Peaches to Beaches - 200 miles of Stuff

Stagger Lee Music Park, where I've been camp hosting, is conveniently located just off GA 341 between Hazlehurst and Baxley, which for this past weekend was home to the Peaches To Beaches 200 mile long yard sale. Of course, Ellen & I went looking for bargains - and to enjoy the sunshine - and to see what was out there at all those sales.

Sales ranged from single family sales at homes along the highway, through group sales, up to this ball park filled with yard sale hopefuls, vendors, and food vendors.

And lots of bargain hunters.

You could find items from used clothing - there was a LOT of used clothing - to antiques.

Ellen found a few things she wanted, and I found a few things I wanted.  I had been searching for a wind up watch, and found one.  ONE.  They've become an endangered species.  I found an LL Bean Boat and Tote bag, and some lanterns, and some tiny tea sets which little girls at Rendezvous will enjoy playing with.
And we found Girl Scout Cookies.

But all in all, we did not buy much.  We live in RVs.  Some people were shopping with pickup trucks and trailers.  I'm not sure what all they found to put in them, but they were doing it.

Having spent so much time in the past few years trying to get rid of extra Stuff (and there's more to be done), I am mostly amazed at the overwhelming amount of used stuff people are trying to get rid of.

Peaches to Beaches coming up soon!

I'm camp hosting at Stagger Lee Music Park in southeast Georgia. Half way between Hazlehurst and Baxley. The annual outage at Plant Hatch, which brought many workers to stay at the campground, is over and almost all of them have gone on to their next job site.

I have been enjoying the company of friends from the Vandwelling community. Ellen, who travels with her German Shepherd dog in a Coach House class B, came to visit me, stay warm, and catch up with herself. Ed Helvey stopped in on his northward migration. It's been a lot of fun.

The next thing coming up here is the annual Peaches to Beaches yard sale. This is Georgia's longest yard sale and runs for 200 miles along Route 341. We are located right off 341, so we are a convenient and economical location for shoppers with campers to park and shop the sales both days. Last year one couple arrived with their Class C motorhome, and their van and cargo trailer. The van and cargo trailer arrived empty and left stuffed to the gills the next evening with new stock for their shop.

Many vendors will be set up right at the end of our road, where it meets 341, at Ray's Steak and Ribs. Ray's, incidentally, makes some darn good ribs. Ellen and I ate there last Friday and can vouch for that.

Pig Pickin'

Last weekend the Callicat and I went to a Pig Pickin' hosted by my friends Denise & Thurmond. It was well-attended and a good time was had by all. Thurmond makes some wonderful barbecue, and it was a very very hot day in spite of the pond and the shade. I was not only stuffed, but the heat got to me.


Several of us camped on their land in RVs all weekend. Last year when I was there, the wind came up and put my awning up on my roof. This year the wind came up when we were back at camp, and we all closed our awnings. And the storm went away. Rolling up awnings is good anti-storm medicine?

As I said, it was very hot. I had the a/c running, and was plugged in to a circuit that could handle it - but my 30 - 15 adapter could not. When I broke camp I was surprised to find it had MELTED and melted the end of the extension cord (heavy duty but not heavy-duty enough) with it.

I now have a shiny new pigtail adapter which should not have that problem. Normally my 2 RV cords are enough for where I plug in, but D&T's power is further from the rig. I intend to acquire a couple more super-heavy-duty RV cords before next year's Pickin'.

Instead of Blogging

"In the winter it's too cold to do much blog-worthy stuff. In the summer I'm too busy doing blog-worthy stuff to write about it." Excuses, excuses - the truth is I just haven't been blogging. I hadn't realized it had been so long. Anyway it's spring, so neither excuse applies.

Here are some pictures of what I've been doing instead of blogging.



At the beginning of October I went with my daughters and their families to catch Kathy Mattea in concert in Clover SC. It was, of course, wonderful. Work had me in Florida and Georgia at the time, and I am forever grateful to Dolly & Avery for the ride to and from SC.



When I returned north, I stayed at Ebenezer Park, in Rock Hill SC. This is one of my favorite parks - beautiful, quiet, inexpensive, large lake.





As usual, I attended the fall OVPR Rendezvous. Not as usual, we were visited by a group on horseback.





This year the Southeastern Primitive Rendezvous was held in November, in North Carolina - so I went to that one too. I got to see friends I hadn't seen in years. The site was really nice; I'm glad it will be there again this fall.



Then work sent me up to Pennsylvania. I got to see friends I hadn't seen in even longer. I also stopped by the Daniel Boone Homestead. This is where Daniel Boone was a tiny tot, where his family set off from, before they went to Yadkinville where the Southeastern was held, before he went off further west seeking elbow room...





While I was in Pennsylvania, winter arrived. And stayed. I celebrated the holidays with my kids, fought with ice in and out of my plumbing, camped in snow at the beach - but you saw THOSE pictures...

Work took me to Fayetteville, where I got to visit friends who will be soon moving to Florida. We went to the Airborne & Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, where I took only lousy pictures.



During one of those visits, I salvaged some floating flooring Jon had removed from his office room and improved my motor home floor. It had been down to chipboard underfloor in the living area due to the interior rain before the new roof (thoroughly blogged), and in the bedroom due to the leak in the hot water heater this winter (thoroughly un-blogworthy). While I didn't have the resources available for a truly proper installation, it looks a lot better now.

Finally Spring came and with it the Spring OVPR. Had a wonderful time, checked the weather report, packed the van on Saturday, stayed for more Rendezvousing and left before the snow came. It wasn't much, but it made packing up less than pleasant for those who were packing on Sunday.



Which brings me up to date, back in Raleigh working, and enjoying my somewhat improved kitchen area.

Blackbeard Festival, Hampton VA

July 10th - OK, so I'm slow updating the blog - I went to the Blackbeard Festival at Hampton Va. It LOOKS like a Rendevous (except for being in town) but it's a Pirate Festival. With tall ships and all.

It'd be a lot of fun anyway, but my main motivation for attending was to hear House of Cadarn, which is my daughter and her singing partner.



I parked my motor home and walked toward the event. It was early, and the first open vendor I ran into was a clothing designer. She had a booth full of fun hot-weather clothing and some wonderful oriental-style silk outfits, and great prices. Carol only does festivals and doesn't have a web site or I would post a link. I will certainly be watching for her at future festivals. I bought a neat black silk outfit with purple flowers. She told me she'd sold a similar one the day before to someone who was at the festival and going to do an oriental pirate impression. (One of the first known female pirates was Chinese.) So off I went with my plunder tucked in a bag, to meet up with my daughter.

My daughter, the Chinese Pirate - who had bought HER outfit the day before. Needless to say, we had to go back to Carol's booth to share our amusement.


They sang, I enjoyed, we explored the festival, ate yummy food, explored some more...


Of course, we saw lots of Pirates.

And surprised a few friends from Rendezvous... Time travelers get around.