flea markets

Some nice fall Indiana festivals

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Our set up at Atlanta Earth Days

Our set up at Atlanta Earth Days

Indiana offers some really nice fall festivals that are suitable for the entire family. Depending upon your home location, many of these will be a great event for a one day outing.

Atlanta Earth Days has been a tradition in central Indiana for years. Entertainment and hundreds of craft and merchandise vendors set up all over town. You can find anything for sale at this exciting shopping event. Bands also perform, and there are tons of food vendors scattered throughout the town. Thousands of folsk take advantage of this iconic festival each year.

Atlanta is just minutes north of Indianapolis. Here is their website.

The Cataract Bean Festival is held the first weekend in October in the tiny town of Cataract, Indiana. Home to the Cataract Falls State Recreation Area, the site is perfect for a fun event. The Cataract Volunteer Fire Department puts on the event which is their fundraising project each year.

Over 700 pound of beans are cooked over open fires in huge cast iron kettles. Served with cornbread, the firefighters always sell out each day! In addition to local entertainment, one of the highlights is the huge open air market. Crafts and flea market vendors fill nearly every open spot in the town. In addition you’ll find the full range of food concessions set up. Here is the VFD website.

Fort Vallonia Days in Jackson County is also one of those huge festivals set in a tiny town. Each year this festival continues a decades long tradition of providing a wholesome family event. The normal crowd size reaches nearly 30,000 people! Running for two days, Saturday is the day of the large parade that is fun for kids of all ages.

Hundreds of vendors are set up selling all kinds of goods. You can find inexpensive new merchandise, great antiques and lots of beautiful handmade crafts. Food? You bet! There are all the usual food concession trailers scattered around the town. Here is the Fort Vallonia Days website.

Duchess Market Place

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Fishkill, New York is home to a vibrant shopping experience named the Duchess MarketPlace. The main buiding covers 100,000 square feet of indoor spaces occupied by a huge variety of vendors. A typical flea market, this indoor shopping offers just the kind of goods you come to know and love at a flea market. Open year round on Saturdays and Sundays, Duchess is a great place to browse.

During the months of March through December your treasure and bargain hunting is enhanced by the outdoor flea market. The entire south parking lot begins to fill with vendors every Saturday at first light. Some vendors set up tents and canopies while others simply set their wares out on tarps on the ground. Either way the sharp shopper can find all kinds of bargains during the good weather days. The outdoor spaces are filled with everything from new merchandise to what some would call garage sale junk.

The Duchess MarketPlace and outdoor flea market is easy to find. It is located on Route 9 south of I-84 Exit 13. The indooor market is open from 10 until 5 each Saturday and Sunday. The outdoor market opens early those days. Vendors begin setting up at the crack of dawn. Get there early for a chance at the best bargains!. More details are found on the Duchess MarketPlace website.

You never know what you’ll see

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This “modified” Class C was set up across from us at a show this summer. Wow. The fellow who drives this did all the artwork/painting himself. He is from Canada and sets up at shows all across the country. You might see him at a festival some time. His rig is hard to miss!

The whole rig is covered in paintings. The more you look, the more you see!

The whole rig is covered in paintings. The more you look, the more you see!

Shipshewana, Indiana in the heart of Amish country

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This display in front of an antique store aptly describes the Shipshewana area

This display in front of an antique store aptly describes the Shipshewana area

Shipshewana, Indiana is a tiny community in LaGrange County in the northeast corner of the state. The rural area is one of the largest communities of Amish families in the Midwest. The main roads all have extra wide shoulders to allow for safe travel for the horse drawn buggies and wagons.

The area is known for its many tourist attractions, including a huge flea market that is open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. In addition, there are many small shops in the town featuring hand made crafts, country decor items and antiques. As you might expect, you can take a horse drawn carriage ride or even enjoy a home made meal at one of the Amish homes who open there doors to visitors.

There are several nice RV parks in the area. All are reasonably priced. There is an RV park that is part of the flea market grounds. Enjoy a level, full hook up site that is just steps away from the market.

Restaurant, bakery and theater all in one!

Restaurant, bakery and theater all in one!

Shipshewana is truly a must see stop for anyone traveling in northern Indiana. Note that several RV companies have their assembly plants in this area. Couple a trip to see RV’s being built with an enjoyable and interesting trip to Shipshewana Amish country and you will have a trip to remember.

Lots of interesting shops to peruse.

Lots of interesting shops to visit.

Saw a lot of antique John Deere tractors today

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Today Sher and I finished setting up for the Flywheelers show that starts Wednesday. Final cleaning of some of the glassware and a couple of cabinets was needed. Then we finished putting the price tags on anything not already priced.

Later in the day friends of ours kindly let us borrow their golf cart. We took it for a tour of the grounds looking at lots of the other vendors and their displays.

On our route we passed a couple of areas that were filled with antique John Deere tractors. This show is featuring John Deere. I’m not really sure what that means, but there are a ton of the old green and yellow tractors on display. There are other different makes of antique macinery here, but the John Deere machines are everywhere.

An impressive line up of antique John Deere tractors

An impressive line up of antique John Deere tractors

An old Case threshing machine

An old Case threshing machine

CAM00244_resizedWe also drove through the Flywheeler’s Village. It will be very busy during the show, but today we could see all of the old fashioned looking buildings. There were many, many of these.

 

 

 

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Got propane, warmed up and then settled in for the week

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Going to see a lot of John Deere vintage tractors this week

Going to see a lot of John Deere vintage tractors this week

Today we went out to dump the black and grey water and get our propane tank filled at a Pilot Travel Center up the road. The cold weather around here means more RV’s using their furnaces. The tech at Pilot told me he has had their bulk propane tank filled three times in the past 48 hours.

This Forida weather is really strange. This morning it was very chilly: we had to fire up the space heater. This afternoon it felt hot, even though the temperature was only a bit above 70: we got the fans out.

Saw this cute little bird near our RV today

Saw this cute little bird near our RV today

We will now stay here until the show is over next Saturday. We are at the Florida Flywheelers Antique Engine  and Tractor show at Ft. Meade in central Florida. We were here for the show in January and decided to return for the February show. This show is featuring John Deere tractors. We have already seen John Deere green and yellow on everything, including the old John Deere tractors, of course.

Over 1700 vendors and exhibitors are expected by the start of the show Wednesday. This place has over 240 acres and is turning into a little city. Vendors and tractor exhibitors have been coming in all day.

 

Beautiful sunset to end the day

Beautiful sunset to end the day

Today we began to set up for the show

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Today we decided to set up all of our new tables and to begin to get our goods ready for the Florida Flywheelers

Getting the goods out and priced.

Getting the goods out and priced.

show that starts next week. This is the first time that we have set up the new to us frames and boards instead of our usual long and heavy tables. You can see the frames and boards in the photo clearly.

Part of the day’s work was to arrange the ‘tables’ the way we thought would provide the best trffic flow for our customers. Also we decided what things to put where. We are going to have the old tools on the tables next to the road. This will attract more attention from the men and get them to turn down our aisle in their golf carts or ATV’s or whatever they are driving. Then when they stop the ladies will see the necklaces on a seperate table. Beyond that will be the “Antique” type things including the old leather elephants, the brass vases from Senegal and the wooden round end table from Spain. We also have a lot of nice glassware for sale.

Anyway, we also put price tags on all the things we had bought at the auctions. It is always better if you have everything priced because a lot of people just won’t ask what your asking price is for something. How do we price our things? Well, often we know what things are going for, and if not, google is your friend. (So is eBay if you look at the sold listings.) We did pick up a nice wood carving at a recent auction. We didn’t really plan on getting it but it was put in a lot with an item we did want. Turns out the carving is by a very well known artist whose similar carvings have sold for as high as $450! Maybe this will be one of those great (and lucky) finds.

A long, busy but productive day. We even made our first sale of the show, before the show started. The porcelain enamel street sign from New Bridgeport, Mass. is gone from our inventory.

What a colorful macaw

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Pretty bird

Pretty bird

We were at the Renniger’s Flea Market in Mt. Dora, Florida when I saw a fellow walking down the aisle with what looked like a large and colorful stuffed parrot. Well, much to my surprise the stuffed bird spread its wings and let out a loud squawk.

The fellow said that the macaw parrot was still young and they actually had been feeding it baby bird formula. It will be a third again longer when full grown. It sure looked big to me. Yes, its wings had been clipped so it can’t fly. That, he said, keeps it from flying into the walls at his house, which it has done once and nearly hurt itself.