Spring Break Day 1: MO 13

As mentioned previously, we had a week off from life to make a trip.  I planned on making several stops, but hours of operations for the locations always greatly vary.  If you find a good shop, you can spend hours in it.  If you find a poor shop, you can be done in minutes.  So, planning is extremely difficult if you are going to stick to a time schedule.  Our goal was to hit what we could... and pick up the rest later.

Our first stop was Osceola, MO.  This is a small town off of MO 13 with some history behind it.  There are three antique shops (a fourth one has recently popped up, but we did not have a chance to check in on it) which are right off the highway.  

Our first stop, since it opened earliest, was Moccasin Trails Antiques.  The shop was a little dark and dusty, which suited the primitives.  There were shelves of old toy cars but they were signed as not for sale.  It was still fun to look.  The shop was made up of booths, and, as always, the different vendors brought variety.  We did not find anything we had to have, and we didn't want to spend too much money on the first stop.   

So, we left and went to Trade Fair Mall.  It should be mentioned that there is a shop between Moccasin Trails and Trade Fair called Wisner's Flea Market and Antiques, but we have never seen it open.  My parents say that the owner is very old and starting to stay closed more often, so feel free to try your luck if you are down that way.  Anyway... back to Trade Fair.  The shop isn't the nicest shop, but it is another example of "don't judge the book by the cover" that your mom preached to you as a kid.  Yes, the appearance is rough, but there is a lot of neat stuff in this antique mall.  The variety is greater than Moccasin Trails' selection, but Trade Fair does not have the primitive items.  So, both stores have their niche for Osceola.  We did wind up buying a half pint Mason jar (two of them actually since the wife knew her sister would want one as well).  We bought it because we had never seen a half pint jar before, and the wife thought it was cute and had several future ideas in store for it at home.

Further down MO 13, we arrived at Bolivar, MO.  Bolivar is a good size town because it has Southwest Baptist University within its city limits.  Bolivar used to have quite a few antique shops, but several of them have closed.  

Our first attempt for a stop, Hale's Mercantile, was a shop that used to be on the city square but closed not too long ago.  However, we did find a shop we did not know existed while driving to the square called A.T.C. Downtown Flea Market.   The shop didn't look like much when we walked in, and the wife is always leery of places which take the name flea market over antique.  However, this place was a great find for us.  We walked out of there with several items and managed to snag them at a bargain price.  We found two canisters for the wife's sister which were half off and perfect for the decorating plans of the new house.  I found a frosted glass from Kansas that I plan on trying to find the entire set.  Every time we are out, we see little lemonade carafes with lemons on them and a yellow lid.  We always look at them but never buy.  At A.T.C., we found one that was in near-mint condition, and I was not going to pass up the opportunity to buy it.  Now we will have something to serve lemonade out of when summer finally gets here and we need a refreshment after working hard in our garden.  The wife is constantly looking for stuff for her sister, and the Heinz pan caught her eye for that reason but quickly caught her heart.  So, she is holding onto the it in hopes of working it into our decor somehow, which I am sure she will manage.

The next stop in Bolivar was Country Classic Antiques.  This is a must-stop when going through Bolivar because it is huge.  The selection is varied because of the amount of vendors, but it seriously has a little bit of everything in it.  There is a large room which houses three classic cars.  How many antique shops can say they have a fully restored GTO in their inventory?  Then there is a back room which is full of furniture.  We had a lot of fun exploring, and the wife left with a little tray with a rose print on it.  A place as large as Country Classic Antiques will definitely have the traffic to keep the inventory fresh, so it should be worth the stop every time you pass it.

Back Road Relics Flea Market was the final stop in Bolivar, and we saw it on the outer road while going to Country Classic Antiques.  We decided we should give it a shot.  The store seems fairly new, but it is organized well.  It is a true flea market, so the quality of items is hit and miss.  That's okay because you never know what you mind find.  Case-in-point, my wife bought two small photo frames there for a bargain price.  (Do note that the girl who does not like flea markets much is always the one finding the steals at them.)

Down the road we went towards Springfield, MO.  When you enter Springfield from the north on MO 13, you are greeted with a large billboard for Relics Antique Mall, which claims to be the largest antique mall in Missouri.  I am never sure how places can make claims like that, but we decided to give it a shot.  I feel that it is important to state that Springfield is full of antique shops.  In fact, our initial plan was to skip Springfield all together and make a weekend trip out of it alone.  However, our tummies were growling, so we had to go into Springfield to find something to eat.  The search for food brought us to Relics, so we will claim we were meant to go there on this trip.

Relics is a large store, and I think it is the largest based on size.  With that being said, I feel there is a pitfall for people in claims of largest locations in states.  "Size doesn't matter," "quality over quantity", and phrases similar to that come to mind.  Relics is a nice place to shop, but it is not full of amazing antiques.  It is full of space, and that space was filled with some amazing antiques and the rest with "stuff."  If you plan on going, make sure you plan enough time to make it through the entire building.  We started off slow but ended up rushing to make our schedule.  However, I don't feel that we missed much in the rush.  We did find some stuff to buy at great prices, so that always makes a shop well worth the stop.  The wife found a small fan which she attempted to talk herself out of several times.  We did buy it, and she was glad she did.  I found a booth which was full of promotional glasses.  The ones I was interested in were priced just right, so I picked up two from the 1978 "Happy Birthday, Mickey" set.  

 And with that, we ran out of time.  We pushed forward on our trip and noted the shops we saw along the way to try to stop at on the way home.  We found a lot of great shops, some fun people, and a lot of great stuff in our day of shopping down MO 13.  

Until next time... Happy Hunting.