The World's Longest Sale - Friday edition

Carolyn and I were prepared. We packed bottled waters, measuring tapes, nutrition bars and $260 cash in my empty minivan along with my toddler son and his stroller.

Our quests differed, although we took the same path: She was looking for good bargains, with the open attitude of "I'll know 'em when I see 'em." I, however, had three specific goals: A coffee table, a sofa table and some kind of media storage. All were to be solid wood, with a decent, dark finish.

"But you could refinish them!" Carolyn insisted as we settled into the sluggish line of traffic and mapped out our strategy.

"But I won't," I explained as we unpacked my son and stroller from the oh-so-empty trunk (well, the stroller that is: Son was in the car seat in order to maximize available trunk space). "I'll take it home, leave it on the patio intending to strip it. It will get rained on and ruined, and I'll end up burning it or hauling it to Goodwill."

You see, I've done this before.

First stop: Boone County, KY in a large field where I've had great luck in the past. 40 vendors with canopies over sawhorse tables filled with glass vases, cardboard boxes full of Star Wars(r) figurines and the occasional Windsor chair joked and dickered with a healthy crowd of hundreds.

I didn't seen a single coffee table, which should have been a sign. Four hours later I took home with an empty trunk, a sweaty toddler and a full wallet of cash.

At the mega-sale stop at New Haven Elementary, however, Carolyn found her bargain: A brand-new quesadilla maker a young bride had received for her wedding and never used. Since Carolyn's kids are fans of quesadillas (and since Mr. Carolyn once scoffed at her buying the exact same small appliance for $29 new in stores), she was mighty thrilled with the $10 tag on the item. She was even more thrilled when the young bride said, "I'll take $5 for it."

Yes, large furniture items are lacking on this strip: This portion is a yard sale in the truest sense: Families and friends gather to unload outgrown baby clothes, random pieces of Great-Aunt Millie's china set and toys, toys, toys. I saw flatbeds full of Little Tykes headed either to Grandma's house or to consignment stores not so far away.

But the best part of the day was the people: Patient and generous strangers guided us into impossibly tight parking spaces in the grassy patches of highway 127/42. When, upon occasion, some fool honked at the cars in front of him, the crowd sneered at him in derision: If you want to get somewhere fast today, take the interstate! The rest of us are on a treasure hunt.

"I forgot sunscreen," I wailed, as we got out of the car on our southbound leg towards Warsaw, KY. A gentleman returned to his car to pull out a bottle so I could anoint my stroller-bound son. Grandpa and his two granddaughters were on their third annual 127 sale. Two years earlier, he made the whole pilgrimage down to Gadsden and back--so of course, as a master of the sale, he had sunscreen.

We chugged water and sweat it right back out again over the footstool just like the one my grandma had. Carolyn found a rusted out version of her school lunch box. We counted no fewer than four ab-flattening devices and more exercise bikes than you could shake a stick at.

But we don't need no stinkin' exercise bikes! Whether the day is brisk or crispy, we get our cardio walking through the sales. No coffee table? No matter. We had a blast. And later tonight, we'll have quesadillas.

Keri Stevenshttp://thekeristevens.blogspot.com

With an empty trunk, my best friend Carolyn and a stroller I joined the throngs at the (almost) northernmost portion of the World's Longest Yard Sale on highway 127 in Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati.

# posted by GST @ 1:56 PM