0070 - Goodwill Hunting

Today we were *going to* go to the castle. I was pretty excited about it. But wouldn't you know it... Florida thwarted us again. The castle is not open in July, August, September or on any Monday, ever. That made the castle a complete impossibility. Screw the castle. (that's just the disappointment talking)

Since we had a home on wheels, we never thought we'd need luggage ever again. Guess we were wrong. It pained me to think of paying retail for a suitcase, but grocery bags weren't exactly working for us, so we decided to check out some thrift stores. There are some deals to be found in a thrift stores... it's like a fossil dig, you have to work at it and you may end up disappointed in the end, or you could strike gold. In a town this size I wasn't hopeful, but I was bored and had nothing to lose.

We have nothing but time, people... nothing but time...

The first thrift store in town - there are three - actually had a nice duffel-type bag with wheels on it. Two bucks. Winner. And Mike found an almost complete backgammon set that was in excellent condition. Also two bucks. Plus there happened to be a pencil sharpener inside the bag with a reservoir for shavings... it was like opening a box of Cracker Jacks... maybe there is a hundred dollar bill tucked in one of the pockets... one can only hope.

Second thrift store had baby bunnies. Live bunnies. One black, one white with pink eyes. Adorable. Terrified. Fuzzy. If we were settled somewhere, we would have taken them, but alas... we are not.

Third thrift store... well, we didn't actually notice that one until we came home.

Turns out that the Goodwill in town is just a large donation center. They referred us to Arcadia, about twenty miles down the road. Since we had no other plans, we decided to kill some time.

We didn't expect to pack for 2-4 weeks, so our clothing options are a little lean... not to mention that we also thought we'd have been able to unpack our trailer from the move and switch out our wardrobes by now... so even the clothing we put in the 5'er was only supposed to be a stop-gap measure, it was not intended to get us by for several months. We've had to make adjustments.

Normally Goodwill is pretty hit or miss, and as far as their clothes are concerned... it's mostly crap... stuff that is worn out and sad looking with the rare gem. This place? Golden. We bought probably 40 pieces of clothing (mostly shirts) - nice stuff in great condition, plus a cast iron pan, and a wine bucket for a little over a hundred bucks. You can't even do that at Walmart. I'm beginning to really hate Walmart, but I digress. Four of those shirts were Indian Motorcycle t-shirts that Mike found, and those go for about $25/ea on eBay. He was giddy. And he knows which one I'm going to steal from him. He's psychotic like that. We were very happy with our haul.

We've decided that instead of being stuck in Florida while we wait for the 5'er to be ready... because Florida is nice, but we hate the humidity, we're tired of rain, and we didn't plan on residing here... we are going to slowly make our way toward Shreveport. Since we have a couple of weeks before the reunion, we're going to mosey over to the Charleston, SC area to visit with my aunt, uncle and cousin, step over to Augusta, GA to visit my aunt, and then slide on over to Mississippi to see my grandma, some aunts and a slew of cousins. Then, of course, on to Shreveport and probably to Beaumont as well. On the way back to Florida we will probably stop at Gulf Shores, there is supposedly a nice park in our network and we need a place to stay to break up the trip. Hopefully by then, the RV will be ready and we can resume our lives.