The Garage Sale of Garage Sales

If you've ever wandered far enough into the Adirondack Mt.'s you would've found total isolation and serenity. The wilderness is vast and wide with countless small lakes and ponds for fishing or swimming and you can almost guarantee to be alone, other than the hawks flying above or the many inhabitants on the ground. The fed's deemed 6 million acres of this land a State Park in 1892. It is the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous U.S., however, more than half the land within is privately owned, including several villages and hamlets.

I first came here from South Fla. in 1978 and I'm still here. At first glimpse it owned me and I've managed to carve out a decent life up here, which is not easy, especially if you're not a local. It's been nearly 30 years since I rode a motorcycle into the southern basin of Lake George Village. I was a young blond haired blue eyed Dutch boy from western Mich. with the 1970's running through my blood and the local folk of this tiny town did not welcome the likes of me or anyone for that matter. But I stayed because I was a determined little bastard with attitude.

Just north is the small village of Warrensburg. 30 years ago this town was nothing but an old loggers place to buy supplies or drink up some hops in one of several pubs. You could practically homestead a piece of land back then... today a building lot will empty your wallet and the homes being built are mostly vacation homes. Within an hour from there you can reach Lake Placid, Whiteface Mt., Gore Mt,. Tupper Lake, Killington and other highly popular ski resorts.

A year after I landed here, 1979, some local "Burger's" set up a town wide garage sale. Within a couple of years this idea turned into what is now The Warrensburg Garage Sale - The World's Largest Garage Sale . And they are not kidding when they claim it to be the world's largest and an annual event every Sept.

We live south of there and yesterday I drove the 3 exits up interstate 87 only to find an otherwise empty exit ramp backed up with traffic out onto the expressway. Fortunately for me I know the area well and I simply continued north to the next tiny town of Chestertown, where I exited and came into Warrensburg from the north down a 2 lane road. I still found myself parking a mile north. I walked from there and was amazed at the vast number of people and vendors. I spent 3 hours and barely skimmed the surface. I found so many interesting things from pure junk to pure art. I did not walk out of there empty handed either. I purchased 2 diecast cars, a set of Tony Stewart bookends for Pattyjo and a Boston Redsox 2004 championship plaque for our 9 year old son. We are going back up there today to see what else we can find.

Below is one of the diecast... the 1999 GM Goodwrench Service Plus... very rare!! I paid only $40.00 for this piece and this pic is the only one I could find on the web. I also got a Dale Jarrett Action Elite #88 autographed 2005 Herbie Fully Loaded. One of 600... so rare that I cannot find a pic of it. And again paid only $40.00. These cars are both new in their boxes and the Dale car is enclosed in an acrylic case.

Nice crash fast at Kansas yesterday!! Hamlin at it again with this time Paul Menard. His "Tude" his going to land him him trouble yet. Carl blaming teammate Kenseth for his woes... but that final slam scared me a bit... it looked so much like Dale Sr.'s hit.

Happy Race Day!!