Many miles down the road

Back from Pate with all digits in tact and a few bucks less.  

Nice weekend.  LOTS of walking.  Picked over a ton of junk.  Ate way too much.  Drank a fair amount of beer.  Found a few bargains.  Brought home more junk.  No new toys/projects (yet). 

It's been a while but another Pate is in the books.  

My dogs are tired.  My quads were sorer more than when I ran the half marathon in January.  I think I almost hiked 20-30 miles over the two days, but that may be the beer talking.  As ShadowRun astutely pointed out, Pate is much like a live version of American Pickers.  Except that Mike and Frank would never do a swap meet (prices too high, not enough meat on the bones for them).  A swap meet like Pate is a cross between a yard sale, garage sale, flea market, and an antique roadshow with a definite leaning towards car stuff.  You see all sorts of junk at one of these swap meets.  People come primarily looking for car parts (that special widget you need for your restoration project) or something special.  There are a lot of vendors who can sell you an entire car (or the partst to make one).  I saw lots of OEM parts dealers - places where you can buy repo parts for your '39 Ford or '68 Mustang.  I prefer exploring the nooks and crannies of a meet - plowing into a trailer full of junk and crap to find that one gem or just that one part I need.  I spotted a lot of places that would sell me the exact part I needed for Maria, but I wanted original stuff.  I found one guy that had a $1.00 bucket full of Mustang stuff.  Need a new power steering unit?  Found several rebuilds for reasonable $$.  Almost bought a new carpet set for the trunk but my cheapa$$ gene kicked in and I passed on the deal.  

All modes of transportation

Check out the dog.

Supposedly off of the British Consulate in Mexico (so he says).  
Was more interested in the priced  being asked.  

Yea.  Right.

And, of course, you can always find a few cars at these things.

Old classics

New classics

Always looking for new shoes for Maria

Smokey and the Bandit

Classic Boattail Vet

And, of course, for those looking for the next deal for your back yard or bar:  

At Pate, you can find pretty anything.  

Danger!

Including the kitchen sink...

Once we finally pulled it in, we chose to pack it in for the night and leave early in the morning.  Given the storm front that parked over Houston for the past few days. we chose wisely to enjoy a cool, sunny evening with a good glass of scotch while pondering our treasures for the day.  

Good road trip.  Spent two hard days with my brother on the road.  I've got to unlearn a few new tricks.  Learned how not to fix a hot water heater and not to park a trailer (have the bruises to show).  One good outcome is that I finally got to push through my latest read (Grisham) so I can focus upon my next conquest (Treadwell).  I might actually get to read it before my next big road trip across the pond.