the mccarty sale.....

oh, ya'll!!! it's almost here!!!

i spent tonight cleaning my house, paying bills, and cleaning my car (aka rolling hotel) out to get it ready for 3 nights of dana and i sleeping in it! i've gotten everything out of it except mary peyton's carseat, which will remain until thursday when i get home from work...

when i get home, my car will be converted to this:

those laundry baskets and bags stay in the back during the day and up front in the driver's and passenger's seats at night. we will have TONS of blankets down for cushioning and hang some up to keep out light. yes, we realize we are borderline crazy, but it has become such a fun tradition that we enjoy!

so here is a breakdown of what we typically do.......

thursday: dana comes up from natchez and we leave my house as soon as possible (i usually have a cake to decorate before we leave). we will stop in cleveland and pick up something to eat before heading to merigold to sleep in the car for the night!

friday: get up and go in to cleveland. possibly go by delta cream donuts

we will hang out downtown and shop at little stores that we only get to visit once a year (more if we get up there, but that doesn't usually happen....ok - MAYBE sometimes at Christmas, but not even then for the most part....). one of these includes my cousin's jewelry store, britt jewelry. a precious kids store, fox road. and then we will go eat at a la carte.

we get a full sandwich and it's enough for us to even have a carry out box! so when we get back to merigold later that night, the back of my car will look like this:

a movie (thank goodness for dual head dvd players!) and left over a la carte! those two added to laughter and talking of two good friends makes for a great night!

saturday: we will get up and head up to mound bayou for the peter's pottery sale (his sale is always the first saturday in march). we will then go in to cleveland for a shower (by now we are nasty) at my friend tiffanie's house and then head back to merigold. lunch will be at the gallery restaurant.

after eating, we will go over to mccarty's (they open the store for regular hours, but this is NOT the sale...).

then we will just hang around all afternoon. sometime later, we will head to crawdad's. last year i got just that - a plate of crawfish! it was SO good.

sunday: SALE DAY IS FINALLY HERE!!!!! so i will do my best to explain about the sale now, since i have so many people who ask me.....

this is a picture from a few years ago. see the street sign over to the left? below the window (the small holes that are high) that is the farthest on the left of the 4? ok - the door just to the left of that street sign is the entrance to the sale. now see the stop sign towards the right of the picture? the door just to the right of it is the exit of the sale. see the chairs lined up? that's just a fraction of the ones that are there. ours have been there for 2 weeks and we are numbers 103, 104, 105, and 106 (i think - or something close to this).

anyway, the people at the first of the line are let in at 1:00. we will not be able to get in the door until around 4:00-4:30. it is not like a sale that most people think about - you go in straight lines and once you go in, there's no backing out. and from the entrance to the exit? yeah - count on that being about 2 1/2 hours. no, i'm not lying. or exaggerating. ask anyone who has been and they will tell you.

here we are last year in line - we were almost at the door! that's janet on the far left - she is my daddy's first cousin. dana is beside her (my friend from natchez who will be my "carmate" for 3 nights). then there's britt, janet's daughter. and then there's me! we were ALMOST at the door at this point!

and here's what it's like when you get inside. yes, this is where you spend 2 1/2 hours of your life. no potties (we go right before we get in the door). line slow as Christmas. and pottery everywhere. everyone (there are a few newbies who don't...) has a laundry basket or some other sort of storage container with them. if you think you want something, you have to grab it and hold on to it. so your laundry basket stays in front of you and you just add/take away as you want - you've got plenty of time! =)

here is a view of the back of the sale (i'm about half way through at this point). yeah - see the girl on the left - i'll be feeling that way before it's over.......

and just for the fun of it, i thought i'd throw in some pictures from last year....we went through rain.......

and snow!!! and one night a bad thunderstorm came through and it hailed...

but it was SO worth it to get all of this for amazing prices! now to see what this year's treasures will be!!!!!