I can’t remember my first trip to Brownville for their flea market, most likely 15 years or more ago. I took Mom; she loved to go to garage sales and flea markets. Even if she didn’t buy a thing she loved to look and talk to people. Phil and I have made it an annual outing for us and our friends Marsha and Randy. We caravan down, eat breakfast then go to the flea market.
Today we met up in Rockport MO for breakfast. I got a table and Phil waited excitedly for them. Marsha and he used to work together and he loves her like a big sister. We waited and talked drinking our coffee. It seemed like the food was taking a very long time. We asked for more coffee and talked more. After another 15 minutes I again asked the waitress for more coffee, and waited for another 15 minutes or so. People were stacking up; waiting to be seated and another person came in to seat them. We heard the two of them talking, our waitress told the second person she had no idea when any food would be ready to be served. We had been waiting for about 45 minutes at that time so we decided we would go across the street to McDonalds. It wasn’t the nice breakfast we had envisioned, but it was just fine.
The forecast for today said we would have spotty showers. It started raining around 6 AM, and didn’t stop during the entire drive down to Brownville. We talked to some people at the restaurant who said they had just come from Brownville and all the vendors were shut down, and the streets were vacant. Great! We drove 60 miles to have breakfast at McDonald’s? The rain was stopping by the time we finished breakfast and potty breaks so we drove into Brownville. The town was hopping with tons of people already. We saw familiar faces and did some people watching. Phil met another woman named Joann … he was calling out to me and she answered. We saw her later in the day and as she was walking by she said “Oh there are Phil and Joann”. We had to stop and chat for a bit again and she had to show us what she bought for her son. We ran into an old friend of mine from Weeping Water. He had his own booth there this year. There was a man there that looked so much like Phil it was amazing. He was older, so I got a glimpse of what he will look like in 10 or 15 years. Every time I glanced over and saw him, for a millisecond I would think it was Phil. (We lost each other for a really long time this morning). We stopped at the winery for a potty break and did the wind testing. For only $1 I was able to test 2 sips of wine to see what I like best. Turns out, neither!
We had made it to almost every area when the wind kicked up and started to look like another downpour and Phils legs were giving out. I offered to go get the car and had a wonderful fast walk up hill …. Since I skipped the gym it was good for me. We said our good byes to Marsha and Randy and started on our journey home. Phil does not like to drive on the interstate. He likes to drive country roads and see things he has not experienced. Today we drove back into Missouri and over to Tarkio then north. We drove for miles without seeing another person. It was a scenic drive home. I think if we did that same drive in about 4 weeks it would be much more colorful with the autumn leaves.
It was a nice day. We didn’t spend much money, or come home with many treasures. Spending time with people you care for is worth so much more than anything tangible you bring home to dust off!
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