The Largest Flea Market at the Swap Shop and Thunderbird Drive-In Theater

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The Largest Flea Market at the Swap Shop and Thunderbird Drive-In Theater

In February, 2021, when we were visiting my mother-in-law in Deerfield Beach Florida, she suggested we all go to a local flea market. When we said yes, I had no idea we’d be going to the nation’s largest indoor/outdoor flea market.

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The Swap Shop and Thunderbird Drive-In Theater began as a drive-in theater with one screen in 1963 at 3291 West Sunrise Blvd. Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Today it has a 14 screen drive-in and much more.

In one large building there is a large video game arcade on the second floor, a Ferrari museum and a food court and shops on the first floor.

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Outdoors there is a farmers market, and a large flea market.

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Founded by Preston Henn, a race car driver, the Ferrari museum is free.

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From 1989-2006 the Hanneford Family Circus performed daily (except Tuesdays) in the Swap Shop food court, entertaining the roughly 12 million people who visit each year. Initially, the circus shared the stage with 1960s and 1970s pop and country acts, most notably K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, and Three Dog Knight.

But what about the flea market? The largest drive-in doubles as the largest daily flea market in the world. How big might that be, you ask? The flea market is 88 acres. We stayed for several hours and did not even cover half of it. I was glad I wore good tennis shoes and carried a bottle of water and a bag to carry purchases. There are vendors selling things from all around the world.

Local honey was one of our findings and we bought some with the comb in it. I bought a new five dollar cotton nightgown and a new ten dollar sundress made in India. Happy with our bargains we were ready to head home.

Just when I thought I had seen everything, I glimpsed a small roller coaster in the front of the big building just before we walked to the car. Who knows what other surprises are there to find? If you are ever in this area, you might want to go check it out.

https://www.floridaswapshop.com/

I have so many more adventures to share with you, so if you don’t want to miss out, subscribe to my blog here and you’ll get an email each time one comes out. I am a full time RV living author and traveler so you will find travel things here and RV living things as well, plus occasional book things. I have quite a few posts in the wings to share with you and was waiting to put the pictures with them. I couldn’t figure out how to get them from my new phone to my MacBook Pro. But my son helped me out with that the other night. Thanks Wayne!

We just finished visiting our kids and grandkids in North Carolina (and arrived just in time to see newborn baby goats) spent a few days there enjoying our time with them and now we are making our way back down to St. Augustine, FL for the BOBASE book event this Friday and Saturday March 19th and 20th.

The book signing Saturday is open to the public and you can get tickets at the door. I will be signing with John Antorino, my cover model and have copies of Jenna’s Christmas Wish and Protecting Zarifah to sign.

Here is the event link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-obsessed-babes-author-signing-event-2021-tickets-118844975521?fbclid=IwAR1ztkbIBU0VjlS9A6Es4Fkiw0wpnPDg5oVt7oTzD3rQloUG8gPSWgATU0Y

Because so many of our readers and authors are heading to St Augustine, my next RV travel posts will be from our previous visit there.