WORLD'S LONGEST YARD SALE

Mark your calendars now, I have. The Highway 127 Sale, the Sale Across the South, The World's Longest Yard Sale is scheduled for Thurs., Aug. 6th through Sun., Aug. 9th. And I'll be there on opening day! The sale is over 400 miles long and starts around the Ohio/Kentucky state line and heads south along Highway 127 through Tennessee and Alabama. I've been a couple times and done a stretch in Kentuck just north and south of Lexington right off Interstate 64. Oh, the treasures I have found. You'll find people selling from their own front yards, farmers, churches and others with property renting out spaces and flea markets that have sprouted up on their grounds, businesses participating, just the most sales you've ever seen.

If you want to go you're best to plan early. I'm going with a friend and we got together last week to plot our course. This year we're moving south down the highway. We plan to leave on Wed. and drive down to Cookeville, Tennessee to spend the night at Hampton Inn about 40 miles off the route. This is key to saving some green so you have it to spend at the sale. The rate at the Cookeville Hampton is $89/night. If you were to drive on to Crossville, TN, which is just off the route you would pay $181/night. There just isn't a lot of lodging along the route because it's not along an interstate, its on a secondary road. So there's a premium on lodging and it books early for the most part. But if you're willing to drive 30 to 60 minutes off the route you should be able to find lodging even at the last minute and for less dough. We'll drive on in to the Crossville area on Thursday morning and head north and start shopping. The sale is "headquartered" out of Jamestown, TN. We'll spend most of our day in this area we imagine and then head a little further north into Kentucky and spend the night, an expensive one (just over $150 but split between 2 of us), at The Best Western in Dunlap, KY. The next day, we'll head further north and do some of the area we've hit in past years, then connect up to I-64 and head for home. We have informed our husbands that if the shopping was just so good we couldn't stop then we might stop at another hotel (cheap this time) on our way back if it gets too late and finish the drive home on Sat. morning. If you want more info on the sale let me know or click on the title above and it will link you to their official website. You can also google any of the names it goes by and find lots of info and opinions. Oh, and one last thing, if you go, it will be HOT! Take your shades, suntan lotion. squirt bottle, fan, hat and wear as little as possible. And realize the worse you look the better deal you'll get, so don't carry that Prada handbag!