What Do You Call It?

If you are in the Phoenix-Mesa area of Arizona you call it either Recreational Shopping or a Swap Meet and it is held year-round on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In Fredericksburg we found Trade Days that is held the third weekend of every month. When we spent a winter in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas I think it was a flea market. Whatever you call it, it is a place where people set up booths to sell either new items or used. These places attract lots of shoppers.

At the Mesa Marketplace we see all new items for sale--plants, tools, clothing, decorative items. Several booths sell "As Seen on TV" goods. In Fredericksburg we saw some of the same lawn art and clothing. But there were lots of antiques and used items, as well.

The one name for these small markets that doesn't seem to fit is swap meet. I didn't see anybody willing to trade what I had to offer (other than cash) for what they had for sale.

Here is some of the yard art for sale.  Further down the same road we found another huge lot full of similar merchandise.

It seems you can use old bed springs to make lots of things.

Not sure if these items are for sale or we happened on a junk yard.

We both liked these two decorative trailers.

I thought Diana would enjoy all these rusty items.

Swap Meet or Flea Market?

Flea market, swap meet. Are they the same thing? I always thought so. I thought they were like garage or yard sales on steroids. But after spending several winters in Texas and Arizona, I have decided that swap meets are just a large setting for shopping mall kiosk sales, small commercial spaces for new and/or popular items. This week we attended a flea market that truly was like garage and yard sales. Where do you think we are?



That's right. Wisconsin, home of the cheeseheads, Green Bay Packers fans. And we weren't in a dusty field or open building. We were in a forest.



What is big in Wisconsin? Fishing. These are antique trolling motors.



Lots of fishing poles. And most of them don't look like fly rods.



There were even fishing pool covers.



Look at these fishing lures.



You would only find birch bark baskets in the north woods.



There were lots of old and antique snow shoes and skis.



Old wooden boxes



Fun signs





Beautiful flower arrangements



The usual cute dogs



Of course, there were some commercial booths--or people whose collections have gotten out of control.



After sauntering along for an hour or two in the flea market, we escaped the crowds and walked a couple of miles on a beautiful hike/bike trail in St. Germain.

We've Seen This Before

One of the major events here in the Amish Country of northeastern Indiana is the Shipshewana Flea Market, held each Tuesday and Wednesday. We wanted to be sure to see it. Tuesday, after we checked out our new RV, we drove a few miles to Shipshewana. The Flea Market is huge. The parking lot was filling quickly--until we looked and saw it could accommodate twice the number cars that had already parked. Standing in the center of the market at the intersection of two aisles, I took this photo in one direction. Each direction we looked, the booths stretched just as far as here.

During our winter stays in Mesa, Arizona, we always check out the Mesa Swap Meet once each year. We thought it was large. This flea market is two or three times larger. We expected to see lots of local crafts and products, as well as a good selection of vegetables. We weren't disappointed. There was a full aisle of produce, including lots of fall-blooming mums and apples. We don't see either of those products in Mesa in the winter.

Do you remember the lines from a song, "I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck"? I seem to remember learning that a peck was half a bushel. Tuesday, I bought 1/4 peck of apples. If you look closely at the baskets of apples above, the smallest is 1/4 peck, the mid size is 1/2 peck, and the larger baskets on the floor are each a peck. I will make the apples into a cobbler for Sunday dinner.

We saw homemade ice cream in freezers run by a gas engine.

And heavy jackets for children. Those are not sold in Mesa.

There was rusty stuff for Diana.

And a shop selling upholstery fabric.

There were also lots of knives, kitchen gadgets and tools, leather wallets and cell phone cases, t-shirts and socks and "As Seen On TV" products. Those are just like what we see in Mesa and I didn't take any pictures of them.