It all started out innocently enough. My fiancee and I decided to take advantage of something called the Highway 127 Yard sale. Now we love going to yard sales so this was just down our alley.
For those that don’t know, this is a yard sale that extends six hundred and thirty miles along Highway 127 and involves five states.
The first decision we made was to only take advantage of a two hundred and fifteen mile stretch from Gadsden, Alabama, to Jamestown, Tennessee, and the second was to make it a two day adventure. We made reservations for Friday night at a very rustic ranch near Jamestown.
We arrived in Gadsden at about 11:00 am with great anticipation and a few dollars in our pocket. As soon as we got to Highway 127 we realized that something was amiss - the traffic was just sitting in the highway and not moving. Well occasionally it would move a few yards and then stop again. We had just been introduced to the "World’s Longest Yard Sale".
Finally we made it to the first sale place and my eyes bugged out when I saw a pickup truck in the yard, with the bed full of golf balls going for twenty-five cents each. Naturally, I had to stop and replenish my supply of balls. There, scattered over two yards, was a veritable treasure chest of goodies. Of course, I just had to have a twenty five cent cap to wear to the golf course and certainly couldn’t leave without getting our dog a toy for a quarter.
The traffic was so heavy that the man with the golf balls had to stop cars to let us back in line (since the line was already stopped he just had to hold up one car). There were sales on both sides of the highway on a continuous basis. We drove along in a state of wonderment and shock at what was happening all around us.
There were clothes, toys, glassware, cookware, knives, furniture of all kinds, guns and pictures. There is no way to tell everything that was for sale but we overheard someone at breakfast say "I found everything I wanted except a gas mask" and someone else replied "You just didn’t go to the right place because I bought one yesterday."
At one sale a very nice couple was grilling bratwurst hot dogs so we got a couple of them and a cold drink and sat in the shade to eat lunch. We found out that they were from Oregon but followed yard sales/flea markets across the country every summer to always wind up at this one. They were so nice we just had to buy something so found an old book ( published in 1954 ) which we got for fifty cents.
Although we were enjoying ourselves, frustration over the traffic was growing. It took nearly four hours to go the first ninety miles to Chattanooga, Tennessee, with only a couple of stops along the way. North of Chattanooga was even worse. We had reservations in Jamestown for 6:00 and arrived at around 9:00.
We had no cell phone service there in the mountains so just had to hope they had held our room for us, which they did. Actually, it was no room but an old cabin that was built over one hundred years ago for railroad workers. The cabin was about half a mile from the lodge in the deep woods. We were told that we may hear a bobcat squall but not to worry about it. The cabin was made of railroad cross ties and the bedroom was upstairs. You had to climb a steep ladder to get to the bedroom but the bathroom was downstairs. This is not a good situation for senior citizens but the owners were so nice we couldn’t possibly complain
On Saturday morning we were up bright and early, had a good breakfast and anticipated a fresh start in the art of "Yard Sales" participation. Actually the yard sales were open early and the traffic was much better for the first fifteen to twenty miles down the highway. We stopped several times and bought a number of things for our family and for us. It was great fun until the heat began in earnest and the traffic reverted back to going nowhere fast.
We had an appointment for lunch with a friend for 12:00 in Pikeville, Tennessee, and thought we would make it easily - Wrong! As we approached Crossville the traffic slowed down to a creep and finally stopped every little bit. I heard one man say ‘We are going to make a new TV reality show called the "Worst driver in America" and come here to the yard sales for the contestants.’
We gave up on stopping at the sales except when we spotted one with a "Porta Potty" along the way. As I said before, we are senior citizens and try to never pass up an opportunity to alleviate the pressure from our diuretics. Of course we had to buy a few things while we were stopped.
Although we thought we had it made we were pretty late getting to our lunch date. This was with a great friend that we met on the internet, her husband and grandaughter. Her name is Janie Moser and we talked about me writing this story and her making a webpage and placing it on her poetry site along with some of my other stories that she has displayed. Anyway, we had a great lunch and thank them so much for taking time out to meet with us.
Shortly after, we stopped at one last yard sale and they told us how we could bypass highway 127 and get to Chattanooga. We took advantage of that and left for home.
This was quite an experience and we have made one resolution about this darn old yard sale. We are going back next year for the full four days! If you like these type things, we invite you to join us!
