Yard Sale Addict

This weekend would also not be one of wandering through the yards of Atlanta pondering candles shaped like cinnamon buns and used Yanni cds. Instead we are heading back to St.Petersburg for Cindy’s gallery opening.
Making the incorrect presumption that I would have lots of free time on this visit to feed my addiction, I checked the St. Petersburg Times on-line to see what the yard sale possibilities were for this weekend. It looked promising. One of the more interesting ads I encountered in the yard sale/garage sale classifieds was one announcing, “we buy sink hole houses”. While driving southward I had fantasies of exploring slanting homesteads, wading up to my knees in water to gaze at candles shaped like cinnamon buns and Yanni cds. I imagined homes with sign across bedroom doors that read – “Do not enter bottomless pit”.

Thursday night we began our trip back down to Florida. At the advice of the gallery we packed Cindy’s sculpture, Eve a creation over five feet tall crafted from the trunk of an old apple tree into the bed of our pickup. We discussed propping her up and taking photo ops of her along the way but the tight time schedule prevented that proposed fun. Thursday evening we once again spent the night in Valdosta, this time not at the Briarwood but at the much less exotic Quality Inn. We spent a quiet and uneventful night at the QI, which was unusual considering nearly every guest there, was there with his or her dogs for the Valdosta Dog show. Through the night I heard no barking, perhaps this is what one should expect from properly bred canines. The QI did provide us with breakfast so I did not have to face McGriddles and a flow of hot grease in the early morning. Ironically the dreadful grease spewing McDonald’s that I encountered two weeks ago was next to our motel.
On Friday we made our way through Northern Florida stopping only to enquire about Key Limes (Cindy needs some for a painting a friend has commissioned) at some of the garish expressway citrus stand. We found a plethora of plastic alligators and creations made of shells but no tiny limes.
Upon arriving in St. Pete we just had time to have lunch and change our clothes. We then made our way straight to Salt Creek Artworks where I carried Cindy’s tree creature Eve into the gallery past a group of people lined up to enter.
The show was a success.
On Saturday morning while strolling around Crescent Lake Park I did stop at one small and disappointing sale. It was not in a sinkhole.
On Sunday we headed back to Atlanta driving through rain the entire length of our journey.

20th Ave. Crescent Lake “Yard Sale”

This lone sale I stumbled upon was small and disappointing. The seller was getting ready to fold up for the day when I walked up. Among the sparse items there were some nurse’s smocks, two old coffee makers, some bed sheets, a computer that looked like a 486 pc with a 12” monitor and a few a few plush toys. The only unique items were a half dozed bags of buckwheat husks piled into a cardboard box. The seller said she intended to use these in home pillow making but never got around to taking up that hobby.
I bought nothing.