On the road at last!

Greetings from the road at last - This first blog might be a bit long because the last week has been a complete whirlwind.

The week started prior to Christmas getting ready for the trip as well as the holidays. We enjoyed Christmas Eve with our friends the Corcoran’s and Christmas Day with family and friends at our house. I’ve often said Antique Dealers even work on Christmas Day and this was no exception. My Son’s friend Ben gave me a great technology lesson. I loaded up on a trick phone, new computer and new bookkeeping software to learn while I was away. He at least gave me a jump start on my new Motorola Droid by Google. It’s trick!

So back to working on Christmas, one my favorite, local, trash haulers in Wolfeboro brought me a early to mid 20th century, long, aluminum box with an entire dowry from some women which I suspect probably dates to the early 1900‘s. Anyways in the treasure box was a stunning antique satin dress with a lace up back and delicate lace trim on the neck line and covered button-up sleeves. Beautiful in every way you could imagine. Well we just happened to have a guest who was the perfect size 5, so after Christmas Dinner I had her put it on and took about 20 pictures of this 5‘9“ Swedish, blonde, women so I could put the dress on ebay. This entire process took at least an hour - first she put it on backwards then couldn’t walk etc. etc. It was a spectacle. She finally changed out of this challenging wedding dress and we gathered around the fire. I then promptly deleted all the pictures from my camera with just a flick of one button and could’t’t bare to put her through all that again. It will now have to wait until Spring.

Saturday was spent going over last minute details with our Son who will be watching the house and dog Oscar while we’re away. We often wonder how our dog would react if a stranger came to the door. We know he can be quite protective of us when we’re in the house but never knew until recently when a friend came by and tried to drop a DVD inside our door. Oscar got right up off his bed, beside the kitchen door and growled until the kind gentlemen backed out of our house and closed the door. Good boy Oscar!

We left New Hampshire, Sunday Morning, December 27thin a hard, driving, thick rain. Thick rain you ask - that’s just before it turns to freezing rain. It’s thick and heavy. We headed out of New England as quickly as possible. As I drove through the North Shore of Massachusetts where I grew up, I noticed there was no snow what-so-ever. When I was a child 45 years ago I can remember snow every year for Thanksgiving and quite often prior to Halloween. I’m sure it’s a sign of climate change and gave me pause to consider what the same territory will be like 45-50 years from today.

Our first stop was in New Jersey to visit our friends Chris & Sherry. Sherry is a marvelous hostess and great cook and I really enjoy her home. She has beautiful glass, pottery, stiens, and so much more for me to look at and admire. Frank and I tend to be a bit forward when we look at people’s objects. It’s just second nature for us to pick something up and look at the bottom. Most people have come to expect this of us. People also love to have us visit so they can paw through their own stuff with us. We quite often find ourselves invited into private storage closets, basement sections or attics which aren't normal visitation spots but we love.

Driving through Southern New Jersey and Pennsylvania farm country is always a treat for me. I love seeing the farms with gigantic barns decorated with Hex Signs. If you’re not familiar with Hex signs you might want to read this - http://www.hexsigns.org/://www.hexsigns.org/ Our camp on Lake Winnipesaukee was decorated with 2 Hex signs my Mom and Dad had picked up in the 1960‘s. They are still there on our camp even though the camp has changed hands many times now.

The strip of Highway along Route 78 which turns into 81 is an interesting stretch of fertile farms and huge ugly billboards. You know you’re heading south because the Country music and Gospel stations start filling the airwaves more then not. We loved the advertisement we heard for http://www.persecution.com/. You know - The Voice of The Martyrs advertising on a billboard and radio station - just so Pennsylvania. More obsessive behavior.

On we drove, there was a cool Teepee near Lenhartsville on the left heading south and there is a phenominal Cabela’s you can see from a 1/2 mile away. If you’re not familiar with a Cabela’s they are a hunting and outdoor sports emporium of a magnitude it’s hard to believe. They are well known for their taxidermy mounts and displays. If nothing else it is a good example of obsession that was captured for a capitalistic purpose. You can look at about 30 photos of their Hamburg PA store on the Cabela website at http://www.cabelas.com/. Cabela’s is one huge, obsessive, vision!!

Photos will be coming just as soon as I learn how to interface the Droid with the Toshiba. They are just flirting right now.