Bell Buckle, TN

Cassidy: Welcome to Bell Buckle, a.k.a my favorite town in the south (a close rival with Elkton, KY). Bell Buckle is basically my dream location, filled with fried biscuits and a toy store that I once purchased a display of Bill & Ted trading cards at for eight bucks. If you know me, you've probably heard me brag about the aforementioned toy joint: Alley 13. This town has glass bottled cokes, ice cream, chicken tenders, a furniture store with a PUG IN IT, and quite a few antique shops. PLUS, EVERYBODY WHO LIVES HERE IS EXTREMELY NICE. Bell Buckle is teensie tiny, but I will one day reside there in a house that is in walking distance from everything I'll ever need in life. Do you love Moon Pies? If you answered no to this question, leave my blog right now. If you answered yes, then Bell Buckle also hosts the annual RC-MOON PIE FESTIVAL! Caps lock because I'm obsessed.

Ben: A) I don't like Moon Pies. B) *Scroll down to the picture of Cassidy drinking soda. Cassidy said it was a small town. It was. I had to shoot all the photos with a 300mm lens. 

Cassidy: Phillips General Store is a must-do if you are going to go to Bell Buckle. 

Ben: Be careful. Within this building is a bathroom in which I casually walked in on an old man who forgot to lock the door. "Uuuauuggguuhhgguuhh," he moaned. 

Ben: *For a girl who is "obsessed" with RC-Moon Pie Festivals, I see neither a Moon Pie nor a RC Cola in her hands. In fact, I see a COCA-COLA bottle in Miss Cassidy Graves' hands. Do you trust her as the mayor of Bell Buckle? (Paid for by the National Coalition of Lunar Themed Snacks and Two-Lettered Sodas)

 Ben: These horse cookies were tasty, but be warned, they're not $1. The signs were confusing. I ended up having to spend not one, but TWO dollars. Prepare to be a big spender when it comes to buying horse cookies in Bell Buckle.

Cassidy: Actually, there was a sign RIGHT NEXT TO THE HORSE COOKIES that said they were two dollars. Ben likes to not read signs and then claim that he had to spend more money than he did. Let's not forget the great hamburger slider fiasco of 2014.

Ben: They don't know about that yet.

Cassidy: Oh, but they will. 

Cassidy: It's a universal truth that everything is better when fried. The restaurant in Bell Buckle serves up fried biscuits that come with apple butter, powdered sugar, and honey. 

Ben: I wouldn't call these biscuits, actually. Biscuits are something else. 

Cassidy: Hush.

 Cassidy: POWDERED SUGAR ALL DAY, EVERY DAY.

Ben: Ordered this puppy off the kid's menu. Good amount of food for a decent price. Get a good deal: Tell em' Ben Neal sent you.

Ben: And on the other side of the tracks.... Cassidy gambled all of her money away. No, literally on the other side of the train tracks.

Cassidy: Ben will not spend 87 cents on a large ICEE, but he once spent three dollars on one of these quarter coin machine thingies. Ben is addicted to gambling and we need to stage an intervention.

Ben: 89 cents was the ICEE. And the total comes to 97 cents. You get three cents change, which is pointless. You might as well throw those three pennies in the trash can. So it ends up being a full dollar. You could've bought a cheeseburger from McDonald's with that. Or you could just deny that urge one hundred times and save $100. Send that money to me using SnapCash. My SnapChat name is "ICEEYouSavedOneHundredDollarsOnICEES."

Cassidy: I bet everyone within a 100 mile radius could hear the gigantic sigh I just let out. 

Hartsville, TN - Antiques, Crafts, and Nuclear Power Plants

Cassidy: While driving to The Strawberry Patch barn sale in Hartsville, TN, the only thing I could think about was The Secret of Red Gate Farm (the Nancy Drew book). Maybe it's just the fact that I really want to be Nancy Drew and I find reasons to liken myself to her, but the drive to the SP seemed a lot like Nancy's drive to Red Gate Farm. Except it wasn't really like it at all, since it didn't storm and I didn't get stuck in the mud (and there was no mystery to solve). 

Ben: ...... Yeah.
Cassidy: My family and I are extremely into antiques and crafts, so barn sales are right up my alley. After hearing my mom rave about The Strawberry Patch the last time it happened, I really wanted to go check it out for the September event. There were lots of great vendors, and I snagged a pajama party suitcase while there. I also convinced my mom to buy a carnival chalkware figure that has red hair and a "C" written on her shirt (no pics, sadly).  

Here's a photo of the main barn, filled with different antique/craft vendors and a space for live music.

I got these sunglasses for a whopping DOLLAR at the DOLLAR TREE. CAPS LOCK BECAUSE I LOVE THE DOLLAR TREE. 

 Ben yawns at the lack of aliens. 

 

Caressing my dollar sunglasses. My big pink button says "MIDDLE AGE IS ALL THE RAGE" if you're wondering.

Why am I not living in this camper? That's what I want to know. Plus, it had an awesome interior. There were two other campers at this barn sale that were equally as adorable. 

Ben wants to note that he got these glasses for free at the movie theater he worked at, in spite of my dollar glasses. 

My two favorite words: Free refills.

Is that Matthew McConaughey? No, it's just Ben. 

My dream vehicle. It was the right color and everything.

On the left is me calmly taking a picture with a Volkswagen bus. On the right is how I feel on the inside. 

I can't describe to you how stoked I was to find this pajama party suitcase. PAJAMA. PARTY. SUITCASE. 

Notice something weird in the background? We did too. There's an abandoned site for what was going to be a nuclear power plant right next to where the barn sale was happening. This giant, creepy cooling tower makes for a bizarre background image to the gorgeous farmland we were on. Turns out, there are some weird rumors about this place (just check out what this website says: WEIRD ABANDONED POWER PLANT STORY). Although you can't get close to the property, we managed to get some pictures of the cooling tower.

Oh, yeah, that's not a cooling tower. We couldn't really get any more pictures of it since it's all blocked off. This is just Fluffy from Sesame Street, who for some reason really scares Ben. Ben says that he was traumatized as a child by this faceless trunk making it's loud elephant scream.