What An Adventure!

After 21 years of friendship, Michelle and Christine headed off yesterday on the trip of a lifetime. Hundreds of miles away there were streets paved of gold....Well, not really, but to bargain chasers and treasure hunters it is pretty close!





806 miles took us to Chattanooga, TN and we slept like rocks. Driving is a crazy thing when you start descending down mountains that have a truck run off just in case. (I wonder if drivers from Chicago can use that for their suv's?)



After 9 hours of chatting and excitement about what we would find, we pulled into the starting gate of our real adventure.



A couple of cocktails later found us exhausted and dead asleep ready for the day ahead.





And we awoke ready to go! (Well at least Michelle did!...Christine was begging for mercy to sleep but Michelle "the sarg" had a plan and a schedule!).



So off we went! (After Christine bought Visine from the gift shop)......



And we drove eagerly to our first sale!



The first purchase was a lovely apron that Christine modeled for a sassy older lady who told her she should buy it and 'don't use it in the kitchen"....the vendor spoke up and said it was for decoration.....and the sassy lady looked at her with a knowing look and said "honey, wear it to bed".......WE THEN KNEW IT WAS GOING TO BE A GREAT TRIP AHEAD!





We met wonderful people all day long, but a few stuck out....a couple of guys from Chicago, now living in Florida ,who wanted to chat about Chicago restaurants while we were shopping....(we just wanted to shop truth be told), a fun vendor named Dennis who tried to talk us into a sign that was quite a laugh(check it out on the pictures) and our favorite vendor of all who charmed us with his Southern ways and called us "Sugar" with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his lips....yes, he was a charmer and we both walked away with full hands.





We bought: antique sporting goods, a world's fair bottle, glass bowls, old toys, a tiffany's (blue box,white bow) ceramic box, books(on charm! lol)....so much this list does it no justice. (A complete list with pics will follow after the trip).

However, it's midnight and I need to sleep as Michelle has been in bed for a few hours and she will be ready to go much earlier than I will if I don't rest for another shopping day!



We promise a complete wrap up when we get home and much more tomorrow!



Another neat highlight: we met a wonderful woman from HGTV who took our picture and asked our story.

It has been a long, hot and exhausting day, but really we wouldn't change it for the world.....til tomorrow our friends...