Original publish date: August 15, 2016
Last week, my wife and I (along with fellow antiquer buddies Chuck & Becky Hodson) decided to revisit the tortuous multi-state adventure known as The 127 Yard Sale. Also known as the World’s Longest or 127 sale, it is an annual event that officially begins on the first Thursday in August, and concludes on Sunday. The sale spans six states (Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama) and 690 miles. This was our 6th journey into the hills and dales of Kentucky & Tennessee to essentially poke through other people’s stuff.
I wrote an article detailing one of our trips a few years ago, but I figured it was time to retrace our steps just in case any of you are considering going yourselves someday. FYI, the dates for 2017 are August 3rd to the 6th and August 2nd to the 5th in 2018. The official route begins 5 miles north of Addison, Michigan and ends in Gadsden, Alabama. While there is no official count, an estimated 100,000 shoppers visited the approximated 5,000 vendors along the route.
According to their website, the 127 Yard Sale began in 1987. Mike Walker, former Fentress County Executive in Jamestown, TN, planned the event to encourage travelers to bypass interstate highways such as I-40 and I-75 in favor of scenic routes that would take them through rural communities and allow them to experience what the small towns and cities had to offer. With state parks, historical attractions, scenic drives, water falls, opportunities for hiking and biking, rivers and lakes for boating, train rides, horse back riding, fishing, blue grass music, arts and crafts festivals, and more, this provided a great opportunity to bring more visitors to Tennessee and the 127 Yard Sale route.
So now that you know the details, route and history of the 127 yard sale, let me give you some tips of what you can expect, guidelines you might adhere to and examples of things you are likely to find along the way. If you’re a lifetime collector of “stuff”, then you’re sure to have a ball. If you are decorating a house, room or man cave, you’ll have a blast. On the 127, there’s stuff you didn’t know existed, stuff you just have to have, and stuff you didn’t know you needed. If you don’t like traffic, have no patience or can’t stand the heat (literally not figuratively)then you might want to stay home.
Although the route begins in Southern Michigan and spans the entire state of Ohio, I recommend that you start South of Cincinnati. Oh, and that you start out on a Wednesday. Yes, “officially”, the sale starts on Thursday, but most dealers are up and running by hump-day. We spoke to many who had been set up since the previous Saturday, but I’m guessing those were only the diehards catering mostly to the locals. I have tried to start the sale in Ohio in years past but came away with little more than wasted time and needless delay. I have met people whose 127 experience involves shopping only in the Buckeye state, then heading home to sleep in their own beds the very same night. So that could be a good test run for those still sitting on the fence.
However, if you want to really experience the 127 yard sale, let me offer some pointers. First of all, take plenty of bottled water. A cooler full of ice and a case of water will be your best friends for this particular journey. Remember all those old movies about people stranded in the desert? That’s what the 127 sale is like. We went through 16 bottles of ice cold water on the first day alone. Second, wear light colored, loose fitting clothing and comfortable shoes. You’ll be walking through dirt and tall grass in many places so don’t wear your expensive sneakers but rather your sturdiest, most utilitarian pair of kicks. Third, for this trip, I bought the ladies each a cooling towel at Lowe’s. Get it wet, give it a snap then drape it around the neck and you’ll think it a worthy $ 5.00 investment I assure you. File that under the “Happy Wife, Happy Life” category.
There’s a lot of stop-and-go traffic along the route so be patient and take care while driving. It can be a hazardous drive in places where vendors occupy both sides of the two-lane road, traffic slows, sometimes coming to a complete standstill as people shop from their cars trying to decide whether a pull-off is worthy or not. You’d be surprised how many yard-salers slam on their brakes when they see a velvet Elvis leaning up against a table from the roadway. Always use your turn-signals and avoid sudden stops, don’t make U-turns and safely pull as far off the roadway as possible. Although it is a two-lane road in most places, 18-wheelers, dump trucks and farm machinery make regular appearances. So pull out with care while leaving all stops.
Assuming you are starting South of Cincinnati, consider making hotel reservations in or around the Harrodsburg / Danville, Kentucky area for your first night’s stay. Not only will you be spending the night in historic Daniel Boone country, you’ll most likely find that, allowing for the frequent stops on your treasure hunt, you will have seen all you care to see by the time you reach this area. Go out and have a nice dinner and turn in early. If you are a people person, you’ll soon discover that most of your fellow hotel guests are coming off the sale as well. Many of them are eager to tell stories, share tips and show off their prized buys after a day of buying on the 127. Swapping tales about your shared struggle can be some of the best memories of all and are only rarely disappointing.
At least in the case of the 127 sale, the early bird does not get the worm. No need to get up early because, unlike most neighborhood garage sales, these folks rarely uncover their tables before 9:00 am. If you find yourself walking through dew soaked fields on the 127, you’re likely walking past covered tables with nothing to show for it but soggy socks and shoes for the rest of the day. Remember athlete’s foot? Sleep in, hit the continental breakfast and let the morning sun bake the dew away.
Once you’re out on the road again, you’ll soon find that yard sales are EVERYWHERE! In the front yards of people’s homes, farm fields, cow pastures, side streets and alleyways, in empty lots, business parking lots, community parks, churches and town centers. Some areas will have large groups of vendors together (127 veterans call these ‘tent cities’), while others will be set up separately. As you weave your way from one yard sale to the next, Highway 127 winds through horse country surrounded by beautiful rural areas and interesting scenery, so be sure to enjoy the ride along the way.
There is no set “opening” or “closing” time for the individual sales along the 127 Yard Sale route. Each vendor chooses the time they want to start and many stay open until dark. Traffic along the 127 Yard Sale route gels up considerably in congested areas and small towns, so how long you stay on the 127 per day is more dependent on what your personal goals are and how much ground you want to travel each day. Obviously, if you hit every yard sale, you’ll be hitting the hay late. By the very nature of the route, you may become intrigued with a specific area once you get to it and end up spending more time there then you initially planned. However, you will see as much as you wish to see and will always reach your full point when you decide you’ve seen enough. Best advice, concentrate on what you see, appreciate what you find and don’t have undue expectations about your results. Sometimes on the 127, the visitor takes only memories and leaves only footprints.
Next week: Part II- Highway 127: The World’s Longest Yard Sale. 2016.
We started our trip on Wednesday, August 2nd south of Cincinnati. We allowed ourselves three days for the 127. We learned long ago that it would take at least five to hit every sale. We started out at nine in the morning and made it as far as Harrodsburg Kentucky that evening. Normally it would take 2 hours to drive the 120 mile route between the two locations. The next day, Thursday, August 3rd, we left around 8:30 AM and by 6 PM we had made it as far as Spring City Tennessee. This day’s route was 180 miles between locations. Normally this is a four hour trip without stops. By our third day, Friday, August 4th, between the crowds, the traffic and general fatigue, we had just about had our fill. By the time we had reached Chattanooga that afternoon, we were done.
And what did we find on the world’s longest yard sale 2017 redux? Unlike years past, we really didn’t find anything fantastic for ourselves; we just found stuff. Don’t get me wrong, we found some cool things. We just didn’t find any life changers. My personal prize was a bronze statue of Gettysburg hero General Winfield Scott Hancock. It now rests on my desk. I found tons of old paper to play that I am still winding my way through. My favorite so far is a packet of letters written by a French woman to her soldier beau in Geneva Indiana in 1919 – 20 at the close of World War I. She pleads for news from her soldier boy and wonders why he doesn’t write. Poignant to say the least. 
My favorite memory comes from a gentleman I met at the Jordan Motel in Jamestown Tennessee. The motel is an important landmark on the 127 because this is the spot where the first booths were set up back in 1987 to start what would become the world’s longest yard sale. Jamestown is in the heart of Big South Fork Country which bills itself as the Trail Riding Capital of the Southeast. At first I was drawn to the booth by a large metal highway 70 sign leaning against a nearby tree. It was only 35 bucks but it wasn’t our I-70 so I passed. Let me rephrase that, Rhonda suggested I pass because I am apparently out of room for any more road signs.
On this man’s table were a couple dirty squares of carpeting, each about 4″x4″ and each displayed in picture frames. Alongside the dingy relics were photographs of a scene that looked strangely familiar to me. It was a large hole inside a closed building that I soon recognized as the sinkhole that swallowed eight Corvettes at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green Kentucky around Valentine’s Day of 2014. I asked about them and was informed me that the vendor was the contractor hired to pull the cars out and repair the hole. He said, “In fact, I’m the guy that fired up that Corvette and drove it out. It didn’t have anything but an oil leak.” As he searched his cell phone to show me a video of the event as proof, he informed me that he was surprised the Corvette museum called him because, “I’m just a good old boy from Kentucky, I didn’t know thing about Corvettes or fixing sinkholes.” As Rhonda and I got back in the car and drove south, she asked me if I had asked him how much they were. Strangely, I hadn’t. I guess I was too caught up in the story.
Spring City Mayor Billy Ray Patton claims the town is one of the best places in the world to view the eclipse because it is located along the exact path the eclipse will travel. Spring City rests on the 70 mile wide “path of totality.” Residents and visitors will have two minutes and 39 seconds of totality when the moon completely blocks the view of the sun. The total solar eclipse will darken skies all the way from Oregon to South Carolina. But don’t get any ideas, the hotels in Spring City were already sold out two weeks ago. On Monday this small TVA town of 2000 is expected to swell to 50,000 with visitors hoping to catch a good view of the eclipse.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with Hannibal and arrived there hoping to chase Mark Twain’s shadow the same as I had done with Lincoln in Springfield. The town rests in a valley between two large cliffs directly on the Mississippi River. A lighthouse rests atop one cliff and a romantic, jagged crest known as “Lover’s Leap” rests atop the other. While beautiful to look at, the result for today’s visitors is terrible cell phone reception. That is unless you find yourself on top of one of those cliffs, where service zips right along. And, just like the land of Lincoln, Mark Twain casts a large shadow in Hannibal, Missouri.
The Mark Twain House offers an excellent tour for a reasonable $12 per person that encompasses the homes of all of those familiar Tom Sawyer characters found in Mark Twain’s books. The tour concludes in the Mark Twain Museum located in the historic downtown district and features priceless relics, mementos, artwork, furniture and assorted objects once owned by and associated with Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain). After the tour, it is highly recommended that you take the short walk down to the shore of the Mississippi River.
Suddenly I was a 10-year-old boy joyfully picking up bits of glass, rusted metal and broken crockery all the while convincing myself that any one of which surely belonged to a steamboat captain, riverboat gambler or a pirate. Such are the trinkets that dreams are made of. Should you prefer your treasure of a more cultivated nature, Hannibal has many hole-in-the-wall antique shops featuring more relics from the past. Hannibal is unique among tourist river towns because it has not yet been overtaken by commercialized establishment chain restaurants or stores. Its streets are not overrun by the Harley crowd. Oh, there is an upper-class motorcycle crowd element here, but these riders seem content to park their bikes and walk the town rather than to ride it.
I took his advice and ventured up the hillside. There I found a quaint little pocket park created from an abandoned roadway and concrete bridge footing of a steel suspension bridge that once spanned the mighty Mississippi to Illinois on the other side. The bridge had been dedicated in the 1930s by Franklin D. Roosevelt himself with then-Senator Harry S Truman assisting. As I sat there puffing and reflecting, an older gentleman, climbing the stairs for exercise, walked by and said good evening. He stopped for a moment and, excited by my discovery, I said something silly like “Cool to think that FDR and Truman were here.” He shook his head and continued with his exercise.
Alan E. Hunter 