Observations From The #ScottSentMe2019 Winner (Part 2 of 3)

We continue from last week’s blog post which is a recap of observations from the winner of the #ScottSentMe2019 challenge.

We left home on October 12 and the plan was to stop at a few shops that were open in CT on Sunday, October 13.  I was still a bit hesitant, but figured Colchester Mill Fabrics would make a good first stop as I had already seen postings from there and I knew they were supporting the challenge.  Cheryl, the owner, gave us a very warm greeting as soon as we entered… and started telling us about the store… and I think I was rude and missed half of it after I spotted Kaffe and Brandon about 30 feet from me!  Not their fabric… the actual people!  They were in her store picking out fabric for a workshop… and she still made time to chat with us.  Great lady, great store and a great start to the challenge! (Sidebar from Scott….she probably missed crossing paths with me by a day). 

We spent the next couple of days in PA and MD and then BHE got the first of his pity days in Washington.  We visited 3 of the Smithsonian Museums, Arlington, Congress, the Zoo – and oddly enough, when I checked my list, I had already visited 29 stores.  From there, we headed west through OH with a stop at the Pro Football Hall of Fame followed by IN and IL with a stop at the Abraham Lincoln Museum.   Then on to Missouri Star – my reason for wanting to go to Missouri!   We did their warehouse tour (which was really interesting) and a store tour. BHE visited the JC Penney Museum while I shopped.

After we left Missouri Star, we drove south to Branson for a quick visit, then off to Graceland, followed by the National Quilt Museum in Paducah and then on to Nashville. By then, it was the end of October and we had visited 92 stores!  And I had thought 46 was outrageous.  When we set out, I think we both figured that if we made it to 80 that we would stand a good chance at winning something, but this year’s challenge was a whole new ball game.  Many people were taking the 2019 challenge seriously and visiting way more stores than last year!   We still had 10 days before we had to be in FL and of course the drive back up the Eastern seaboard on the way home so I wasn’t ready to admit defeat yet! 

After Nashville, we toured the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg and then a pity stop in Huntsville, AL – The US Space & Rocket Center…. not my thing!  This was a true pity stop.  Want to know the best thing about these pity stops?  They were all open on Sundays and Mondays when the quilt shops were closed!  Talk about a win-win!   Heading east out of Huntsville we stopped in Pigeon Forge and the beautiful Smoky Mountains then through TN, NC, SC and eventually making it to FL.  By the time we entered FL, we had 120 visits. 

We seemed to settle into a rhythm of driving 5 or 6 hours a day and visiting 6 or 7 stores a day.  We used Needle Travel and Quilting Hub to plan a couple of days in advance, but we wanted to leave extra time throughout to enjoy the vacation too.  Some days, the routes had all the driving in the morning and all the stores grouped near each other in the afternoon. On other days, we didn’t drive for more than an hour at a time without making a stop.  120 sounded like a huge number, way more than I ever dreamed we would visit… and BHE still wasn’t complaining… at all!  Somewhere along the route, he had taken over the store finding, route planning and visit tracking. 

I couldn’t get over the number of shops in PA and OH, but nothing compared to the number of stores in FL!  Between November 6 and 9, we visited 40 stores!  And for every store we visited, I’m sure we skipped two!  If anyone reading this lives in FL or can visit next fall… take the challenge!  Seriously!.

We spent the next two wonderful weeks on Madeira Beach … doing nothing.  We had agreed it would be vacation and we would not visit any stores (except for 5 on a rainy day!).  Those two weeks flew by and we started our more direct route home on Nov 23.  My visit count was around 160 and there seemed to be a small group of us hanging very close in numbers.  It was time to route through some shop dense areas on the east coast!  We stopped at another 50 stores on the way home.  A total of 213 stores!  The craziest part is that it was super fun and because it was fun it didn’t seem like that many stops.

To be continued next week…. 

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