My destination last weekend was Canton, Texas. For your readers that are not familiar with Canton, this small town nestled about 2.5 hours North of Livingston in the Piney Woods hosts one of the largest Flea Markets in the United States.

 The markets itself is about 400 acres of in-door and out-door booths with over 1,000 vendors offering a wide variety of products ranging from yard art to Texas wines. It is a carnival like atmosphere where you can eat corn dogs and funnel cakes to your heart’s content, wander the grounds and meet some very interesting people. The event is referred to as “The First Monday”, but ironically, they are closed on Monday? The market is scheduled to be open the first weekend of every month and runs Thursday thru Sunday. Just pay $5.00 to park and there is no admission fee.

 As a wanderer, and keeping up with my vagabond tradition,( the journey is the real adventure) I set out. My plan was to get up early, and depart Lake Livingston on Saturday morning making sure that I had time to enjoy some breakfast before taking a leisurely drive to Canton. I started my journey by pulling into Moon Doe’s Coffee in Onalaska at the crack of 11:30 to visit Deb and Phil for breakfast. I forgot that they are closed on Saturday! Bummer, I really like their breakfast Frittata. I continued along the Trinity road in search of my much needed coffee and some chow. My stomach was grumbling and I was running out of time to get breakfast. I pulled into a Taco place on the outskirts of Trinity called “Tacos by the Trax”. What a find! They served breakfast all day long and I enjoyed one of the best breakfast tacos I have ever had. If you are in Trinity I recommend giving them a try. (The hot sauce is HOT).

The drive to Canton through the Piney Woods was beautiful. I passed through some great little towns along the way like Crockett, Palestine and Athens. All are worthy of a visit, but I was way behind schedule that day and I needed to keep moving. I did make time along the way to stop and visit a family owned winery in Athens called THREE P’s IN A VINE.

A quick glass of wine (maybe 2) and a charcuterie board hit the spot. My wife would refer to this as a meal, but I lean more to what I call a” Scooby-snack”. The winery was beautiful, the owners were very friendly and the wine was delicious. I had to pick up 2 bottles for myself as I departed. If you are wandering through the woods I would suggest giving them a visit.

I did manage to get up early on Sunday and spent 8 hours at the Flea Market. I purchased a number of interesting items including a case of Texas fruit wine, and restrained myself to only having one corn dog. That evening I drove to the town of Mineola which is about 25 miles from Canton. Mineola is home of the oldest continually running movie theater in the state of Texas, and it was calling me for a visit.

The Lake Country Theater is 103 years old and was an awesome experience. A single Screen theater that serves RC Cola and Dr. Pepper (No Coke or diet Coke). The seats were old but comfortable, and they only offer 1 show on Sunday at 7:30. There was a full crowd and no reserved seats (Get there a little early). This is what wandering is all about!

As I wander throughout the Piney Woods I make many recommendations to our readers. I don’t ever give a bad review of any of the places that I have visited, that is not my style. I love to point out the places that I enjoyed, and to help you along the way as you too wander in the Piney Woods. There is so much to see here in East Texas. Put down your phone, turn off the TV and go see for yourself what this beautiful area has to offer. Life is what you make of it. There is beauty and fun all around us.

Till next time, this is

Piney Woods Wanderer
(Never lost, but sometimes hard to find)