the Pickers...

Last summer, weaving our way back from Texas through the midwest, we had the fun opportunity to stop and see where the American Pickers have their store, in Le Claire Iowa.

Hugging the Mighty Mississippi river is the tiny town of Le Claire. The population couldn't be more than a couple thousand, at best. Greeting us right off of highway 80 was a very friendly welcome center. There, I got my courage up -and sound like a major geek tourist- and asked where we could find "the pickers". Surprisingly we were not the first to ask this; for we were each then presented with a rather lovely color photo of Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz... AKA...the Pickers! Next, the nice lady pulled out a map of the town. She took her pen and circled the right spot to find Antique Archeology, their shop. BINGO!

With photo's in hand and a spring to our step, we headed out the door and down the windy road headed to the small, yet vibrant, downtown area of Le Claire Iowa. When we got to the gas station, that the nice welcome lady told us the shop was behind, we turned left and there it was! Ah, really?! Was THIS the same shop that I have seen oodles and oodles of times on TV? It looked so small! Basically the shop was smushed between two rather ordinary older homes. In my mind I was expecting to find the store on a large parcel of land, somewhere near an Iowan cornfield. No, instead it was shoe-horned in a space that seemed to not be quite right.

 We got out of our cars and proceeded to the shop, hoping to just get a glimpse of Mike or Franky. Well, a rather blunt woman told us that the store was closed that day. The guys were filming and that we should come back tomorrow. Tomorrow?! Um, no! I told her that we are driving back, cross country, and cannot come back tomorrow. We will be home tomorrow! She said sorry and also told me I couldn't take any pictures. Well, that was NOT about to happen. Are ya kidding!? I came all this way here, maybe never to be back again, and trust me! I WAS taking pictures...thank you very much!

  Cool red car...

 a Franky sighting! I really wanted to see Mike too...and Danielle, but no.

 a view from the side yard...

a view from behind the store. I guess a lot of people think that their junk is the Pickers junk!


Overall, despite NOT being able to enter the store to check things out and get autographs, it was a fun, random experience. It was a total unexpected side-trip in a otherwise rather ordinary day.
I do hope to go back one day, again.