Redneck Date Night

The other day the Island King and I talked about needing to get everyone's bikes fixed so we can start riding together. All of the kids have worn their bikes slap out, my bike has a bent rim and the Island King doesn't have a bike at all so we planned to fix the bikes we have, buy him a new one and then start riding every afternoon. Well yesterday afternoon the Island King and I were out walking the dog and down the road a little was a giant pile of junk at the end of a driveway. In the middle of the pile was a really good bike that appeared to only need a seat. We decided to bring the bike home, replace the seat and give this one to the Oldest Island Boy because his is in the worst shape. As we were pulling the bike out of the pile we see another bike and the Island King tells me that it's got the same size rims as my bike and that we can replace my bent one with this one. As he's taking the rims off the second bike we see a third bike that's in bad shape but has a good seat so he takes the seat off and we come home with a bike, rims and a good seat. He set to work and within a couple of minutes the Oldest had himself a relatively new bike. The Island King changed the rims on my bike and they fit perfectly but as he was blowing my tire back up the tube popped. That's ok - I'll run get a new tube tomorrow and then my bike will be back in commission.
Later last night I ran up to the grocery store and on my way home I see big piles of junk at the end of a lot of driveways and I realize that Saturday must be amnesty day (twice a year our trash company will pick up anything you leave out instead of just what will fit in your can). I get closer to home and what do I see in one driveway? A kayak! We've really been wanting another kayak but they're so expensive that we just haven't bought one and have been sharing the one we have. I go on home and tell the Island King and suggest we go look at it. We drove back over to check it out. Turns out it had a huge crack in the bottom and the Island King wasn't sure it could be repaired so we decided to leave it. As we're getting back in the van a couple of guys in a truck stop to look at the kayak and the driver tells us he's been driving around town looking through the junk piles and he's gotten some really good stuff. It's about 10pm and we decide to drive around just a little and see what we might find. We drove up and down streets and there were piles of stuff everywhere. We found SO much stuff! And we talked to lots of other people who were out doing the same thing LOL These two chairs need seats and a paint job
This bike is in excellent condition and won't need any work at all. Island Girl has claimed this as her new bike.
This patio chair needs just a bit of touchup paint
This desk is for the Oldes Island Boy. He's been wanting his own desk for homeschool and this one just needs sanding and a new paint job.
This Big Wheel needs quite a bit of work but the boys have been wanting one and it'll be a good project for the Island King and the boys to work on together
This exercise bike is dual action so the handle bars move back and forth so you can work out the upper and lower parts of your body

We've been wanting to redo our Florida room and when I saw these tables I knew I had to have them LOL I'm going to strip them and then stain them a little lighter color. There is a coffee table and 2 matching end tables

This floor lamp is cast iron and the Island King is convinced it's an antique. I don't know about that but it will look really cool when I refurb it. It needs a globe and I'm hoping a regular light bulb will fit in it - the light thing is ceramic and does seem pretty old.
When we saw this bike the Island King started yelling "It's a Radio Flyer!" but it's not - it's a rusted Huffy LOL He fell in love with it though and says he's going to sand it and paint it red like a Radio Flyer. We saw many more bikes that were in much better shape but he says this is going to be his bike and it's going to be "so cool" LOL It has a lot of rust but is not rusted through and I think it will look good when he's finished.

We kept finding stuff and bringing loads home and going back to look for more and at one point the Island Girl looks outside at the pile of stuff we've collected and says "I swear ya'll turn more redneck every day!" She went on to tell us that when her friend's parents go out on a Friday night they go to dinner or out for drinks but that her parents drive around town collecting other people's trash LOL
We also found a big, brand new, still in the package, roll of indoor/outdoor carpet (for the boat), a big yellow rubbermaid trash can (also for the boat), several old picture frames (with the glass still intact) and a big box full of throw rugs. The rugs all still had their price tags on them and I couldn't believe they were to be thrown out so I told the Island King that he needed to smell them because something was probably wrong with them LOL He said they smelled fine and while we were loading the car the woman who lives in the house walked out. She said she bought the rugs a while back but got them home and they didn't match her colors so she threw them out. Who throws $160 worth of throw rugs away? If they didn't match why wouldn't you return them? Oh well - they're mine now LOL
We drove up and down just about every street in town and I swear I had so much fun. We got back with our last load about 1:30am and when we pulled into the driveway the Island King started laughing and saying that our driveway looks like Fred Sandford's junk yard LOL
There is a lot of junk but it's all stuff that with a little TLC can be rehabbed into something we like or can use. It was like going to yard sales only it was the middle of the night and everything was free! There were still people out poking through the piles when we quit for the night so at least we weren't the only crazy ones out last night LOL And yes, Island Girl, it was a Redneck Date Night but we thoroughly enjoyed it - and we all have bikes now!