Rhoda gets upset...

After our ventures in Winona we started home on beautiful Saturday morning about 10:00. First we were going to hit the "Lavender Shoppe" which was a craft shop in a little town called Pickwick and in a building that used to be a little white church. They were having their open house about 8 miles south of Winona. (We had stopped here on our way to LaCrosse yesterday but they weren't open as they were getting ready for the big open house). When we stopped there were approx 75 cars and 150 anxious people standing in line waiting to make their way in. Because we got a front row spot we decided to go in. You couldn't get ten feet past the door so we went up into the balcony. We had to refrain from breaking out into singing a glorious church hymn for all the ladies below. Looking down over the crowd we decided it would not be an enjoyable time to go down and push our way through the frenzy of shoppers. Down the stairs we went and exited the Lavender Shoppe without a single purchase.

We made a U turn on 14 and headed back to Winona, wanting to swing by "The Place of Grace" to pick up a little table and stool that Carol thought she could fix up for Mirandas new house. When we arrived we realized that the store didn't open for another 20 minutes. Since our time was so valuable we decided not to sit idle but to move onto the next store without having made a single purchase. Strike two!

We then headed to the "Sugar Bush Antiques" where Carol picked herself up a little antique table that was a steal at $45.00 - even if no one wants or needs it we didn't care as it was a great table for a great price! Carol carefully brought it down two flights of steps and we loaded that puppy up in the back seat of the small Jeep. The nice thing about this purchase was that even though it took up a little room, she put it up side down and there would be a lot of other purchases that would fit in between the legs!


Then we headed towards 14 to go North towards home - making plans on just stopping where ever we wanted to on our way home. Well Rhoda (Carols, GPS - pronounced Road-duh) did not like this one bit -she wanted us to head to I-90 and she wanted it bad -she kept telling us to "make a U turn" and to "proceed to the nearest road!" etc... Carol was having a hard time believing me over Rhoda - but soon she relaxed and realized we were going the path we needed to!

We found this great little flower shop on the side of the road called Lewiston Bouquet - we had passed it but turned around - as hey, that is what we said we were going to do is stop where ever we wanted! This little flower shop was a great building that had been an old gas station. The cute little lady who was about 55 going on 16 had a lot of flower things, and then some crafts that her husband had helped her make out of antiques. Her register counter was a great big old beveled out door. She had the door painted an old looking white and then had put pictures in the bevels, put a piece of glass over the top of it all and added four cut down porch posts for legs!! It was a great piece of original furniture that is for sure! In the bathroom we noticed on the wall an old wash stand towel hanger - they had taken the whole piece and added a shelf - white washed, put some vines and a shelf on it and hung it on the wall! It was adorable and it was a hefty $69.00. We walked around a bit and spotted this great piece on the floor that had also been made into a shelf - we asked about it as we had never seen anything like it and figured surely it wasn't for sale. Well, the proprietor's husband had told her that EVERYTHING in the shop is for sale if someone wants to buy it!! She told us the history behind the shelf. Although she rarely missed church, one Sunday when Oronoco had their junk sale, she went against her usual routine and decided God wanted her to head to the junk sale instead. So off she went to Oronoco and it was there she found this old Victorian balcony from a theater or opera house. She had bought it and had her husband make it into a little shelf so it would be useful and indeed it was for sale!!! Well, Carol knew just the room that would be perfect for this little treasure. We left Lewiston with the purchase of an old Victorian balcony!!!

On down the road we ventured as we now had a little map with 5 more places that were having open houses for "hunting widows weekend". We took a left and drove through town and the place we wanted was to be about 2 miles south of town. On our way out there we saw that someone had dropped a whole load of hay - we were laughing quite hard and on our way back to town we would be stopping there and getting our picture on the side of the road with the hay... how else would anyone believe it?? We drove in and found the "hunters widows haven", we got out of the Jeep and there to the left of us were two big buffalo... well, who would believe this if we didn't get a picture. Carol gets out her camera and I go to take a look at the Buffalo's ... all of a sudden the tail goes straight up in the air (I look at Carol confused and laughing) - and before our eyes this buffalo starts taking a buffalo sized dump!!!! We didn't know if he would ever get done! Laughing as hard as humanly possible we start singing some of the buffalo songs - buffalo girls won't you get out tonight and to the tune of You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd we sang "Have You Ever Seen a Buffalo Spit" (word changed as to not offend any blog readers) We shopped quickly and left with no purchases - as we left the driveway we saw a tractor coming past us with a load of hay in the bucket! We were laughing... I guess there will be no picture with the hay pile on the side of the road - unless the guy lets us sit in the bucket and takes a picture of us both?! We couldn't do it to Rhoda as she was heading us toward I90 yet and this would really confuse her if we started chasing tractor buckets with hay in them all over the country!!! So we ventured North on our Highway 14 with Rhoda screaming in the back ground "make a U turn, in 1.2 miles make a U turn"!! We stopped at all the shops in town, there were crafts and old things galore! A buyers metropolis - but we did good.

We left Deb's uniques, and Al's Mantiques with a few finds. A set of candle holders for Mirandas wall, a crocheted table cloth for me to put in the drawer (but, hey, it was only $3.00!), and the find of Deb and Al's was some old "peacock" jewelery to go with my new peacock shirt from Carol, my peacock feathers and my hat!

In another shop that was in a house, we bought some wonderful dip mixes that we munched on in the back room, laughing about not needing to eat, and glad no one was there to see or hear us! We left this town with plenty of little purchases that fit nicely in between the tables and old Victorian balconies that were already purchased and paid for. We hit each shop - looking and buying a few little things, a crocheted hat for Nola - some candles for all of us - a little of this and a little of that - and a bag of chewy orange pumpkins.


Back onto 14 North we went, following the signs for Waseca as we had another shop to stop at there. It is a big old dairy barn that was lovingly turned into a "shop and party place". It is only open a couple of times during the year, so we were happy when we got there and it was open! I of course found one of the chairs that I love! It was only $14.00 - bought and paid for, BUT - it wouldn't fit in the Jeep! So... we bought it anyway and layed away until I could again get to Waseca! WE stopped at another antique shop right on the edge of town and that was a doozy also. It is just to bad that Carol and I don't have more places to decorate - as we sure are good at finding STUFF!!!


WOW! what a frenzy of shopping we had! Sitting back and starting to relax we head towards New Ulm still on 14 North. Poor Rhoda has finally calmed down and got us on the right road!

Thank-God for Rhoda and for Buffalo girls...