in august of 2004, writer meghan mcewen and i traveled to alabama to document the worlds longest yard sale. we traveled the length, all "792,000 yards" of it. we met lots of interesting people and discovered many fascinating things. and the following sumer in july of 2005 the new york times ran our article. here are more photographs from the trip...

we started in Gadsden, AL and the traffic was pretty extraordinary.



elvis was in attendance.



also keeping elvis company in the parking lot in gadsen were bears + ammo boxes.



bobby and linda peerman were selling all kinds of things.






and charles hobgood was selling some fine fruit.



there were plenty of characters on the road that week including the pink flamingo ladies as they called themselves.



and they gave us a peek inside of their filled to the gills vehicle.



did i say characters cause jim was definitely that.



and he had some very fine wares.



maybe even the best that we saw.



of course i love the creepy dolls.



there were plenty of cute places along the way to stop and eat or stay. ok, plenty may be an over-statement.



clearly these people know what is important.



joel robertson had lots of vintage bikes.




and there was traffic, yes there was.



and cute non-town, towns like forbus, tenn.



and so much more.












and, well it did get a bit sad towards the end of the road.
but, maybe it was just that it was ending.