Jazz Fest Trip - Day 9

Today was a long travel day.

We left Canton, TX about 7:45 am under cloudy skies.  The trip east along I-20 was long and uneventful and we arrived in Meridian, MS around 4:00 pm.  The skies cleared as we headed east and and it was sunny when we got here.

Our high school friends Paula and Dallas Smith who live in Alexandria, AL (about 2 1/2 hours NE of here), had already arrived in their RV.  After talking awhile, we went out to dinner at the local Cracker Barrel restaurant nearby and had a very good Southern "comfort food" dinner. 

We are going out to breakfast together tomorrow morning (Cracker Barrel again) and then will drive to Monroeville, AL to see the local production of "To Kill A Mockingbird".  It will take about 2:30 hrs to drive there in the VW.  The show starts at 5:00 pm tomorrow evening and we will drive back to the RV park in Meridian after the show is over.  It will be long day, but we will have a short drive to New Orleans on Monday.

The RV park is nothing special, but it has all the amenities we need and is close to the road we need to take to Monroeville. Also, we will not be spending a lot of time there and it is not very expensive.

Jazz Fest Trip - Day 8

Despite our best intentions, we didn't leave the RV park for the flea market until about 9:30 am. 

We drove the VW over to a parking area near one of the market gates and explored areas we missed yesterday.  We saw a lot of the same stuff, but did see a few interesting things along the way.  We haven't made any big purchases and have successfully resisted the urge to buy the buffalo head or some WW II ammo cans and deactivated (we assume) hand grenades.

After lunch on the grounds we felt we had seen as much as we wanted to (almost all of it) and decided to visit one of the peripheral, yet associated, trade fair venues nearby.  The area was definitely the "minor leagues" of local flea market activity and we didn't see anything there we had not already seen at the larger venue.

We did visit "Dog Alley" however.  This is a nearby trade fair area of town that deals in the buying and selling of animals - mostly puppies but there were also birds, chickens, rabbits and other small animals.  There were also some really low-end flea market vendors and not-so-clean-looking food booths.

Our flea market fun meter finally pegged out around 3:00 pm and after a short trip to the grocery store, we returned to the RV to get ready for an early morning departure and a long drive to Meridian, MS,  our next stop on the journey. 

Jazz Fest Trip - Day 7

After sleeping in a little, we left for the flea market at 10:00 AM on the shuttle provided by the RV park.  The park is less than 1/2 mile away but the shuttle is a nice service that is convenient and runs every hour to several of the gates.

Thursday, the first day of the market is sort of a precursor to the weekend event.  Some of the vendors are apparently not open, but it seemed to us there were plenty to go around.  Without exaggeration, there are at least a 1000 vendors here. You name it, its' for sale.  This is unquestionably, the "mother of all flea markets".  They have everything for sale from antiques to Mexican lawn art and everything in between.  We saw a buffalo head, a zebra skin, old tools, state fair stuff, plants, animals, clothing and a lot of things that most people would put out to the curb.  We didn't see any scalps for sale at the western booths, but then we didn't ask either.  An interesting observation:  the Texas county where the event is located (Van Zandt) is a dry county.  You cannot buy a beer anywhere in town, but you can buy a gun at the flea market and "open carry" most anywhere in Texas.  We also saw a lot of weapons for sale that sorta looked like semi-automatic weapons.  We  didn't see any Obama or anti-Bush stuff for sale either.  All the people we met were very friendly and most spoke with some sort of southern accent.

We had a nice lunch at the Baked Potatoe - a no-frills potato place on the grounds that loads-up baked potatoes with all kinds of toppings.

We got back to the RV about 5:30 PM and decided to do laundry before dinner.  Judy did that and we had a late dinner (flank steak  cooked outside on the grill).  The weather is perfect - not a cloud in the sky and mid-70's.  All the severe weather is to the NE and not anywhere close to where we are.

We are  going back tomorrow and see what we missed.  We are told Friday is the "official opening" and there will be more vendors (and crowds) than today.  We are in driving range of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and a lot of "day trippers" come here to shop on a regular basis.  The RV park is filling-up (they are sold out for the weekend) and it seems to be a meeting place for various groups. For example, there is a large contingent of LSU boosters from the region nearby who regularly get together and visit the flea market. 

We are going to get an early start tomorrow as the gates open at 8:00 am - that's the plan anyway.