Part II - the world's longest yard sale...

....to continue the story of my and my sister's adventures at the original World's Longest Yard Sale.  Given that the route is hundreds of miles long, we stuck to Signal Mountain, just northwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Read Part I of my story here.

I've decided to break this up into 3 parts.  Part III will tell you the backstory of alot of our purchases. 

Every vintage piece has a story to tell, right?  That's a major part of why we love vintage things...as the saying goes, "if only they could talk."  But this time, it's the other way around - it's me talking about my vintage things.   Because we came home with many goodies that pulled at the heartstrings tied to good memories past.

So here are just a few photos and things about the trip...

In Part I, I totally forgot to mention Pulled Pork Guy and Pulled Pork Lady.  On Day 1 of shopping, I decided I absolutely had to have pulled pork for lunch.  (On Day 2, I don't think we even stopped for lunch.)

I knew this was the area of the country for it because a friend of mine, who is from North Carolina, made it for a gang of us once...after having roasted his own pig outside.    (We Cajuns roast pigs, too, but we don't make pulled pork with them - we call ours cochon de lait.  Don't click if you don't want to see the pig!)

But the towns on top of Signal Mountain were few and far between.  Of course, we thought we had actually driven more than just a few miles from Walden at that point.  And we didn't see any restaurants.

So we drove this way....and we drove that way.  And then decided to drive back this way.

And then we saw it.  A big, white, handwritten sign on the side of the road that said Pulled Pork Sandwiches!  Well, where is the place?  Then we saw the screened tent.

       
Pulled Pork Guy and Pulled Pork Lady had set up a kitchen and dining area in their front yard.  For $4, we got a pulled pork sandwich, beans and a drink.  Or was it potato salad?  Not sure...because I was focused on that sandwich.  It. Was. Fantastic.  We loved it....not just because the pulled pork was delicious, but also because putting a pop-up restaurant in their front yard is just the sort of thing Cajuns would do!

We really enjoyed our lunch break with Mr. and Mrs. Pulled Pork.   But there were tons more yard sales to conquer!  More details on what we bought in Part III.

For now, here are a few photos of our goodies packed away in the rental van.

This is the van with our stuff from Day 1...

And this is the van with our stuff after Day 2...  I'll spare you the photos of the rear seat and its floorboards. 

By the way....if you have an Ikea within a 50 mile radius of your house, you should own at least 10 of their big, blue bags.  You will use them for everything.  Each one is 59 cents.  Yes, 59 cents!  You can't buy them from Ikea's website, so you have to get thee to one of their stores.  They're indestructible and indispensable.   I happen to have an Ikea only 2 miles from my house.  Don't hate me.  : )

Saturday was our day to go home, so we missed the last 2 days of the Yard Sale, unfortunately.   But I was still in a good mood...because we were going to stop at the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama on the way home!

Let's just say....we should have kept driving.  And so should you.  Trust me.

Our route leaving the place did take us by Lake Guntersville just outside of Scottsboro, so all was not lost.  We picked up junk food at a fast food drive-up and then had a *picnic* by the lake.

Then it was fast driving back to Louisiana.  I don't recall the windshield of the van whistling at us that much on the way back.  I think it learned its lesson not to mess with me anymore after I backed it into that tree at the Yard Sale.

We crossed the Louisiana state line at dusk.

 

We had a good night's sleep at my sister's house, interrupted only by the shrill, piercing screams of her house alarm...which came on (and would not shut up!) at about 2 AM because the battery was at the end of its life.  We finally figured out that we simply had to pull the plug on the thing.

I had to catch my plane back to Houston late that Sunday afternoon.  But we first had to ooh and ahh over our goodies, of course!  And to total up what we each spent. 

So we got the bags out of the van, unpacked them, and spread everything out on my sister's driveway.

We separated it into piles.

Here's my sister's pile.

   
Yes, she bought a suitcase during the trip....  The trip on which we were supposed to conserve space by not packing more than 1 suitcase.

And here's my pile, including all those toys you see in the background. 

I spent a total of about $500 (except for the pots in those boxes....they were the only thing semi-good to be found at the Unclaimed Baggage Center).

I'll tell you all about our special Yard Sale stuff in Part III...