This past black friday my family and I decided to make a road trip through the Southwest portion of Minnesota to my in-laws farm.  My gracious husband understands that I love to stop at all the Antique shops I can along the way.  He asked if I had my "Old Times" in the car.  "The old Times" is the Minnesota newspaper for the antique business.  Wonderful full color newspaper full of stories, information and advertising.  They do a great job of creating routes with each shops advertisement and little maps that you can use to plan your trip.  We hit the road.

The first stop was a charming shop in Eden Valley, MN called "Lost & Found".  I have three little boys so I always appreciate a kid friendly store with nice owners.  This store was unique in that they had old and new, not blended but separate into departments that were very organized and shopper friendly.  They had a nice array of jewelry and my boys found some tiny snow globes and of course candy.  The owner of the shop spoke of his on line and brick and mortar business.  Lovely people, lovely shop.

The next stop was in Paynesville, MN called "The Antiques Cellar".  A multi dealer shop full of clean, organized booths with lots of light and free of dust.  The gentleman running the store was charming and full of stories which of is always a contest for me.  I found some pretty pieces, my oldest son found that Star Trek figure mint in the box he had to have, the husband and younger two found the car early.  I always get that text "Are you done yet"?  Lots of vintage glassware, collectable and furniture.

We flew through Spicer, MN, I went to church, which is what I think the Belltower Antique Mall was at one time.  I literally walked in and out, they were busy and unfortunately it was cloudy out and dark in the shop.  I will have to stop there again on a sunny day.

By the time we got to Wilmar, MN,  McDonalds was the first thing we looked for.  Happy meals in hand, I left the three plus their father in the parked car and headed into L & J's Antiques downtown Wilmar.  Nice shop that has a lot of curb appeal from the outside.  Inside they had a nice array of items.  One case with several nice pieces of jewelry, I bought my share and thanked the lady who was busy working on her computer.

There are two more shops in Wilmar that I did not have the heart to ask my husband to stop at, one is D's Old Town Antiques and Long Lake Antiques.  I knew I was done antiquing for the day, I needed to get my now cranky family to Grandma and Grandpa's.

You can check out the "Old Times" on the web at www.TheOldTimes.com, it is a very useful tool for planning your trips and also not to mention the wonderful information it has about antiques.  There are two other towns on "The Prairie Potholes Antiques Trails" that have advertisements that we did not see that day but I am very familiar with.  The first is a very small but chalked full store in Granite Falls, MN called "Prairie Mercantile".  They have it all, glass, pottery, jewelry and dab of furniture, very friendly and clean.  The other is "Past Reflections" in Montevideo.  This is right downtown and is a large multi dealer mall with just about everything you could hope for.  Both of these stores are a must see.  I see each about four times a year.  I never leave empty handed.

Thankfully we made it home with all of our goodies.  I have separated out what goes where and how much it will be.  I do appreciate all of the malls I go to because I need inventory for my own venues and I am usually carting around one to three children so waiting in line for a number at a tag sale or going to yard sale to yard sale is out of the question.  I do better going into a shop and paying more just to preserve my sanity.  I also want to teach my sons this entrepreneurial skill that my mother taught me plus maybe add three future collectors to that ever smaller pile.