Bargain hunters, start your engines. National Road Yard Sale begins

RICHMOND, Ind. — Bargain hunters will be wandering around U.S. 40 in droves starting Wednesday as the Historic National Road Yard Sale enters its 14th year.

The event, part flea market and part antique hunt, will run from dawn to dusk Wednesday through Sunday along more than 800 miles of U.S. 40 from Baltimore to St. Louis.

The sale, really a set of neighborhood yard sales on steroids, started in 2004 as an idea from Pat McDaniel, owner of The Old Storefront antique and vintage shop in Dublin, Ind., about 55 miles east of Indianapolis.

The 37-mile event to bring attention to the old National Road that bisects Dublin eventually expanded to 824 miles to eclipse the granddaddy of these types of sales, the U.S. 127 Corridor Sale. That shopping experience, originally called the World's Longest Yard Sale at 690 miles long, is Aug. 3 to 6 from 5 miles north of Addison, Mich., to Gadsen, Ala.

For the National Road sale, bring cash, your imagination — think up-cycling — and an empty stomach.

► March: Turning extra stuff into extra cash
► August: Michigan trail offers 200 miles of yard sales

"Looks like it's going to be a lot of people and a lot of food this year," McDaniel said. "More people are getting out and doing food."

In this area, vendors and would-be customers typically line up along the highway from the Ohio-Indiana border to the Wayne County line 22 miles west in Cambridge City, Ind. In most other places, customers will find clusters of activity, generally in smaller towns or suburbs of the larger cities.

"It's just bumper-to-bumper" around here, McDaniel said.

► August: World's Longest Yard Sale stretches 690 miles
► May 2015: Things you should never buy at a yard sale

In addition to residents participating along U.S. 40 or putting up signs directing folks off the highway to their homes, some community groups such as churches, civic organizations and schools organize their own sales.