Commissioned in 1926, U.S. Route 80 was an early coast-to-coast route for auto travel, passing through cities famous in U.S. history: Vicksburg, Mississippi; Selma, Montgomery, and Tuskegee, Alabama; Savannah, Georgia. Bypassed by newer interstates, it became a lonely rural road. Lonely that is, except when the Historic U.S. 80 Hi-Way Sale turns it into a multi-state flea market one weekend each spring and fall.
The spring sale is held the third weekend in April--this year, two days only, today and Saturday, April 18-19, with time off for Easter.
Towns and countryside during the sale with vendors of everything imaginable. It’s like Canton’s First Monday Trades Days, only hundreds of miles long.
My daughter and I set out to explore it, starting from U.S. 80’s current western terminus in Dallas, across East Texas. The highway, and sale, actually extend from Texas to Georgia, but we could only made a one-day road trip. Although my son-in-law bravely volunteered to stay home with their kids, there’s no reason older children can’t make at least a shortened version of the trip.
Did we cheat a little by stopping only in towns instead of the highway’s rural stretches? Maybe. But this isn’t the time for rules. Stop where you like--you’re sure to find something.
The sale is only loosely coordinated. Officially, vendors open at 8 a.m. each day, and stay late, but that’s up to the individual sellers. To help you plan, click on the state you’re interested in at www.Hwy80Sale.net/, for information about what’s available at each town. The sale’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/Hwy80Sale/, also has postings, including which vendors take credit or debit cards. In Texas, towns along the route are fairly close together, making it easy to stop for food, fuel and ATMs as needed.
Meandering eastward on U.S. 80, we stopped for lunch in Mineola. U.S. 80 runs through Mineola’s downtown. There’s plenty of streetside parking, family-friendly restaurants, and stores overflowing with everything used, antique, vintage and retro.
Our next stop was Gladewater. Signs directed us to the town’s historic district filled with antique shops, as well as a street fair in progress, including the wrestlers whose photo illustrates this post. We ended our trip in Longview, stopping at the outdoor displays in front of the Greggton Antique Mall on the city’s west side.
Among my daughter’s favorite finds: a stash of Little Golden Books for her boys, plus retro lunch trays to corral their art supplies. My finds included paint by number pictures and 1930’s era magazines, their covers adorned with prints of paintings from the days before color photography.
Showing posts with label Texas; Mineola. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Texas; Mineola. Show all posts
Friday, April 18, 2014
Friday, October 18, 2013
Totally Texas -- Hitting historic highway’s trail of treasures
If there’s a prize for being the queen and crown princess of repurposing stuff, it belongs to my daughter and me. Actually, we’ll wait until the real owners of the titles tire of them and tote them to the curb for trash pickup. Then we’ll swoop in and grab.
Still, I can hardly believe it took us so long to find the Historic U.S. 80 Hi-Way Sale, coming up again this weekend, October 18-20.
The sale literally covers the verges of U.S. 80 from Mesquite eastward through Louisiana and Mississippi. But since this blog is only about Texas, my daughter and I only did a day long road trip as far east as Longview on our original foray last spring. (The sale is held twice a year, the third weekends of April and October.) We cheated a little, too, by stopping in towns instead of completely rural areas. But when dealing with a sale hundreds of miles long, pacing is everything. Well, that and cash.
My daughter volunteered her husband to stay home with their seven-year-old twin sons, but depending on age and interest level, children can handle shorter portions of the drive. Or so I judged from the numbers of families with children we saw along the way.
We began our quest with lunch in the East Texas town of Mineola. Highway 80 runs through downtown Mineola, with streetside parking, non-chain family-friendly restaurants, and stores crammed with everything used, antique, vintage and retro. We made subsequent stops in Gladewater and Longview.
A couple of blocks south of 80 in Gladewater, we found a full-fledged street fair, surrounded by a street of more traditional resale shops, including Gladewater Books (see “Indie bookstores live in North Texas” at this site). We ended in Longview’s Greggton neighborhood, with merchandise overflowing from a local shop. This fall, I’m heading for the Terrell Garden Club’s plant sale Saturday at the corner of Highway 80 and Frances Street in downtown Terrell.
The Hi-Way 80 Sale is a wonderfully disorganized event. The East Texas portion of U.S. 80, originally part of a 1920’s era coast to coast highway, is now largely rural and relatively slow-moving. Small towns are close together, at least by Texas standards, making it easy to find food, fuel and ATMs as needed. (Some vendors accept credit and debit cards, or checks.) Everything, of course, is sold as-is.
For more info, including merchandise peeks, see “Hwy 80 Sale” on Facebook or www.hwy80sale.net/.
There’s a map, but I wouldn’t bother downloading it. There’s also no official list of vendors. This weekend’s weather looks great, so just drive.
(Next Friday, graves of the famous and infamous make for a ghoulishly good tour through Texas history.)
Still, I can hardly believe it took us so long to find the Historic U.S. 80 Hi-Way Sale, coming up again this weekend, October 18-20.
The sale literally covers the verges of U.S. 80 from Mesquite eastward through Louisiana and Mississippi. But since this blog is only about Texas, my daughter and I only did a day long road trip as far east as Longview on our original foray last spring. (The sale is held twice a year, the third weekends of April and October.) We cheated a little, too, by stopping in towns instead of completely rural areas. But when dealing with a sale hundreds of miles long, pacing is everything. Well, that and cash.
My daughter volunteered her husband to stay home with their seven-year-old twin sons, but depending on age and interest level, children can handle shorter portions of the drive. Or so I judged from the numbers of families with children we saw along the way.
We began our quest with lunch in the East Texas town of Mineola. Highway 80 runs through downtown Mineola, with streetside parking, non-chain family-friendly restaurants, and stores crammed with everything used, antique, vintage and retro. We made subsequent stops in Gladewater and Longview.
A couple of blocks south of 80 in Gladewater, we found a full-fledged street fair, surrounded by a street of more traditional resale shops, including Gladewater Books (see “Indie bookstores live in North Texas” at this site). We ended in Longview’s Greggton neighborhood, with merchandise overflowing from a local shop. This fall, I’m heading for the Terrell Garden Club’s plant sale Saturday at the corner of Highway 80 and Frances Street in downtown Terrell.
The Hi-Way 80 Sale is a wonderfully disorganized event. The East Texas portion of U.S. 80, originally part of a 1920’s era coast to coast highway, is now largely rural and relatively slow-moving. Small towns are close together, at least by Texas standards, making it easy to find food, fuel and ATMs as needed. (Some vendors accept credit and debit cards, or checks.) Everything, of course, is sold as-is.
For more info, including merchandise peeks, see “Hwy 80 Sale” on Facebook or www.hwy80sale.net/.
There’s a map, but I wouldn’t bother downloading it. There’s also no official list of vendors. This weekend’s weather looks great, so just drive.
(Next Friday, graves of the famous and infamous make for a ghoulishly good tour through Texas history.)
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