If you go
World’s Longest Yard Sale› When: Today-Sunday, Aug. 4-7 (vendor participation may vary).› Where: Highway 127 and Lookout Mountain Parkway from Addison, Mich., to Gadsden, Ala.› Admission: Free.› Website: www.127yardsale.com.Highway 27 Yard Sale› When: Today-Sunday, Aug. 4-7 (vendor participation may vary).› Where: Highway 27 from Chattanooga to Summerville, Ga.› Admission: Free.› Website: www.hwy27yardsale.com.
A North Georgia alternative to the World's Longest Yard Sale raises an interesting question: Does it matter if you're on the wrong road if you're still finding yard sales?
Not to B.J. Sherlin, owner of Highway 27 Unique Gift & Thrift in Noble, Ga., who has been promoting U.S. Highway 27 south of Chattanooga as "An Alternate Route for Lost Tourists" since 2003.
Sherlin explains that her mother, grandmother and aunt once held yard sales all summer long in her grandmother's front yard on Highway 27. She says they always noticed an uptick in traffic on the first weekend in August, and in 2002 they found out why.
Some shoppers trying to navigate the World's Longest Yard Sale through Chattanooga had simply missed their turn.
The brainchild of tourism officials in Fentress County, Tenn., the World's Longest Yard Sale is a four-day, six-state bargain hunt meant to draw travelers off the interstates and onto scenic backroads. The first year, the route was bookended by Tennessee and Kentucky, but numerous expansions have extended the sale north into Ohio and Michigan and south into Georgia and Alabama.
The official route is U.S. Highway 127, but Chattanooga is the end of the road for 127. And that's where things get tricky - there's more than one way to go south.
Officially, the route picks up the Lookout Mountain Parkway, which leaves Chattanooga as Highway 58. Travelers will note it becomes several highway numbers as it passes through communities such as Mentone and Fort Payne before reaching Gadsden, Ala., the sale's southern terminus.
However, as Sherlin discovered, some shoppers following the 127 corridor mistakenly pick up 27 South. This more easterly path through North Georgia passes through Rossville, Fort Oglethorpe, Rock Spring, LaFayette and Summerville on its southern march to Florida.
Starting out, Sherlin says, she and her Highway 27 cohorts printed up maps that explained how to get back to the official route on top of Lookout Mountain. However, they soon realized these bargain hunters didn't necessarily care where the yard sales were, as long as there were yard sales.
So they obliged with the Highway 27 Yard Sale, now in its 14th year.
"I've been amazed by the support we've gotten [from vendors]," she says. "It grows every year. It's got a life of its own."
Always the first Thursday through Sunday in August, the World's Longest Yard Sale turns 30 this year and is credited as the original multi-state yard sale.
Like any neighborhood rummage sale, the merchandise runs the gamut of antiques and oddities. The difference is in the sheer number of sellers. Buyers often can shop dozens of individual sales in a single stop. Highway pull-offs, parking lots and even pastures are populated with professional vendors with new merchandise or local residents who cleaned out the garage to make a quick buck.
And with Sherlin's Highway 27 Yard Sale tacked on as an optional route, travelers who zig when they should zag when they head south out of Chattanooga don't have to worry they'll come up empty-handed.
Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.