On the Road with Ki to Paso Robles!

This is what it looked like after the Junk Bonanza team loaded Ki's car for the trip Friday to the Three Speckled Hens flea market in Paso Robles!

(significantly less full, I might add, than how it returned!)

The Bonanza team, in town for a planning meeting, accompanied Ki to the flea, where she was skedded to sign magazines!

Emily, the Bonanza's event manager, steered us ably and expertly out of Los Angeles in pounding rain.

We stopped in Carpenteria, Calif., because what is a road trip without a little junking or antiquing?! We lunched at a lovely bistro, the Cork Tree Cellars, where the sandwiches, burgers and salads all rocked. We can recommend the Farmers Harvest Salad with creamy chipotle lime dressing, the potato soup, the sweet potato fries and the Grilled Vegetable Bruschetta!

Emily, not tasked with driving the second leg of the four-hour trip, sampled a wine flight of some of the central coastal wine region's finest reds.

After lunch, a trip to Whimsy, which has expanded to two locations! (Fun Fact: This store carries the license plate jewelry made by FMS team member Cammie, who lives in Nebraska!)

Loved the matching set of half-bathtub windowboxes!

Inside, so many treasures awaited. Love love loved this gently shabby and cracking painting on canvas...

... and these hankies displayed hanging from the spokes of a topless umbrella! We needed umbrellas that day; it continued to rain intermittently on our way to Paso, and even hailed for a short while. Ki's Escape, which still looks new (unlike that owned by some other junker scribe with whom you are familiar...), emerged unscathed!

Tomorrow: Tales from the actual flea! And for more stories about the trip, check out the Junk Bonanza blog! We've got dueling posts going on!

Kim