By Bill King
Last week, I shared with you a little about our visit to The Ark Encounter in Kentucky. I was awestruck by several things about this replica of Noah’s ark, but first, and perhaps most of all, was the sheer size of that thing. That is a big boat!
The day after we toured the ark, we set out on a big journey to see something even bigger than the ark. It was certainly much longer. We headed toward home, but we didn’t do what Mama used to tell us to do. She used to say, “Now come straight home.” The trip up to the ark took us one day, but our return trip home took three. No, we didn’t get lost, but we did stop a lot. Sometimes we only traveled a mile or less between stops. We set out on a three-day, stop-and-go journey to see The World’s Longest Yard Sale. It stretched out for 690 miles and across parts of six states. South to North, The World’s Longest Yard Sale runs from Gadsen, Alabama, to Addison, Michigan. In some places, it is called the 127 Yard Sale because most of it runs along U.S. Highway 127. It runs through Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. No, it is not one continuous yard sale down that stretch of highway, but you won’t travel far until you come to the next one. There are so many we quickly realized we had to pick and choose which ones to see. If you like shopping at yard sales, this is the place for you. It happens once a year and has done so since 1987. It begins on the first Thursday of August and ends the following Sunday. This year was our first venture down the yard sale trail. Jean and I picked up the trail on Thursday in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, and stayed with it southward through the remaining four states.
We discovered along the way that the yard sale offers two things. I’ll give you the first this week and the second next time. First, there is the opportunity to look at more stuff than any antique store or Buckee’s could ever have. Did you just ask, “What kind of stuff?” If you can name it, they probably had it. There was old stuff, new stuff, nice stuff, and junk stuff. Jean was looking for a large crock, like your mama made pickles or sour kraut in. She found a six-gallon one that is setting in our kitchen as I’m writing. She also found a white enamel dishpan with black edging. It had a hole in the bottom, so she can’t wash dishes in it. I’m really not convinced that she ever intended to wash dishes in it, especially since we have a dishwasher. It already has flowers planted in it and is sitting on our back porch. She also bought a bunch of books for the book walk at our church’s fall festival. I was looking for wooden furniture I could rebuild or repurpose. I found one small table which sits in my booth wearing a fresh coat of bay breeze blue mineral paint. I scanned through a multitude of vinyl LPs but walked away with none. I either already had what they had or used to have them. I paid $5.00 for the ones I had, and they wanted $40.
Those old things we saw and bought reminded me of past times in my life. Those times were special, not because of those things, but because they were spent with special people. Things are just things, but people are a gift from God.
