Road Dog Diaries

Yes, I still have heartburn from the worlds strongest cold brew😂 coffee always gives massive indigestion. But it was so funny to arrive on set and see my friends (Acey Slades) coffee in our crafty area! I had to drink it in honor of him.

It definitely gave me the energy I needed to get through the day🎉

Yesterday’s pick was another incredible experience and today I get to rehash the history of my picks while we do our stand ups.

“Stand ups” are interviews we do after the pick to better explain the history and connection we have to items we have chosen to pick. I love stand up days because I get to communicate more with my crew and often times learn even more about the picked items as we each research each item separately then come together to compare notes and add info to the conversation.

We normally find a big empty field as far away from noises as possible because if we end up next to a highway or air space, inevitably we end up with major frustrations on the side of audio. There has been so many days where I have had to say the same sentence 10 times just to get one take because planes are flying overhead or you can hear a train in the distance or somebody’s muffler is in a terminal state on the highway.

While there certainly can be frustrations on pick up day, it’s usually a pretty short, calm day in comparison to a pick where my day starts at roughly 5 AM preparing my notes and my face for television. Usually we arrive on set anywhere from 8 to 9 AM and pick until lunchtime about noon or 1 PM, sometimes we stop down for an hour lunch, sometimes we do a working lunch if the pick is too good. As soon as we’re done eating we usually hop right back into the pick because were too excited about what’s inside to leave it alone for too long.

Lunchtime is a great opportunity to google every detail I possibly can about the items I’m picking so I can make sure that I understand the history correctly.

It’s been really important to me throughout this trip that Robbie explain items that I don’t understand, he’s done an excellent job doing that. I know that the network would like to see me as the consummate expert but in reality, an expert always derives their knowledge from somewhere. Often times that knowledge comes from Mike or Robbie, when they don’t have the answer I Google it, honestly I Google it even if they tell me the answer just to make sure they’re right, LOL! They usually are!

There’s something magical to the art of learning from an expert in that field. I can Google all day long but there’s an emotional connection that happens when I speak with Mike and Robbie as I watch their eyes glisten like eight-year-old boys while they regale me with stories of flat heads, Panhead ‘s, carburetors, engine blocks, hood ornaments, oil cans etc. Google is fantastic and Has led me to a lot of incredible articles but there’s nothing like hearing it from an excited expert.

Robbie has been fantastic about‘s taking time to break down information and show me the how and why when I’m asking. Not only does he offer up the education but he does it in a fatherly way, making sure that I understand what he saying, looking me in the eye, adding the emotional elements to the journey which is important because I come from a different perspective and may not have experienced the emotional connection he has had with an item of the past. It’s all about perspective.

Normally we wrap a pick by sundown as it becomes exceedingly difficult to film at night, after we wrap the pic, we interview the contributor or householder that we have just picked to talk to them about their experience with their collection and what it meant to them personally and the connections they have had with the items they have just sold us.

Mike always says that being a good historian means telling the story with heart and passing along these pieces to people who will deeply appreciate them and keep their stories circulating. You may take an item from one home that is loved into the ground and put it in another position where it’s loved in a different and sometimes, more meaningful way, highlighted in a home or shelved in a museum, where children and adults alike can learn from these juicy bits of history that are begging to tell us their secrets.