Swap Meet

Saturday we went shopping at the Mesa Marketplace Swap Meet. We were only looking for one thing--rubber tips for our hiking sticks. The swap meet is HUGE. It is about one block from a WalMart Supercenter and the swap meet has a larger parking lot and more cars. According to their web site, they have 1- 1/4 miles of covered shopping aisles and 1600 vendor booths. I don't really enjoy this kind of shopping, but it is such a staple of snowbird life here, it is a must at least once each winter. And we had been told we could find what we were looking for there.

Here is a view two directions from one intersection.





I think some vendors rent a booth on each aisle because we passed at least three booths with identical displays of kitchen gadgets and several look-alike booths of tools. As we walked from the truck I saw a sign for Avon products. This past summer at Lathrop State Park, there were lots of mosquitoes. Ah ha! Avon's Skin So Soft somehow repels mosquitoes. So our first stop was at the first Avon booth we passed. (We later saw one or two more. And the one I checked was charging more for what I bought in the first booth.)

I've seen lots of young people with blue or red or green painted hair. But this is the first senior citizen I've seen doing it--and pink!



Lots of Arizona's snowbirds are from Canada, so I wasn't surprised to see this sign.



But on a hot tub? Surely they are sold in Canada for less that this one would cost after you paid for the shipping.



We made a stop at a t-shirt shop and I bought an Arizona shirt to replace the night shirt I just threw away. In the next aisle, we came on a booth with wallets, calling card holders and plastic window inserts for photos and credit cards. Mine was falling apart, so I bought one.

Take a close look at this photo and you will see a teenager lying on her stomach, reading something. We think she came with her grandfather and was really bored.



Finally, we found the shop with rubber tips for our hiking sticks. But they came in three sizes and we weren't sure what we needed. So we will have to come back next weekend. But we did find small screen filters for sink drains. Since we don't have a garbage disposal, I can't put garbage down the drain, but small bits wash down when I am rinsing dishes. This item will really help our gray tank.

If you remember, I said I don't like this kind of shopping. And, we only came looking for one thing. But notice, we didn't buy that item and I bought 4 things. John didn't buy anything.