Rural New York/Pennsylvania Weekend

This past weekend Stef and I decided to take a small trip to Northern PA to attend a cataloged auction in Rural NY.  I've been to my share of Estate sales and Antiques Auctions, but I have never been to a cataloged sale. This particular sale had some amazing items from wooden octagonal bolt bins, to pretty much an entire 1800's General Store.  It really was an amazing group of items that I felt my customers would love to have.

Towing Little Red!

So, we packed up the kid and the dogs, hooked up Little Red (our trailer) and started to NY from Baltimore at 6pm. Google Maps gave us a 5.5 hour travel time (not including stops). Our plan was to stop for dinner after we made it through Harrisburg, grab something quick and get back on the road.  Unfortunately, as we were crossing some railroad tracks in the center of Harrisburg, the trailer coupling popped off the hitch and the trailer crashed into the back of my Jeep (thankfully I always use the safety chains!).  After some initial panic (I left my spare tire at home, and I was afraid I popped a tire or worse, broke the axle) I realized that the coupler lock didn't engage.  So for the past hour and a half, the trailer was simply resting on the hitch and not secured in place.  I'm glad it didn't pop off while doing 75mph on the highway.  Talk about potential disaster!! 

I hooked the trailer back up (no damage to my Jeep or Little Red!!), and as luck would have it, we stopped in front of the Dodge City Steakhouse! You could smell the steaks searing from the road, so we decided to have a sit down meal instead.  We thought the restaurant sounded familiar, and we were right.  It appeared on an episode of Restaurant Impossible (we both saw the episode as well).  The food was decent (my steak was overcooked, but the owner came out and apologized and replaced it quickly with one that was perfect!) the atmosphere was pleasant, our waitress was a bit inexperienced, but it was overall a good experience.  We recommend it!

It's FREEZING outside, but she still wants to ride the mechanical horse!

Finishing up our dinner!

The family hopped into the Jeep (gave some steak scraps to the pups) and made our way to our hotel in Bradford, PA. (I was driving and it was dark, so there are no pictures of the drive up). We made it there around 1am, after stopping a few times for the dogs to stretch and get some air. Stef did a great job finding a hotel that was pet friendly and also included breakfast for $100 a night!

The next morning we made our way to the auction (which also happened to be Stef's FIRST auction). It was a beautiful, short drive through an Indian Reservation and Bear Country!!

We LOVED seeing these signs!

We made it to the auction and I figured prices would be high because the items were truly unique and the photos were fantastic!  But, when we had to park on the other side of a large corn field, I had a feeling it would be ridiculous.  To say the place was packed would be an understatement.  There was no room to check out the merchandise and more importantly, there was no place to sit!  I found the items I was interested in and inspected them, while Stef kept The Princess occupied.  The pieces were in perfect condition and I was really excited about the possibility of picking them up.

 It was about 35º outside so we brought the dogs and let them camp out in the back of the Jeep so we could walk them throughout the day (they would've freaked out in the hotel room anyway).  Unfortunately, the auction was pretty much a bust.  I picked up a cool oak cabinet and a pretty stained glass window for our kitchen.  The items were awesome, but the prices were out of my range to make a profit.  We left semi-empty handed but it was a learning experience.  I'm not sure if people were buying for themselves or maybe I just don't charge enough for the stuff I find, lol.

Standing in the back, trying to get some treasures at a good price!

Poor Old Sunni, 6 hours in the back of the Jeep.  

Scout getting some fresh air!

Downtown Bradford PA, the snow just starting to come down, from our Hotel Parking Lot.

Since it was dark when we dove up, we didn't get to see the amazing views of Northern PA.  Loved the mountains, forests, and rivers!  I had to stop and snap some pics.

A feeder into the Susquehanna, the road follows it from NY to Harrisburg.

Loved all the moss!

I'd love to have a small cabin right here.

And since we were in N. PA, I had to stop and snap some Oil Rig pics.  Oil was first discovered in PA in the mid 1800's and at one time, was the largest oil producing area in the world.  Unfortunately, we've used up much of the PA reserves (hence the hydraulic fracking debates) but there are pockets of oil production. The town we stayed in, Bradford PA, is the home of Zippo Lighters, Case Pocket Knives and Brad Penn Motor Oil.  Brad Penn Refinery is the oldest continuously operating lube oil refinery in the US and refines ONLY 100% PA crude oil.

Far away!

Close up.

All in all, the trip was a fun, short excursion with the family. We love to travel and are planning on more small trips in the States this summer.  Sure I didn't come home with the treasures I wanted, but sometimes, the journey is the reward, not the destination.

-Terry