A big blackbird
This guy was giving me the evil eye near the Mukilteo Lighthouse.
Evil eye crow
Author: Roadtirementvintage
The Route 127 yard sale
Our set up at the 127 yard sale
The Route 127 yard sale starts in Michigan and ends up in Alabama! This four
The site was lovely with trees and good roads.
day, 600 plus mile long event each August sees thousands of “yard sales” set up in the homes of ordinary folks, parking lots and just about anywhere you can find to set up a table or two or even a tarp on the ground. This event has become a huge tradition for thousands of bargain hunters and hopeful sellers as well.
We set up for the 127 at York Woods north of Greenville, Ohio. York Woods is the home of the Darke County Steam Tractor Association. The woods is really a nice camping area for the tractor events, and is perfect for the 127 yard sale. There were close to 100 vendors that set up in the woods, including several food concessions.
We set up here. It was the third event in as many weeks for us. This was a great sale for us. The cost was only $70 for seven nights of camping with water and electric and that included our vendor space rental.
What we sell at festivals
Necklaces displayed on a peg board and in packages on the table.
We help finance our full time RV lifestyle by selling at festivals, fairs, and sometimes
Single pegboard display and necklaces in white jewelry boxes
flea markets. The set-up costs including at least electric hook-ups give us not only very cheap camping but a chance to make some money by selling our wares.
What do we sell? The main product we sell are hand made glass necklaces. We got a great deal on 5000 units about a year and a half ago.( I won’t advertise our source here but contact me if you want details.) Necklaces like these have been around a while. Often our customers will comment that they have bought some at other places. This is fine, as we have a huge variety and they usually buy one or two more from us!
The price? We normally sell these for $5.00. At one large ten day festival we had two prices: $5 and $7 depending on the style. This two tiered pricing worked fairly well, though we have not used it at three or four day events.
We have also sold “cooling” neck and head bandannas with great success. You have to look for good wholesale pricing on these to be profitable. We also have had reasonable luck with cheap imported turquoise necklaces. Both these items we have found on Liquidation.com, an auction site where you can find about anything!
Another cheap camping festival
Our Hideout trailer on a level grassy area in back, sales canopy on the gravel path. We paid for 30′ of frontage.
The Annie Oakley Festival was over, and our next event was going to be two weeks away in the same location. Would we travel during that time frame or would we stay and camp at the site? I spoke with a fellow vendor who had a food concession trailer set up at the Annie Oakley Festival. He was going to another festival the following weekend that was very close. I got the phone number from him, called and got a spot reserved.
So off we went to the State Line Heritage Days in Union City Indiana and Ohio. Yes, the town was split by the state line! The great thing was that it was only 11 miles from our current location. Talk about saving on travel costs, this was ideal. We left on Monday and drove to Union City.
We had to drop the trailer a fair distance behind our canopy due to the ground level. This was not a real problem and there was plenty of room to park the truck. This place also had water in addition to 20AMP electric service. And the cost? Would you believe that the total cost for a 30′ space and seven nights of camping was only $60.00?
This was not a huge festival attendance wise, but we still sold a lot of our necklaces. With the low cost of the vendor space factored in this was a very profitable festival for us. We really enjoyed this festival and it is now on our calendar for next year.
Made some money at the Annie Oakley Festival
One EZ-UP display tent, the Hideout behind: we paid for one vendor spot.
Our first festival after we went full time in our RV was the Annie Oakley Festival
Showing the electric and water hook-ups. We could have set up another canopy behind the front one.
in Greenville Ohio. Planning on making some money, we had reserved a vendor spot at this event long before we knew when our house would sell. As it turned out, we closed on the sale of the house on a Tuesday and traveled right to the festival grounds that night! The festival ran Friday through Sunday.
The festival was held at the York Woods, home to an antique steam engine and tractor facility about 12 miles north of Greenville. We fit into one 20′ wide vendor spot because the depth allowed the trailer to be backed in with our canopy as the picture shows.
“Buffalo Bill Cody” put on quite a show and had a nice collection of artifacts on display.
We had a great time at this festival. The group running the show was terrific, and the folks who owned the property were also most accommodating.There were several live singing groups, bull whip demonstrations, and the Festival Queen was crowned due to her winning the shooting contest! There was even a fellow portraying Buffalo Bill at the festival.
Our sales were very good as our necklaces were well received. We only paid for booth rental and camping was a mere $10 a night. We will be going back next year, as this is one of our favorite festivals.
Paying for our full time RV travel
A 10 day festival with our old Starcraft hybrid. See the two EZ-UP shelters with drop down sides.
We make money as we travel by setting up as vendors at festivals and selling various items. Our first cross country trek as full timers took us from central Indiana to Seattle. This trip’s money came from the proceeds of a four week circuit of festivals we ran in Ohio and Indiana in July and August. We had just closed on the sale of our house, so this was our first time to really travel in our new Hideout travel trailer.
Sher wrote a post here describing how we got started by setting up at a flea market a couple of years ago. This was back when we had a tiny Starcraft hybrid trailer, but we still had a ball. We do it, you can too!
Set up, 30′, at a festival, Hideout behind, two shelters and an open space. This 4 day event had 20 AMP service. It cost $40 for 7 nights at the fairgrounds.
We soon discovered that we enjoyed festivals more than flea markets. Small town festivals are lots of fun and we began to see the same vendors at each event we went to.
Save a little propane
Propane is expensive! Any conservation will help the budget.
Lurking underneath that black (or white) plastic cover on the front of your home on wheels are the propane tanks. Conservative use of the LP will save money and allow for longer dry camping sessions. Here is a tip on saving a bit of that precious commodity used for cooking, heating and providing hot water for the shower.
We normally do not have our propane fired only hot water heater turned on. When Sher or I know that a shower is imminent we turn the heater on. If one of us is going to shower, we shut the heater off before showering. If we both are going to shower we shut the heater off before the second shower. The tank is full of hot water, enough for the shower. After you take your shower the hot water tank will fire up again, and if you are not going to use the additional hot water there is no need to heat up a tank of hot water that you won’t use!
Every little bit of conservation helps, and not heating water that you won’t use is one way to conserve.
Mountain driving and Ten Sleep Canyon in Wyoming
The deep gorge of the canyon, looking west from the Highway 16 turnoff.
Let me say that Sher and I were amazed at the scenery in Wyoming. Let me also say that the mountain driving in Wyoming on Highway 16 through the Big Horn Mountains was an experience in itself towing our travel trailer. Climbing up to and descending from the Powder River Pass (elevation 9677) was at times a white knuckle affair!
We were heading west from Buffalo, Wyoming on our way to Yellowstone National
Hello from Ten Sleep Canyon
Park. We had no idea what to expect, just that we knew we were in uncharted waters for a couple of Hoosiers from the flat farm lands of Indiana. This terrain we were seeing was awesome, but the road was a bit scary.
All of the feelings of “Did we really drive that steep curvy mountain road?” slipped away when we got to Ten Sleep Canyon, on the western side of the Big Horn Mountains.
The stark beauty of the cliffs of the canyon.
Cliffs that take your breath away.
This valley was formed by a glacier. The rocks of the canyon are almost vertical in many places, and this area is very popular for rock climbing. The pictures do not do the canyon justice.
Yellowstone is an adventure
This big fellow owned the road. Just ask him!
During our trip across country we were fortunate enough to stop for a couple of days in Yellowstone National Park. What an adventure it was for Sher and me as this was the first trip for both of us. We stayed at the only campground with hookups for RV’s.
Our adventure began before we got to the campground. As we were driving on a
Dragon’s Mouth geothermal pool.
road overlooking the Yellowstone Lake we saw traffic stopped. Thinking it might be an accident as the road was narrow with a guardrail on one side and a sheer rock cliff on the other. Well, then we saw the huge bison calmly walking down the road in the middle of the oncoming lane.
Bison in Hayden Valley
Our journey within the park took us to Hayden Valley, where we saw other bison. Here we also saw the Dragon’s Mouth and the Mud Volcano. The scenery was magnificent.
Our second day took us to West Thumb of the Yellowstone Lake. There were the famous wood boardwalks leading around the geothermal pools and geysers.
Since I got my undergraduate degree in geology Sher had to put up with my going ape over the geologist’s dream that is Yellowstone.
Steam from the geysers give an almost creepy feel to the scene.
Sher with West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake in the background
Geothermal hot springs pool
October is the time for pumpkin picking
This looked like a good means of travel!
Today at the north end of Snohomish Valley, Washington it was absolutely beautiful with clear skies and temps in the low 70’s. A perfect day to go to a U-pick pumpkin patch! Sher and I went with our daughter and son-in-law to Carleton Farms. They had a lot of October type stuff to see and do. This place has a year round farm market, and their pumpkin patch was huge. It probably covered at least five acres.
Hay ride to the pumpkin patch! (That is the kids zip line on the right.)
A covered wagon hay ride took us down to the pumpkin patch. I’ve never seen so many wheel barrows lined up for your use! The place had lots and lots of people there, mostly families with kids of all ages. It was fun watching the little ones with eyes light up in awe of the hundreds of pumpkins on the ground.
What a variety!
A tiny fraction of the pumpkin picking area available.
We spent about half an hour or so picking out the pumpkins we wanted. It was amazing that there were so many different sizes and shapes available all still on the vine. There were kid sized zip lines too.
One of the pumpkin cannons. The range of this cannon was very impressive!
At the top of the hill the farm had two pumpkin cannons set up. These compressed air powered cannons were hurling small pumpkins for hundreds of yards into a corn field. Some went farther into a nearby stream, creating quite the splash on impact. Kids were really enjoying firing these cannons and watching the pumpkins soar!
The Carleton Farm also had a corn maze and was preparing for haunted activities for Halloween. They have an extensive website listing all the October fun planned.
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