Follow The Road – The 400 Mile Yard Sale
The Dream Comes True
The 400-mile yard sale has been a dream for the last 15 or so years. It stretches diagonally along highway 61 in Kentucky almost border to border and passes through towns like Wisdom, Aurora, & Old Washington. It stretches past farms, churches and small towns.
400 Mile Yard Sale – The Starting Point
We decided to start our adventure at the point where it travels through Barren County, Kentucky. Barren County is a pretty place that once was a barren land cleared by Native Americans as hunting grounds. Today it is covered with beautiful timberland and farms. Highway 31 took us over a beautiful lake where people were enjoying water sports and boating, It was amazingly beautiful (and looked like a lot of fun!).
The 400 Mile Yardsale – The Lake
Around the lake, we stopped at a little store that was quirky and fun. I wish I could remember the name. They served good food and soft-serve ice cream and had all kinds of vintage goodies to buy. In the shade outside a big dog lazily watched the customers enter and exit and let children pet him. He was such a sweetie.
400 Mile Yardsale -A Stop For Some History
When mom found out we were in Barren county we tried to find a place to buy cemetery maps -yep, I said cemetery maps!- Mom loves family history and has wanted to make it up here since we lived in California. We headed to the Chamber of Commerce stopping at yard sales along the way. Once in town, all the main streets were shut down for a huge antique car show. The cars were amazing and the old homes along the way beautiful.
400 Mile Yardsale – Friendly Folk
Couples sat on their porches and waved as we passed in the best thing on four wheels, aka our 16-year-old green Nissan mini-van (she’s a great car by the way. a little rough around the edges maybe) in true southern charm (like you see in the movies of country towns). We passed a great farmers market, a fire station with a really old fire truck outside of it (that I really wanted to take a picture of but someone drove by it too fast, and according to him you can’t stop in the middle of a two way street when the light is green to take a picture.) and a cultural center with a museum.
Since we couldn’t make it to the Chamber of Commerce because of the closed roads we turned around and went back to the Cultural Center / Museum to find information on my 5x great grandpa. Turned out we had no luck with grandpa (but the museum was fun), so we hit the road again.
Here came a choice, check out the car show and the historic parts of town or continue yard sale hunting. Such a hard choice!!!! Especially for three photographers who love all things old. We ended up choosing the latter choice to look for more treasures.
Returning To The Yard Sale Hunt
We got back on Highway 68 and hoped for some great finds to share with you all. We found a pretty purse for $3.00 (yes it came home with us, because who doesn’t need another purse?) a classic Schwinn bike for $900. Ouch! (this did not come home with us).
We picked up this vintage camera for a good price (one turned out to be worth $40). A Colonial styled bench and a chair (that we are going to re-upholster the seat and back part) and a table cloth for $50. and then we headed home.
How About You?
What is the best treasure you have found at a yard sale? Have you ever been to one of these massive yard sale events? What did you think of them? At this one, we even saw Amish couples shopping. What fun!
#YardSale #Kentucky #Antiques #Vintage #Photography #FamilyTime #Adventure #ProofWeAreNotHermits
- Mile Long Yard Sale
- Antique Yard Sale Haul
- Hiking Stinging Fork Waterfall
- Exploring Piney Falls Waterfall
- Nashville Zoo
- Walk On The Wild Side
- Exploring Ozone Falls
- Fall Creek Falls
- Burgess Falls
