Auctions and washing

I decided to go to a farm auction today. It started at 10 am but naturally I didn't get there until after noon. The stuff I am interested in usually sells towards the end of the auction.

The weather warmed up to the mid 40s F and the snow was melting making it muddy outside. Most of the auction was held in a quonset building. The auctioneer was still selling tools and miscellaneous junk. After taking a quick look around I went outside to look for posts and fencing material. I found a large pile of steel posts and two old metal-and-wire gates. I had a feeling they pulled the gates from somewhere out back as the gates looked to be very old. These types of gates aren't even made anymore.

Other than a half dozen old small-to-medium sized leg hold traps, that nothing else caught my eye. I decided not to stay until they sold the gates as I didn't feel like waiting that long on a overcast and damp day.

Outside the quonset a pickup sat with its doors open and the radio blasting the play-by-play of the Griz college football game down in Missoula. The radio was so loud you couldn't hear the auctioneer when outside the quonset.

Even though the auction was some miles away - across the Flathead River - I also saw a couple neighbors of mine at the auction. The attendees were all farmers and the like. It seemed as if most people were there to just socialize with their fellow farmers.

I decided to drive over to the other auction south of town. I hadn't planned on attending this auction but now I was in the auction mood. I tried to take some back roads to bypass Kalispell but I was on the wrong side of the river and ran into dead end after dead end. I had to return back to town and then go south.

By the time I found the second auction it was almost over. The few items left to sell had no interest to me and I quickly left. I saw some parts of the valley I haven't been down in many, many years so it wasn't a total waste of time.

I did end up driving on gravel roads. Muddy gravel roads. I had to wash my pickup after I got home. That's how muddy the roads were. 50 F is not the ideal time to hand wash one's vehicle.