Roller Coaster Market Life

"Sorry, guys but unfortunately this will be the last market here at Belmont Park," Brian said.  He was standing in front of our tent, but the speech was well rehearsed.  

It was only the fourth Friday, but the customer base had gotten smaller & smaller.  The market would've been better if it was in the afternoon/evening window instead of the morning.  Brian knew this, but issues over the valuable parking spaces we occupied was ultimately what barred the market in Mission Beach from ever taking off.

There would be no $500 celebration roller coaster ride.  

Kate & I decided to go have a drink & sort things out after we packed up there for the final time.  We walked over to Sandbar & grabbed a belly-table on the second floor.

"I definitely don't wanna go back to work on Fridays," I told her over a pint of beer.  "I've gotten a taste of the good life & I don't wanna go back."  

"Me neither, but what are we gonna do?   I mean next week we have that Fleetwood Mac concert," she said.

"That's right- the day after the Fourth," I said.

"Yeah, we should definitely take that day off," she said & took a drink of her beer.  "Aren't there other markets on Fridays?"

That was the springboard question that launched us into making the most of our afternoon.

We paid for our drinks & left Sandbar.  I used some of our tips to get the truck washed & we headed out to La Mesa, where their weekly afternoon market was going on in a parking lot next to the courthouse.  

It was hot out there, but a decent amount of customers strolled around.  We took a lap & found subs & pastys to be the only hot food vendors.   Suzanne, the market manager wasn't there that day but we left a business card at the main booth & got her contact info.  The fee: 10% of your sales.  Hours: 2-6pm.

From there we headed down south to Imperial Beach, the last beach town before the Mexican border.  Kate had never been to IB & I had only been there once to look at the farmers market about a year prior.  It's a really cool, laid back town, similar to OB but so much farther away from downtown San Diego & everything really.  

The market was in a large outdoor plaza next to the wooden fishing pier.  There were twice as many tents as La Mesa, three times more than Belmont Park & live accordion & Spanish guitar music filled the air.  

A little too many hot food vendors for my liking & the prices were a bit lower than what we charged.  We did speak to a manager who gave us a whole packet on info- over twenty pages.  

"You have to get an Imperial Beach business permit since you'd be selling within the city limits," the man said.  "What do you sell?"

"Hot dogs," I said.  "Have a nice day."

We got caught up in some traffic on the 5 north heading back home when I asked Kate what she thought about the two markets.

"I think you need to fix the A/C in your truck," she said.