First Monday, Canton, Texas

 I've been looking at photos of our most recent journey that included driving through Texas before heading north to get back home. This prompted a memory of our 'First Monday' experience  
As usual, we had decided on the town of Canton to make a Walmart stop, because our Allstays App had said they allowed overnight parking.
Needless to say, we found a nice quiet spot next to the Automotive Department and we decided to stay for an extra night after having our trailer tires replaced by them.
While here, we kept hearing about the "First Monday" event that everybody was going to.  On further investigation, I learned that this was in fact the worlds biggest flea-market event that takes place on the first weekend (including Monday) of the month.  We were there in the first week of March, hence the reason for the excitement from everybody.
On our departure day from Canton, we decided to mosey on down in the direction that we had been told to go and, low and behold, we were being directed to a very large parking lot with instructions on the best place to park.  There was a big sign directing RVs to go towards the back of the parking lot, which is where we went.  Here, there were numerous other RVs hooked up to electric and water, so we asked the first person we could find how it was that they had these hookups.  It turns out we were parked in the general camping area that RVers flock to for the First Monday event, where they can pay for a campsite for the whole weekend, giving them all the time in the world to attend the favorite events throughout the day and, so we were told, well into the night.
We chose to stay in the standard parking area thinking that next time we come back through this way, we would be sure to book ourselves a nice campsite and enjoy the whole event.  For today however, we would be first-time day visitors.  
We began our slow walk towards where we sensed the hub of the action was.  This meant walking through a maze of large tents where vendors were setting up their stands and then eventually we arrived at the area where most of the smaller stores were located and where most browsers were standing around.  After talking to the browsers, we learned that  most of them were waiting for the trolley bus that would take them to the 'main' flea-market further up the road.
The trolley duly arrived and was quickly filled with us and what appeared to be mostly Texans who came across as very excited to be coming to the market, but we also noted how friendly and funny they all were.  The trolley ride alone was part of the fun of the day.
Once the trolley dropped us off at the main shopping mall 'The Arbors', we were let loose for hours walking up and down the many aisles of stores displaying all kinds of beautiful Texan furniture, home decor and artifacts.  The only thing holding us back from making any purchases was the lack of room in our already filled trailer and truck of the mementos from our long trip out west.
However, next time we are in the area, we will be sure to arrive on or before the First Monday of the month and we will stay in the designated campground, which we will have booked in advance to ensure our site.  And we will spend as many days as we want wandering around The Biggest Flea-market in the World. We look forward to that day.