Combine several flea markets, the distance of about three and a half marathons and thousands of shoppers and you’ve got the Dixie Highway Yard Sale.
This weekend will mark the sixth year in a row that the 90-mile stretch on U.S. Highway 41 will become an open market where thrifty shoppers can find clothes, farm equipment, video games, collectible clowns, a mini-fridge that looks like a toolbox and countless other hidden gems.
The sale, running Friday through Sunday, will stretch across 12 counties in Georgia. It starts in Ringgold in Catoosa County and runs to Marietta in Cobb County.
Each year the highway becomes more than just a supersized yard sale. Residents bake cakes, smoke barbecue and set up lemonade stands, making the area reminiscent of its 1920s founding.
According to dixiehighway.org, the road was built between 1915 and 1927 in response to the growing number of people driving automobiles.
U.S. 41 stretches from Ontario, Canada, south 5,706 miles to Miami. The U.S. highway system, like the interstate system that came after it, helped serve the nation’s need for good transportation routes for people, business and industry.