Mesa sure takes up a big area. In fact, the whole Phoenix metro area just doesn't seem to stop. There are somewhere around 4.5 million people!
And they're spread out over a 60 mile (100 km) distance between Sun City West and Apache Junction. Nice place to visit, but spending any more than a few days here is too much for us.
You can see approximately where we are in Mesa. It's 60 miles (100 kms) of built up area from Sun City on the west side to Apache Junction on the east side.
We had to take highway 60 from Mesa towards Apache Junction and it's five lanes of traffic the whole way.
You mean I can't bring my howitzer to the flea market?
The flea market is only open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And it's a huge place...we were there for two hours and only saw about half of it. That was enough though. We had a good time exploring the different booths, but after two hours it all starts to look the same.
Mesa Swap Meet Flea Market.
Ruth, getting free samples from the popcorn man.
While your wife shops. Looks well used!
We did pick up a couple of things. I bought an Arizona dirt shirt t-shirt that was on sale for $2 because it had some faded bits from being a display model. Regular $19, so a good deal. And we bought a little LED nightlight reading lamp for when one of us wants to read after going to bed. $2 for that, and $2 for a magnifying glass just to keep handy because they keep making the writing on the maps smaller and smaller. Or it's our eyes. More than likely.
That was it, but we did enjoy wandering around.
From there, we met Star and took them out for lunch at the local pub. They had an enchilada special that was quite good and all four of us had it. That, and a couple of drinks!
Cheers!
The view that the bartender had of us. Jeff, Star, Ruth, Kevin.
We went back to Sherman and relaxed for the afternoon. I had a nap, and Ruth got caught up on computer stuff and then Ruth made a meatloaf for us all for dinner.
Not sure what's on the schedule for today. There's rain in the forecast and it's pretty overcast just now. Looks like tomorrow afternoon may start to clear so while we had planned on being here until Wednesday, we may head out tomorrow. We'll see what the weather's like.
Our Amazon deal of the day is an Acer 21" widescreen HD monitor...very cheap, and today only!
Was wondering if you would find some deals at the Mesa Market. It is huge and does start to look the same after a while. Now the Pub for lunch sounds wonderful and a nice cold beer, awesome!
ReplyDeleteWe found a few things we wanted but really didn't find any great deals. Flea markets aren't really our thing but it is fun to check them out every once in a while. I am glad that we have lots of self control because I can certainly see how some people could spend a lot of money there.
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ReplyDeleteThere is always something at those markets that you need!
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Yep, there is always something! Luckily our something didn't cost very much. ;-)
DeleteWe had a riot at that flea market. We contributed to the local economy also.
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly fun to walk around and see all the interesting "stuff" that they have there.
DeleteFlea Market is very interesting, isn't it? I remember that same crazy-hatted popcorn man too!!
ReplyDeleteIt is huge! There are some very interesting ideas there too. I am glad we don't have a house otherwise I think more money would have been spent there.
DeleteIt does look like a big one. For some reason they do not seem as much fun as they use to be. Maybe it is just us.
ReplyDeleteIt was a huge one. We don't normally go to flea markets but every once in a while it is fun to do it. I think part of the fun disappears when there really isn't anything that you need to buy at one. That's probably why we don't go to them very often, so I guess it isn't just you.
DeleteYup, that area around Phoenix doesn't appeal to us too much either.. 60 miles of end to end cities don't sound like fun. The never-ending streams of franchise chain stores with the same stuff you see in every city... naw... not for us. The flea market sounded fun, but like you after 2 hours, enough is enough. Steve liked the looks of your mugs of beer!
ReplyDeleteKarenInTheWoods and Steveio
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We totally agree with you Karen. It didn't help that the weather wasn't great either though because it did look like they had a great bike trail system and I know there was some great hiking right in the city itself. We definitely prefer to be out in the "wilds" than in city when we have the motorhome with us.
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