Garage Salers Gone Wild

Every year our community has a massive city-wide garage sale event. It is the event to eclipse all others- with bargain hunters bussed in from Wisconsin and all over the state. This year, there were over 700 'listed' sales in the directory (yes, they actually publish a directory that is available the night before for the hard core gotta-find-this-perfect-thing salers). If you think Bingo night is tough - that pales in comparison to the thrift-level in this town on a single day. Cute little old ladies will knock you over and eat you for lunch.... unless, (we found this year) you're with my Dad. They love him!!

In the midst of this, we have tradition. This is my annual date with my Dad. A day not for the faint of heart- but for the lion (and lioness) of salers- thrifty as all get out and snapping up deals. The day starts at Caribou or Starbucks for a Dad coffee, then we get underway... saling until we make our traditional stop at Hot Dog house #1 (they have a massive tent and grill dogs for sale- perfect idea!). Denise joined in the craze this year and we found a ton of things we didn't know we needed when we woke up that morning, including: barstools, hunting gear, cedar planters for the deck (Matt wasn't thrilled but hey, he didn't have to build them!), endless toys that multiply at night when left alone, and more. The big deal? Dad made us promise NOT TO LET HIM BUY ANY MORE FISHING POLES. From the photo you can see how well that went over.... :-)