After working all winter with no vacation time, and putting up with the snow, and ice and freezing cold winter, we made plans to attend the Lesuer, MN Pioneer Power, Flea Market and Swap Meet! We were informed by a friend of Crystalie's that it is a huge event and opportunities to buy items for resale and re-purposing! So we made plans to go and also to take advantage of some community wide Garage Sales going on in Lesuer and also other communities!

We left the morning of Thursday April 24th, bright and early in the rain and drove down to the Lesuer area, which is north of Mankato on Hwy 169, about a 3 hour drive...not counting garage sale stops on the way!

We attended about 8 Garage sales in the town of Belle Plain, MN where we fount various items, with the largest item being a small secretaries desk, and a great stop at who we shall call the Cookie Cutter Lady!

OMG...did she have cookie cutter's from all over the world and also a wide variety of different types, needless to say we spent the most we spent that day there, and also ended up with a nice haul of blue mason jars!

The first pick below is where we ate lunch in Lesuer, The Cheese House...the two pictures show the wide variety of cheeses and crakers for sale, and other kitchen goodies! We had a pretzel bread hoagie with various meat and veggie toppings and lots of cheese on them! We were hungry and enjoyed the warmth of the shop, and the rain finally ceased and the sun actually begin to peak through the sky.

 The afternoon we went garage sale shopping in Lesuer, and had some good luck finding items at almost every stop. We drove out east of town 6 miles to the site of the Pioneer Power event grounds, just to see where we would spend all day Friday. The vendors were arriving and setting up...some where over 1000 vendors were supposed to be there, and the property was 80 acres!

We drove from Lesuer to St Peter, MN and then down to Mankato where we went to a thrift shop and then we headed to the hotel we stayed at which was an Americinn, close to the Mankato State campus. We enjoyed a nice meal at Red Lobster that night and were tired out from all the garage sale shopping we did!

Friday morning we left for Lesuer back to the Pioneer Power flea market and swap meet! We got out east of Lesuer and about 1.5 miles form the site when we waited in line to turn to get in the grounds! It took about 30 minutes...but moved pretty quickly!








The method of transportation for some people were golf carts, lawn tractors of all kinds, scooters and gators, and some things I don't know what you would call them! 


Rows upon rows of vendors, some with junk and others with commercial items for sale, clothing, manuals of tractors, fruit and veggies, food items, lots and lots of galvanized metal... and rusty gold!

oh yeah and steering wheels of all kinds....
 This picture below is of a lambriginni dozer crawler....it iis on the trailer with a sign on it...I think he was asking $6500.00 for it!
 Below is one of the most decked out golf carts I saw...
We spent from 8;15 am till almost 4:00 pm there, and then left and hit a few garage sales on the way back to Mankato, for another night there...a plate of nachos and some beverages finished off the evening! Weary feet from trudging around in mud boots all day and mental overload of all the things we saw and experienced! but well worth it, and had lots of laughs and fun haggling on items we were interested in! We also want to thank Judy and Lee for being tour guides part of the morning and letting us borrow their red wagon to haul stuff in...Lee brings his mower and trailer for hauling stuff around and helping others haul stuff!


The above photo is of a player piano sitting in the yard of a garage sale stop just west of Mankato, Saturday morning, then we spent a couple of hours in Nicolett, MN at their community garage sale day event...another 10 stops or so, then north to Hutchinson, MN where we found another 4 sales to check out, then we headed home...where we unpacked the van!

It was a great 3 day get away...and lots of fun, to spent time together after the long cold dreary winter!