Saturday August 20th 2016

It was a hot day today. After a cloudy start, it turned into a full sunshine from the mid day on. The temperature topped out at about 98 degrees, but not to humid.

My great adventure for the day was to tour Jacksonville’s largest Flea and Farmers Market. It is located next door to the campground. It is held in barn like buildings that seem better suited to horses than people or fleas. There were three long barns of vendors. They had a few fans blowing to try and keep it comfortable, but they failed. It was hot in the buildings.

Pecan Park Flea and Farmers Market. Visible in the picture is about one third of three barns of stuff.

There were merchants selling a little bit of everything. There were several booths selling Chinese tools, a couple of vendors selling cell phone accessories and lots of leather goods. There were a few vendors of crafts and artsy style merchandise as well as a large vendor selling used books.

Perhaps the most unusual vendors were the groomers for people and pets. By that I mean, a barbershop, a hairdresser and a pet groomer all in separate booths. There were a couple of people waiting to get their hair cut and a dog was in the middle of a bath when I went past the booth. It would appear people plan to do things at the flea market.

Outside the barns are attractions for the non-shoppers. A course for All Terain Vehicles (ATVs) was out back that seem to be run similar to a go-cart track. Up front was an Alligator Zoo and a pub in a tent. Other food choices were scattered around the grounds and barns.

I was disappointed that the Farmers part of the market was lacking. First the fruit and produce was at the very back of the furthest barn from the entrance. There were only 3 or 4 vendors selling fruit and produce. One only sold peaches, but the price was high unless you wanted to by a bushel box. Four peaches were $3.50, 2 baskets or 8 peaches were $5.00, but the bushel box was $24.00. I don’t know how many peaches were in the box.

The biggest produce vendor had everything sized in plastic bowls. I just didn’t understand how they decided on the portions. One unit of yellow squash had three or four little squash. It was enough to serve three or four people. On the other hand a single unit of snap peas was only a handful. I guess there was enough for one person.

The flea market is held every Saturday and Sunday. Most if not all of the vendors are long term participants. I’m sure that I’ll be back to really shop instead of just wandering through like I did today. A shopping trip would be much quicker than the hour and a half I spent walking through the place today.