This Gal Lives Right On the WLYS Route...LUCKY!

Say hi to Alexa from Chattanooga, TN.  This lucky gal lives in a city that is right along the WLYS route.  Chattanooga is along the southeastern border of TN. 

I don't know if I mentioned that I grew up in Johnson City which is near the northeastern border of TN. 

Johnson City is where I will be jumping off from to begin my trek along 127.  It's not on the route, I will have to get up super early the first morning and drive about 2 hours to get to Crossville, TN where I am starting.

Alexa has been to the WLYS two years running and is definitely returning this year.

Alexa sent me a great note about her experiences.

Photo Courtesy of Alexa

I happened upon your "World's Longest Yardsale Project" blog....loved it. Anything that promotes the highlight of my year annually can only be my friend. Most of your entries are in regard to people that attend days of the junk extravaganza, but I live in Chattanooga and can only dedicate one day to my adventure.

I begin the day at 5:30am, drive directly to Dunlap, TN and take 127 all the way into Chattanooga. It takes about 14 hours of intense junk-a-mania! No stopping to eat: bring snacks....bring liquids...drive large vehicle. No small children or husbands. I like to fly solo, or I will now allow my 14 year old daughter, of which is becoming my yardsale apprentice. It is a day like no other. I'm now on my third year so many vendors have now become friends. Certain spots along the way are regular haunts and "must-see" destinations.

 

I'm with Alexa on the "no small children or husbands" rule!  I will have partners in crime though and we all know how to appreciate a great yard sale!

Alexa has a great blog and she has written about both of her trips to the WLYS.

You can read about her adventure in 2009 here.

For more adventures and LOTS more great pictures, read about 2008 here,  here, and here.

I love how Alexa refers to the WLYS as the Ga-Zillion Mile Yard Sale.

Photo courtesy of Alexa

Are we all getting excited yet?  August seems forever in the future. 

Nah, it will be here before you know it :->

Kim Says She Would Do It Again!

I recently heard from Kim  about her trip to the WLYS in 2008 and she was kind enough to answer a few questions. 

1) What year(s) have you been to the WLYS?

2008

2) What was your starting point?

Crossville, TN

3) Where did you end and how many miles did you cover?

Ended in Ohio-not sure on the miles, didn’t keep track. Many websites tell you that it continues to the Michigan-Ohio border, and that really wasn’t true. It was mostly over when you got to the Cincinnati area.

4) Were you looking to find specific types of items?

 Looking for Fiestaware, and amethyst and clear depression glass, and old tools, and anything that happened to catch our eye-but mostly it was for the adventure!

5)  Would you go again?

YES! J

6) What was your best “score”?

 That is a really hard question! They all were! The whole experience was probably the “best” score!

7) Would you go again and if so would you cover the same route or expand your route?

 YES!! In a heartbeat! I’d start in Gasden next time and work my way north from there.

8) Where are you from and how did you travel to get to the WLYS?

 Michigan, and we left home on the Sunday prior. We planned a bunch of stops at places we both wanted to visit. We stopped at the Homer Laughlin China Factory for a tour, tried to visit a Diner’s Drive Ins and Dives Restaurant, visited Smokey Mountain Knifeworks, the Smokey Mountains and Ober Gatlinburg and then started the sale in Crossville and worked our way toward home.

Photo courtesy of Kim

Kim also offered some more info and tips.

We took bagels and stuff that was easy to grab for breakfasts and lunches and only ate dinners out, that saved a lot of money and helped keep us on the road more instead of having to stop so much or waste valuable time sitting in a restaurant.

Since we started a day early the crowds really weren’t that big yet, and I would definitely start early again!

We took a roll of quarters each, like a lot of websites tell you to do, and we never used them! They were heavy and a pain to carry. We took a lot of ones and were glad that we did that.

We bought disposable rain ponchos from Walmart in case we needed them.

We took all of the back seats out of our SUV and put our car top carrier inside the car (to save on gas mileage) in case we needed more storage space for the trip home, and in case we couldn’t find a hotel and might have had to sleep in the car.

Kim wrote a great blog post about her trip and you can read all about it here.  She included lots of great pictures too.

Kim covered basically the same route that I will be taking so it was really great to here that she had a great time and experience.  Can't wait!

Have You Been? I want To Hear From You!!

I'm really interested to hear about your World's  Longest Yard Sale adventure and would love to share it here on the blog.

Photo courtesy: Alabama Tourism

If you like to share, and you know you do, shoot me an email  and I will send you a little list of questions and feature your story here on the blog. 

Can't wait to hear from you :->