Al wanted AIS at 8:30am...too bad he didn't inform Marilyn of that fact. No problem, we were on the road by 9am and there really was no rush. It was cloudy and threatening to rain in the morning and that threat followed us all the way to Wakonda, although we never got wet.
The 171 mile trip SE of Hamill was a nice change of pace...scenic through the Missouri River Valley and enough towns along the way to break the drive up. As we drove through these towns, some of them were getting ready for their big summer rodeos, tractor pulls and other various types of events. These communities work for months getting these events set up and hope that they are able to bring in spectators from around the area to enjoy what they have worked so hard on. We did leave some funds in these towns, but it was only at the convenience stores...we were on a mission...but the streets were lined with vehicles and they probably never even missed us.
We got to Wakonda an hour and a half early, which gave us plenty of time to go down the "need it...need it..got it" list of toy tractors. Al had already gone through the catalogue and the auction company had pictures of all the items on line, so he was pretty sure of exactly the items he wanted. If the price was right, of course. There was a lady sitting a couple of rows ahead of us with her list and when Marilyn saw her "palm pilot", she gave Al the elbow in the ribs to point it out to him. It was exactly like his book, right down to the worn out spine and duct tape holding it together!
Finally the auction started and 5 items in, Al got to bid and won his first item. There was a long gap before he got the next item...there were a lot of crazy bidders out there with too much money to spend. The big selling item was an old Oliver dealership sign that went for $7,000, give or take a couple hundred dollars. Yikes. Al had thought the big lighted Versatile sign would be nice, but hauling the 5ftx8ft thing posed a challenge and then...where would we put it? He didn't have to worry about it, somebody online bought it, another Versatile sign and the Big Roy brochures...for big bucks.
We stayed until all the toys had been sold, then Al thought he might like to get his hands on a Versatile Big Roy brochure...one page, that went for $140...which he didn't get. We had been sitting since 1pm and it was 5:30pm when we decided it was time to hit the road...we didn't need anything else. Al had gotten 10 items of the 20 or so that he had hoped to get, so he was happy with that.
We hadn't eaten since we had grabbed a snack at the first convenience store that we came upon in the morning, so we were looking for something substantial and we didn't want to take a chance and not find anything open for "real" food. It only meant a 30 mile detour...and what's a few extra miles for us...so we turned south and went into Yankton and decided on Bonanza. It wasn't. Boy, has that place changed. We thought we were going with a sure thing, something we were familiar with...we won't get fooled again.
That will be us tomorrow...maybe...
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