our backyard now has a new shady area. At the same sale I took home a FREE wicker chair and table. Sure, they were damaged—but just perfect to use a plant stand in my flower bed.
We had a great day Friday, when we headed TOWARDS Des Moines. We ended up in Harcourt, for their citywide sales, which were excellent this year. We collapsed in bed after 12 solid hours of garage sale fun. Saturday, however, we really didn’t have much luck as we headed the other direction down 141 towards Jefferson. Paddy didn’t go this time (we couldn’t drag his exhausted butt out of bed), so Dean and I set off on our bargain hunt alone. We still had fun—just didn’t find too many good deals.
Actually, we went to quite a few sales that were a little frightening. We pulled into one rural yard and Dean announced, “If they start playing banjoes, I’m outta here!” This was the sale where the flower garden that looked so beautiful from a distance turned out to be composed entirely of plastic flowers. Not silk—mind you—but garish plastic. Needless-to-say, we didn’t buy anything there.
At the very next sale, I was told in all seriousness by a woman that I could have one box of glasses for $2 or both boxes for the bargain of $5! I told her I would take one box—twice—and pay $4. That really confused her and I ended up leaving that sale without any glasses whatsoever.
Highway 141 sales are always held the first weekend in August. If you are into bargain shopping at all, I urge you to write them on your calendar today. After two days of saling, you can go to the Harcourt Appreciation Days parade and then play a little bingo in the city park. My two boys received two huge bags of free candy at the parade. (Josie was riding with the junior high band.) What better way to end a weekend of bargains than with free candy and entertainment?
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