Are we there yet?

After many conversations in the car regarding things neither Laurie/Ethel nor I could recall about our previous road trip to Alameda Point Antiques Faire (Did we stop here last time? Does Roseburg come before or after Ashland? Where was that place with the great cupcakes?), I decided to take some notes this time around.

FRIDAY

As planned, we left Laurie’s house in Portland, OR at 8 a.m. to head to Alameda Antiques Faire in the San Francisco Bay area. Woo-hoo! So excited!

One scheduled stop on the way out of Portland at a church rummage sale was quickly followed by two unscheduled stops at estate sales.

 Which resulted in another unscheduled stop back at Laurie’s house to unload her car which was now completely full. Four hours and 16 miles later we are still in Portland.  

Yay us!

New plan!  Leave for Alameda at noon.  The goal is to reach Redding, CA, about 420 miles away, where we’ll stop for the night.

That afternoon we went to three antique malls, a thrift store and a vintage shop before eating dinner and eventually keeling over.

It is weird that it took us 9-1/2 hours to travel 420 miles? The junkin’ just can’t be rushed.

SATURDAY

Laurie/Ethel admires a combo stove/refrigerator. 

We hit the road at 8:45 a.m., eventually ending up in Emeryville, CA, about 200 miles away (an *easy* 3 hour drive) and just a short distance from Alameda Point Antiques Faire, our Sunday early morning destination / reason for living.

We managed to turn a 3 hour drive into 10 hours and here’s why: 3 vintage shops, 1 flea market, 3 yard sales, 2 rummage sales, 1 thrift store, 2 huge antique malls, 2 random shops and 1 estate sale. In 4 cities.

SUNDAY (aka The Really Big Day)

 Got up painfully early at 5 a.m. and the reward was attending heaven-on-Earth, Alameda Antiques Faire, for 7 hours of some mighty fine vintage shopping from (not a typo!) 1,000 vendors.

Eventually I had to rent a shopping cart (as in the type used at a grocery store) to collect the items I’d purchased and left behind with the vendors. I kept it all straight with my Patented System for Remembering© by writing the vendors’ booth numbers on my arm.

In sharpie.

Tired, happy, sunburned and loaded down with vintage junk, we left Alameda at 1:30 p.m. to begin our drive back to Oregon, stopping in Yreka, CA for the night.

MONDAY

Random antique mall vendor in Medford, OR? It's all a blur to me now.

We left Yreka around 8:45 a.m., thinking we’d be back in Portland by 4 p.m., only 325 miles/5 hours away.

After stopping at 8 more antique malls (and one ice cream shop) in 2 cities, we rolled into Portland at 8:15 p.m., taking almost 12 hours to travel 300-ish miles.

 To recap: 4 days / 1400 miles / 3 estate sales, 3 rummage sales, 13 antique malls, 2 thrift stores, 4 vintage shops, 1 flea market, 3 yard sales, 2 random shops and 1 Alameda Antiques Faire (because there’s only one Alameda!).

Thanks for traveling along!

Click the photo above to read Laurie’s version of events.