Ohio Flea Market Trip

My mom and I rarely get away from the store so we were excited to plan a weekend trip to Ohio for a flea market recently.  Hoping to get a lot of goodies, we rented a 15ft truck from Enterprise.  My mom has never driven a big truck before and she was a little nervous.  Here's a picture of me on the back of it before we left.  Notice my tall boots.  I was ready for anything including mud and rain!

We each took a picture of each other in the truck.  It was so big that it was hard to climb into. 

The drive was about 6 hours...Well, it was supposed to be 6 hours.  A few hours in, there was a light on the dashboard that turned red.  It said DEF level low.  We looked at each other and both said, "What the heck is DEF??"  My mom called Enterprise and asked what to do and we were told that we needed to find some DEF at a truck stop.  Um....ok.  I drove to the nearest gas station and asked the clerk if they had it.  Never heard of it.  Yikes.  Luckily, at the next gas station we tried, there was a truck driver filling the gas tanks underground.  We asked if he could help us and he was so incredibly nice that he actually put it into the tank for us.  He said that DEF(Diesel Exhaust Fluid) is actually cow urine.  I just looked it up and it does say that it's made of urea but I'm not sure they actually get cow urine to make it! 

Tank full of DEF, we made our way through nearly flooded roads to Ohio and checked into the hotel.  As you can see in the picture, the water was on both sides of the roads, threatening to block the way.

We went to bed really early because my mom always says about flea markets, "The early bird gets the vanity!"  Got up at 5 the next morning and checked my phone.  Temperature: 29.  As in, below freezing.  Ugh.  We bundled up as much as we could and headed out. 

It was a little disappointing to see as we pulled up that there weren't many vendors there.  Apparently, not many people are as crazy as us!  They were still sleeping!

 

There were a few cute things but the prices were kind of high.  I found a nice desk and a pretty French chair.  My mom got a potting table, a bench and some small vintage items.

We got the bench below that's made out of an old Eastlake style bed. 

Here's the french chair.  I didn't even care that it was stained.  Stains add character right?

We also got a chippy turquoise table and this chair.  What a fantastic color! 

 

After a VERY cold day of shopping, we headed back to good old St. Louis.  We found a random flea market on the way home where we discovered a lot of guns, livestock, socks, old electronics, and used clothing.  Not exactly what we were looking for.

  Since we hadn't gotten much, we went to see a few of our pickers and filled up the truck. Here's my mom looking proud of herself for filling it. 

 

Even though we ran out of urea for our truck, froze our butts off, and didn't find much, the trip was still a lot of fun!  My mom is hilarious and we somehow never run out of things to talk about.  What should be our next trip to find cool stuff?  If you have any ideas, let us know!