Stretching nearly 700 miles from Michigan to Alabama, 127 Yard Sale returned Thursday as the world’s longest yard sale.
Despite inclement weather here and there, hundreds of thousands of vendors and shoppers turned out as they always do.
At one cluster of booths in Frankfort, vendor Angela Wyatt described the annual yard sale, “It's huge, everybody has fun, half the time we get rained out, half the time we burn up, but it's nice and we enjoy it.”
From curated collectibles to tables of odds and ends, 127 Yard Sale has everything you need and everything you don't.
“I’m looking for an old meat grinder, any kind of old signs…Harley, Miller High Life and what not, and a holster,” said Carlton Hatton.
Chiming in, Gayla Stewart said, “I’m not really sure what I’m looking for!”
While shoppers could plan visits around the rain, vendors weren’t so lucky, many of whom set up shop early only to tear down once the storms rolled through.
“We had to pack up, unpack, dry out,” said Wyatt.
“When the storms came through, four of our tables went about 10 feet over, they flipped and we lost like two of the larger garbage cans full of glassware,” said Teresa Buky, whose ruined glassware retailed around $2,000.
“What we do now, we buy our way out of the show, we get to go shopping, I like that,” said Buky.
Silver linings could be found throughout the muck Friday.
“It’s about being a witness because I give away probably as much as I sell,” said Ray Stewart, a prayer request box sitting next to his merchandise.
“I've learned, I'm not bashful to talk, but I've learned to listen, there's a lot of hurting people,” said Stewart.
One booth over, Jason and Rebecca Dickison found a reason to laugh after the rain caused a moment of panic at their wood craft tent.
Displaying their bourbon bottle bird feeders, Jason joked, “I always like to say, ‘I drove my wife to drinking and I made a business out of it!’”
127 Yard Sale runs through Sunday. You can find a map of the route and vendor “hot spots” here.
