Our New Favorite Find & Towns We Never Heard Of

It's hot. No, not just hot, but HOT! Too hot for much picking since you can't pick in the dark, so we made a quick trip in "our own backyard" - towns we had never explored or in some cases even heard of within an hour of home. Our venture into unknown picking territory rewarded us with our new favorite find - 

this large paint by number of a pair of cockatoos in a bright green frame!

So here we were off of the interstate and less than an hour from home in Savannah, GA. 

We went to Pembroke, Daisy, Claxton, Collins, Manassas, 
Bellville & Cobbtown. Claxton was the largest town we saw and we 
certainly knew it from Claxton Fruitcake fame. 

Here are a few fun shots of picking (way) off the beaten path.

How's this for multi-tasking? Mailbox, art, birdfeeder AND For Sale sign.

Art is in the eye of the beholder. Boots, 2 painted tree trunks and Voila! Half of a man...

We loved this sign and it's message.

This was a great place for lunch in Claxton with a very clever parking sign post.

The kind of shop that we dream about.

Two beds of artificial flowers. A solution to the drought?

The final haul:

Fabulous Cockatoo Paint By Number

1970 Better Homes Holiday Cookbook

Plastic Blender Cover

The Fred Astaire Dance Book

Balloon Inflato-Pump

Hostess Anne Plastic Placecard Holders

All in all, it was a good day for the picking sisters!

What We DID NOT Do in North Carolina

Jeri couldn't resist sharing her ice cream with this cute little bear.

Downtown Hendersonville is Bear Country!

The Picking Sisters went to Western North Carolina for a few days to the goat farm in Flat Rock, to see the Smoky Mountains, breathe cool air (in the 60's) and, of course, pick. OK, the goat farm is actually the cottages at Highland Lake where they have a few goats, geese and a stunning vegetable garden. The food everywhere we went was local or organic and yummy. Breathtaking views of the mountains, stunning waterfalls, great shopping, divine flowers blooming everywhere. But the picking? Not so much. 

The goats were glad to see us!

We called this goat Grandpa because of his long white beard.

Jeri herding goats.

This post is about we DIDN'T do. For example, we picked in Etowah, Hendersonville, Asheville, Lake Lure, Chimney Rock, Columbus, Flat Rock, Bat Cave (yes, it's a real place), Brevard, NC and Lexington, SC.  We just didn't find a lot of our kind of stuff.


 This is the entire haul!

Here are a few shots from Bat Cave. We LOVED the scarecrows!

What else did we NOT do? We went to Chimney Rock State Park, but didn't go up to Chimney Rock because the elevator was out of order. We went to the Pisgah Forest Equestrian Center, but didn't ride - no time. We went to Sliding Rock, but didn't slide down - no bathing suits. We went to the climbing wall in downtown Asheville, but didn't climb - too chicken. All on our list for next time (except for that climbing wall).

 Weren't we smart to climb down these rocks in flip-flops to put our feet in the stream?

We took these of ourselves - maybe we should have figured out the self-timer 

before we went away?

We loved this sign in an Asheville shop window.

These monkeys were just sitting on a coach in an Asheville yarn shop.

This place in Asheville is called the Tobacco Barn and it's huge. Here are some photos of the place, fun signs and a few grand things we did not buy. 

 

Here's the front of a Coke cooler hanging from the ceiling. Cool wall art, no?

One final stop at the US 1 Flea Market  in South Carolina on the way home. Aren't these the

 best stripper shoes ever?

We guess this sign is for the people who are wondering where they are?

The 69th Annual Hampton County, South Carolina Watermelon Festival!

You know how much the picking sisters love their small town festivals - and this was one of the best! The parade ran through Varnville, SC (near Brunson, Estill, Yemassee and Hampton) and included trucks, cars, golf carts, floats, horses and gocarts. Lots of our favorite kinds of folks marched or rode - Veterans, Boy Scouts, Teachers, Firemen, Marines, Shriners and of course, Ronald McDonald. There were beauty queens and little misses from local to national wearing crowns and sashes all representing watermelon festivals. It was a day of hometown pride and American traditions. Watermelon colors and designs were everywhere and it was HOT, HOT, HOT.

Antique tractors were a hit. Here's a Clemson fan and his tractor!

Silly Shriners are always forgiven their antics for the amazing

charity work that they do!

A Rolls Royce Golf Cart?

Remember Joe Wilson's outburst in Congress?

After the parade lunch and a little picking was in order.

Jeri's favorite two signs of the day: