Last weekend we decided to embark on an adventure…a last minute, “why the heck not” road trip. Jon and I decided Wednesday that we would run away fast to Round Top, Texas for the antique show. It was hard to pull the trigger on that trip because that isn’t an easy drive. The plan was to get in late Thursday night, shop Friday and Saturday, and make the journey back Sunday afternoon. And, that’s exactly what we did. To completely explain the experience and the thrill would take a few hours to put together and I plan on doing that, but just not right now. Instead, I thought I’d pull out one little piece of the adventure and share that for today. And, since it’s my handsome hubby’s birthday I’ll tell you about what I think his favorite impulse buy of the weekend was.
Highway 237 is a junk lover, antique finder’s dream. It’s close to 20 miles of non-stop fun but I didn’t picture there would be as many great places to stop as there was. The first morning as we started on Hwy 237 we immediately came to a collection of tents that were slam full of goodness pouring out of them. I was determined to make it into Round Top because I had no idea what we could be missing… so we kept driving. The next morning, we were about to fly past that place again when Jon spotted something in the yard and made an executive decision to pull an immediate U-turn. And, I’m so glad we did…such an awesome stop.
Once we wandered a bit Jon found what had caused him to make the turn about…an old car. More specifically, the front piece of an old car. We both had no clue what it was and honestly either did the lady in the booth who was selling a few pieces for a friend who dropped them off and split. It had a tag and was priced at $300. We were all talking about how cool it was and what a person could do with a car front when without even a prompt she said, “I’ll take $225 for it.” She barely had the words out of her mouth and Jon announced, “sold!” I told him I thought his next move probably should have been something like, “$200 and you got a deal.” But no, not what happened. My usual wheeler-dealer fella was caught so surprised by the lower than expected price that he just went for it. It was the right move. I’m a girl who likes a deal, but someone took the time to find that thing, cut it out, and haul it to Round Top, so I’m happy to pay them for that great work.
Speaking of those good folks, one of the best parts of the weekend was talking to all the vendors. The lady we purchased the car from was a Texan from Waco. But, funny enough, I think she was the old Texan we met. Tons of the vendors were from Florida and Atlanta…a fact which made me think/say a few times, “we drove all this way to buy from Floridians?” The pilgrimage was well worth it though. We met a ton of great people and enjoyed hearing about their businesses.
Another vendor (from Ocala BTW) was helping us load the truck when he became amused with the car find. Although Jon had found the Chevrolet marking on the bottom we didn’t know much more than that. He seemed to think it was the front of a car from around 1953 or 1954…I guess we have some homework to do.
Now what to do with this thing. We have it narrowed down to headboard, desk, or TV stand…I need to Pintrest. I know Jon is itching to restore the whole piece and make it shiny and new. Of course, I would prefer to coat the whole thing with clear poly and let it stay rusty forever. Jon suggested a compromise of keeping the old paint, but making the chrome new again…I think that could be a cool idea. Almost always we tend to look at the same object/task/challenge and come up with very opposite solutions. Lots of times we are on the same page about the finished outcome, just not the steps to get there. In fact, I noticed the other day when we park in a spot we both walk the opposite direction to find each other. I promise, if I head to the back of the car he is in the front and vice versa. So, I implemented a new strategy which is to walk in the opposite direction of what come naturally…it’s worked like five times now. Maybe old and chippy isn’t the answer…maybe shiny and new isn’t the answer…maybe it’s somewhere in between, a little bit of both. My rust colored paint and his spit polished chrome. Maybe that’s our magic…our differences. And maybe with a little more compromise we can get something better together than what we’d have individually. Wow, that just got a little cheesy fast. But, I think it’s true. Learning to compromise and happy (maybe not always right) is when we are at our best.
So, long story short…Round Top is my happy place. We found great deals and things to incorporate into our home (besides a rusty car front) and more importantly we had an absolute blast doing it. I don’t think it will be our last time making that drive.
Happy birthday love! #youandme
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