I'd forgotten how much I love driving alone. FAST. With the music blaring. I had been worried about my ten year old little sunshine yellow car on such a long drive. So of course, the first thing I see on the highway is a collection of rare and ancient cars. Old model T's, old Buicks, old. Really old cars. There must have been a car show somewhere in KS, as I kept seeing them the whole drive long. Blasting the stereo, I settled in behind a 1960's Ford F150 with a tricked out paint job and a wonderful 1940's TURQUOISE Studebaker truck. Doing 90mph. For over two hours we three wonderfully old and colorful vehicles swept through traffic on I-70 like a brilliantly colored necklace, dodging in and out of slower, newer vehicles along the way. The clouds above split and joined non stop, occasionally splashing us with rain along the way. I kept the sunshade pulled back and occasionally felt the need to look 360 degrees around me to confirm there were no tornados. This was Kansas, after all.
I arrived safe and sound in Manhattan, Kansas in 6.5 hours. A new, personal record. Sans tickets, too.
The first item on the list was to locate a new coffee table. Theirs was adorably decorated like an original Nintendo box, lovingly hand painted by Corinne, but too big for the new, smaller space. Corinne assured me that she knew ALL the stores in KS. She was sure of this! So I found three new ones for her to try. A new furniture store, and two thrift stores. All had options, but the one she really liked was to make a new project for herself by transforming an old Samsonite hard side piece of luggage into a coffee table. That thrift store prides itself on repurposing and reusing old items and even has classes in the fall for same.
We took many clothing items into the swanky thrift near the KSU campus and got store credit for some items, but they had very few winter clothes yet to choose from.
I'm a big fan of reuse and repurpose and have always said "never pay retail", so it was really fun to find a creatively put together thrift store in such a small town. In the same store we purchased the Samsonite from, I got a "new to me" sterling container for my beloved English Breakfast Tea, PG Tips, that fits perfectly on my counter. And in the clothing store near to KSU, I found a "new to me" beautiful red purse for winter. Then there is the inexplicable. In a thrift store that boasted 3000 square feet, we bought over $100 dollar's worth of in the box Barbie dolls and Hallmark Barbie ornaments.
Neither Corinne nor Kelsey (my other daughter), nor I have EVER collected Barbies. But they were so CHEAP! I know OTHER people collect them! And they were in great shape. Barbies from the 80's and 90's. Special edition Barbies. Seven boxes of Barbies and over 20 Hallmark ornaments. Hmmm. And my daughter's pregnant. Wondering now if it's going to be a girl.
