400 Mile Yard Sale, 2012

Photos from the 15 miles we shopped

Keely and I spent most of Saturday visiting a small portion of Kentucky's 400 Mile Yard Sale along Highway 68/80. We got started about 8:00 a.m., and before we drove out on Highway 68/80, we went to a few yard sales around town.

I photographed these lovely hydrangeas while we were at an estate tag sale. The lady who was running the sale had marked each item slightly under its appraised price, and she was reluctant to negotiate. The house was crowded with shoppers, but everyone was leaving empty-handed.

Well, enough of that!  We decided to hit the highway!

 

This hilltop sale, a few miles east of Hopkinsville, had some interesting items. Several antique and flea market dealers (including Butler Antiques of Hopkinsville) sell at this site every year. Last year, I bought a chest of drawers here for Isaac to take to his school apartment. This year, I bought a sturdy hand-made, hutch-style cabinet that I'm going to put in my utility room.

We stopped next at the Eastview Baptist Church, about halfway between Hopkinsville and Fairview. It's always a busy marketplace with lots of people buying and selling, good off-road parking, and restrooms (always a nice amenity). We have always found some bargains there, and this year was no exception. Keely got a Hunter ceiling fan, new in the box, for $5.00.

A few miles farther down the road, we pulled over for a sale in the driveway to someone's hilly pasture. Several families had set up sales there. If I were going to spend several days camped along the highway selling my junk, I think this would be a good place. On the north side of a steep hill, it was shady even in mid-day, and on the asphalt, the ticks and chiggers probably weren't as bad as they might be on grass.

The only problem with this site was that the tables weren't visible to cars coming from the west, The sellers solved that problem by parking their vehicles in plain view along the highway.  (A cluster of cars?  400 Milers know it must be another yard sale!)

A hand-lettered sign pointed the way to the residence of someone who lives somewhere up the hillside. The hand-lettered sign, the product for sale, and the small, two-track trail leading off the asphalt and into the bushes were strong hints that a horse-and-buggy Mennonite family lives there.

Just west of Fairview, we stopped at a yard sale at the house that's associated with this barn. I've admired this big old barn for years. Its broad, rather flat design and stone construction are not commonly seen in Christian County. I seized the opportunity to get a fairly good photo of it without stopping on the highway or deliberately trespassing.

The folks at this sale were using a farm trailer as a giant yard-sale table. I took a picture of the tractor that was attached to the trailer because I knew it had been a few years since Case made tractors like this. (According to TractorData.com, the Case SC was built between 1941 and 1954.)

We stopped at several yard sales in "downtown" Fairview. Some ladies who were doing a yard sale for the Humane Society had some Coca Cola and Campbells Soup cups and glasses. They asked if we had any pets and gave each of us a sackful of treats for our cats and dogs. Across the street, a couple of horses were enjoying their hay.

I remembered one of the yard sales east of Fairview from other years. I refer it to as "the place with the daylilies," and you can see why! At this sale, they had five or six farm trailers pulled into the yard and piled with stuff from several families. It was surprising, but fun, to see a pair of country hams among the things they were selling.

It seemed impossible that seven hours had flown by and we were only 15 miles from Hopkinsville. But it was time to turn around and head back. It's a good thing we weren't doing the whole 400 miles of the sale. At our speed, we would have needed a couple of weeks.

When we went back through Fairview, we stopped at the Dutch Kuntry store (formerly the Penny Saver) and bought some cheese. Outside the store, these ducks were getting a drink. Like most animals, they have an instinct that running water is best, even if it's just a drip. The pipe is probably connected to one of the coolers inside the store.

Back in Hopkinsville a few minutes later, we saw a sign and stopped at one last sale. This sign's construction is complex, to say the least, but it did a good job of catching our attention. Inside the house, only a few small tables of merchandise remained. Clearly, this tag sale's prices had suited the shoppers.

I wish we could have one of these yard sale extravaganzas again in the fall. I enjoy them!