Hello, My Friends!~~
Rennigers Antique Market in the small south central Pennsylvania town of Kutztown hosts a three times a year extravaganza! Hubby and I left before sunrise to get there by 8:30 on Friday (about 3.20 hours from us). We caught the sunrise on Route 15 at the MD/PA border.
After paying the $6 admission, we walked into the fields and covered pavilions where the dealers were set up. My best estimate was 300 dealers, perhaps more.
Here is one row of many. In the beginning, I was a bit dismayed as the dealers set up near the entrance had interesting things but nothing was priced. I picked up one item and this old dude quoted me an outrageously high price. I said "thank you" and set the item down. As we walked away he said: "If you want to resell, don't buy from me." Old fart! At the next booth I was quoted another stupid high price on an item. I began to feel as if this just wasn't the place to shop for deals. But we had just gotten there and more booths beckoned. After a few minutes, I began finding very reasonably priced goods BUT I really had to search and dig for them. This was not a show with bargains easily had. It was interesting to see the many sellers and quite a few were willing to work on the price with me.
I didn't see many customers lugging full bags or rolling bins packed with items which may have said something about the prices. However I saw a couple of women dressed to the extreme luggin out a few mid-century goods. Look closely at the photo below:
You can see the "well-dressed" lady pushing a white basket and her friend behind her. The dude behind them sure is giving them a lingering glance.
Some dealers were under cover in these open-sided pavilions.
These folks had more drinking glasses than I had ever seen in one place.
In the pavilions I found a few booths with interesting items that I wanted to purchase, but the dealers were nowhere to be found. Frustrating! I don't have enough patience to stand around waiting for dealer to return from where ever and give me a price quote either. We did see one booth with simple paper dog show number tags, nothing special, and the graphics were a little nice. They were the size of a 3 X 5 card and a stack of about 100 of them on the $5 table. I picked up the stack thinking they would be fun for writing notes to folks who shop my etsy shops. I nearly keeled over when the vendor quoted $5 EACH! Crazy!
I loved this crooked house display. I thought it was a bird house, but it wasn't. Cute though.
Loved this handmade chair too!
We shopped for about 3 hours and were finished. We had three bags full of hard fought deals! We did go into the long low building on site which houses a farmers market and flea market. Walking through it is like going through a hamster maze. Most dealers stack their wares in intimidatingly precarious piles. Here is one linens dealer's booth:
If you tried to pull anything out, the piles would fall on you!
The best thing inside were these 25 cent kiddie rides!
We were done by 11:30. I did think the prices were a tad high in general, but I did find quite a few bargains, but it was WORK! Much more work than I expected to get a bargain. Call me spoiled. I am not sure if I would go again as our local estate sales and flea markets hold much more allure. It was nice to have gone to Kutztown Extravaganza at least once.
The day was so lovely and we headed a few minutes east to the grounds of The Rodale Institute. You know them. They are the Organic Gardening magazine and books folks and SO much more!
The visitor center and shop is located in a restored one-room schoolhouse. I had fun in there chatting with the friendly folks about organic gardening and getting lots of great advice. I bought a container of their tomato plant food and a hori hori tool.
This big ol' tom cat loves his job which is...sleeping?
The expansive acerage had freshly turned fields and fields sown in lush cover crops like this rye grass in the foreground. Not much was growing this time of year, but you can just see the potential!
Orchards in the distance and a nice big solar panel giving power to the visitor center.
A close up of the orchards. Apple trees? I wasn't sure.
We headed down to Reading, PA where we stayed overnight at the Hampton Inn in Wyomissing. We dined at a wonderful Reading institution: The Peanut Bar.
This place has been around since the 1920's. It was considered a speak-easy back in Prohibition times.
Great food! Oh my! I had the chicken schnitzel with browned butter--yum yum!
I dug in before taking a photo. It was SO good!
What is that on the floor?...Peanut shells! Why not?! I love the crunch crunch sound the shells made when the waitstaff walked around. Fabulous atmosphere, yummy food, and excellent service! You NEED to go!
After dinner, it was Hubby's turn to decide what we would do. Reading has a minor league baseball team and they were in town. Heck yeah we would go!
First Energy Stadium is home to the Reading Fightin' Phils (AA team of The Philadelphia Phillies). Now we are Washington Nationals fans through and through, but the throught of visiting a wonderful small ballpark like this was too tempting for Hubby to resist. The team recently changed its name and mascot. The mascot is now, of all things, an angry fighting ostrich.
Here are two not so angry yet more hungry ostriches outside of the stadium.
Here is Crazy Hot Dog Guy riding an ostrich which is where the team mascot actually came from. We had to do internet research to find this out. We rolled back to our room around 9:30 p.m. and slept ready to start another day at another flea market in Pennsylvania.
At 7 a.m. we arrived at Shupp's Grove near Admastown, PA. I love Shupp's Grove. We hit it during an extravaganza weekend which meant there were more dealers than usual. Free admission and IMHO dealers with more cool "junk" and way more reasonable prices.
Lots and lots of vendors set up under the trees! In no time I had filled two bags with wonderful vintage goodies!
Lots of Pyrex and just LOTS of everything! It is not really the place to go for fine antiques, but a few of those were on sale at Shupp's Grove. The dealers were super friendly and eager to bargain.
Cute garden statues!
Poor Teddy! He dooes look comfortable on the doctor's exam bed though.
My new best friend! This big pup was eager to lick your hand. What a cutie!
Chainsaw John Lennon was in Shupp's Grove too! After finding wonderful vintage goods, we headed toward home stopping at a few of the Adamstown antique shops along the way. There are lots of them! Many had special sales to celebrate the extravaganza weekend.
At one mall we foubnd this booth full of mid-century awesomeness!
I know Don Draper was hiding out in there somewhere!
What a great selection! If you need Pyrex it is here!
So, there you have it! Kutztown is OK, but I don't need to go back. Reading, great eats and baseball! Shupp's Grove, the best vintage bargains!~~If you are curious as to what I found, well, head on over to Dime Store Chic. I'll spend the next couple of days listing new goods there!~~Thanks for stopping by!~~XXOO, Beth
![](<img src="http://elizabethholcombe.typepad.com/CPSStudios%20Winter%202010.jpg" />)
