We ain't lyin'--go to YOUTUBE and look up "Harley and Annabelle"

Today is Monday, February 16, 2009

We left the comfort of our hotel and headed out into the world of tornadoes and falling space debris, heading toward Clinton, OK-- we had a hot tip from some lady in Amarillo TX, that the "antique pickens" were unbelievable along the old route 66 ( rt 40)-- a tertiary road :*)--from Erick to Clinton in Oklahoma ~

My boxes to be mailed have grown to 5 and they are really cramping our "treasure space" in the car--but there is NOWHERE to mail them--plus, it's President's Day-- everything's closed~

But today, we hurriedly crammed all our stuff into the car willy nilly so we could get an early, early start on all the exciting treasure troves along rt 66 that the dipwad Amarillo woman told us about--

We'd been on the road barely 10 minutes when we saw the sign welcoming us to ERICK--

Hot dog! that was fast! lets keep our eyeballs peeled for all the cute shops-- well, as we passed boarded up building after building, and barely 3 cars in the whole town, we spotted an old building on the right---loaded with old road signs, and junk all over the front porch~~~
"JACKPOT!", we were thinking.

Just as we got out of the car, we saw a woman with long white hair running toward us from across the side yard of the building and told us she would let us in--
--"WOW!!-- how lucky are WE that she is here to let us in this place!!!! YESSSSSSSSS!!! "

She opens the door and I stepped in first--- it was very dark and smelled of burning wood from a wood stove, and LOADED with stuff up to the rafters! I turned around and she was hugging Sue--- telling her that her name was ANNABELLE and what was hers?--UH OH--- then she comes over to me and gives me the same welcome---I'm not liking this too much. . . "CRAZY"Annabelle is more like it--"
I glance over at Sue and she is grinning from ear to ear--happy as a clam~~~

We very soon found out that this is NOT a store, but a THEATER, as Crazy Annabelle kept telling us-
I'm still not gettin' it~~~ I'm thinking-- "Oh this was an OLD theater, turned into an antiques store?"--

-As my eyes became accustomed to the dim light, I noticed there were hundreds and hundreds of coins strewn all over the old wood floors , and a few bowls on random tables with a 10 or 20 dollar bill inside---ok~~now I'm GETTIN' it ~~~
They do NOT sell stuff, they run a "THEATER"~~and they want M-O-N-E-Y~~


The door opens and in walks Cro Magnum man---HARLEY~~with an armful of wood for the stove--- he greets us the same as Crazy Annabelle, except compared to HIM, Annabelle is the very definition of sane--He is wearing overalls, has a full beard and long hair and is dripping "crazy"--He immediately goes into a well rehearsed dialog about all kinds of stuff~~ the government, the world, his life, what drugs he's taken, sold, planted, or bought, how he met ole Annabelle, who, what and how many groups have visited their "Theater"--all told without ever pausing or drawing a breath---just one 5 minute run-on sentence after another--I'm making sure I keep close to the door and make sure that they are NEVER between me and the door--

Sue, on the other hand. . .

. . .is still happy as can be and is enthusiastically asking them QUESTIONS ??? yikes!~~~

Ok, these people DEFINITELY have bodies in their freezer~~

I asked if I could take a picture and they all went into manic mode-- Sue jumped up and grabbed a tamborine, then jumped in between Crazy and Super Crazy, started kicking up her legs and whacking the tamborine on her ass--if I didn't know better, I might think Sue felt right at home here?
Now keep in mind how she was TERRIFIED in New Orleans just walking down Bourban Street???
Crazy Harley continues blabbering on, without so much as a comma between sentences--he leaves the room and goes somewhere outta sight, talking incessantly the whole time-- he returns with a Coke---more than likely he had to dig through frozen Eric, Lulu or Chester in the Frigidaire to get to that Coke~~~
I kept trying to "wrap it up" and get the Hell outta there, but Sue kept egging them on--Crazy Annabelle kept showing us dozens of pictures of people who had visited them, and Harley was firing papers at me about how the mayor of Erick was trying to make him get a parade permit 'cause too many people came into town to see them and created a traffic problem--HUH?? there were only 3 cars during the height of business on the day we were there--

Sue finally plopped $$ into their jar and we made our way outta there, but not before we had to give them a GOOD-BYE hug and agree to go around the block and look at their house-- we drove by their house (recognizable by the 7,000 road signs plastered all over every available surface)--- there was MORE junk in their yard than there was in the store, AND there was a FULL sized, TAXIDERMIED deer standing in the yard, amid all the clutter--
Happy Sue exclaimed that at least it looked better than the ceramic ones people put in their yards. .

As we rounded the corner by the store to get back onto the main road, they were standing there, waving to us--3 feet from our car---
Out of the corner of my eye, I think I saw Sue blowin' kisses to them!~~~

can you say, "DELIVERANCE?"

I sped up and burnt rubber all the way to the next town.-- I wonder if that lady in Amarillo was in on it?
Later~~
Mar