The mud sale veterans were prepared.

For starters, they rose early to find a good parking space.

They know that thousands, from all over, attend the Gordonville Fire Company & Ambulance annual mud sale.

The veterans also donned rubber boots to wade through the muck because a mud sale is well, muddy, and today's, the 39th annual, was no exception.

Oh, it's a sight to see.

Buggies, tractors and straw hats filled the horizon in this community about 10 miles east of Lancaster.

The sing-song of the auctioneers hummed in the air as would-be buyers poised to bid on everything from a gold pitch fork, lawn furniture and spreaders to shepherd's canes, horses and hay. Auctions for antiques and quilts and solid oak furniture took place indoors.

Rich Fankhauser of Mount Joy has been coming to the Gordonville mud sale for 25 years. He goes to all of the spring mud sales, and there are nearly a dozen in the county, ending with one at Rawlinsville Fire Company on April 7.

As he stood eating a sausage sandwich at about 9 a.m., one that he said was "delicious," he talked about what he loves about mud sales — beyond the deals on all the stuff.

It's the people, the good folk that come from all over, New York, New Jersey, Virginia.

Before dawn, he stopped to get a cup of coffee at McDonald's and met a gentleman from about an hour south of Washington.

"I said, 'you are going to the mud sale aren't you?' He followed me in, and I found him a good parking space," he said. "He was tickled pink."

Carl Brown of Honeybrook browsed among the tools, but wasn't sure what he wanted.

"If I find something that tickles my fancy, I buy it," Brown said. "That's if I can get it."

The deals, well, are pretty amazing.

Take the antique rooster lamp that sold for $14, or a solid oak rocking chair that went for a whole $32.

One year, Andrea Craidi-Keen of Gordonsville, nabbed a solid oak TV armoire for $150.

"That was the best thing ever," she said. This year, she was hoping to find a good deal on a kitchen table and hutch.

She's been to other sales before, but she brags that this one "is the biggest I've ever been to."

The Yancy family sure think so; that's why they they make the trek from Culpeper, Va.

The family already found some good deals by 8:45 a.m., just 15 minutes into the bidding.

Little Daniel Yancy, all of 6, wearing his camouflage jumpsuit, proudly held the wood shepherd's cane his daddy, Dale Sr., got for $5.

His brother, Dale Jr., 15, got a halter for his mule for a few dollars; it would normally cost up to $60, he said.

But don't worry if you missed this one. The Farmersville's mud sale is slated for Thursday and Penryn is next Saturday.

Fankhauser will be there.

He sells Amish-made wood furniture at them.

But he'll buy a few things, too, if something catches his eye. He enjoys seeing all of the people that a mud sale attracts.

"I think this is great," he said.

It's good for the fire companies and for the businesses that get a boost from all of the families who travel here from outside the area. And, it's just plain fun.

CONTACT US: rmeadows@LNPnews.com or 481-6025