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  • 9-13-YARD-SALE-1.jpg Jeanne LeFlore

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  • 9On Monday in McAlester, Ernie West Allison, left, and her daughter Wilma Goodman Drummond hold a baby blanket they bought while shopping during the World’s Largest Garage Sale recenty. Jeanne LeFlore

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September 16, 2012

Mother and daughter shop the Worlds Longest Yardsale

By Jeanne LeFlore Staff Writer

McALESTER — Life begins at 73 and at 94, according to a mother and daughter who recently traveled 2,502 miles for the worlds longest yard sale.

Ernie West Allison, 94, of Krebs and her daughter Wilma Goodman Drummond, 73, of McAlester said they love to travel and to go on yard sales so when they heard about the 25th Annual World’s Longest Yardsale earlier this year they began to make plans for the trip.
“We just wanted the adventure of the trip,” said Drummond.
Both woman are newlyweds, 94 year old Allison was married a year ago and her daughter was married just three years ago. Even so they both agreed to leave their husbands at home for their shopping
“Neither of our husbands like yardsales, “Allison said.
The two woman started on their adventure on July 31 in their 2006 Ford Escape. The back seat lay’s down flat so we had plenty of room for our luggage and our yard sale finds, we do lots of yardsales and we travel a lot so we know how pack.
“We left Krebs at 7:45 a.m. and we were very excited,” Drummond said.
The route for the yardsale follows Highway 127, Drummond said. 
It starts up north in Hudson MI, and runs south through Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. At Chattanonga TN the route switches to the Lookout Mountain Parkway.
“Our plan was to start at the top and work their way down,” Drummond said.
The first day we drove 472 miles to St. Louis MO and spent the night, she said. “The next day a 429 mile drive took us to Ft. Wayne IN for the night.”
“Each morning I would turn our trip meter to zero so we could keep track of our mileage, we needed to average at least 200 miles a day, “Drummond said
But at first she said things weren’t going as planned.
“The first day we hit the yard sales, I looked at the meter and told Mother that we had only covered 57 miles in four hours,” she said. “We had been having so much fun we completely lost track of time.”
She said they learned quickly to pick and choose where to stop and how long to stay at each site.
 “Even with all you miss there is still an awful lot left to see,” Drummond said.
At one of the stops a vendor was giving away free fudge samples which caused the ladies to wonder if there were other free samples to be had.
“Across the street we saw a man sorting something, so I went over to him and told him about the fudge and asked if he had any free samples. ‘I sure do,’ the man said, and then he handed me a $1 bill. He was sorting his money!” Drummond laughed.
She said as they talked to different vendors, they learned that most people did not do the entire yardsale.
“They were very surprised we did the whole thing by ourselves,”Drummond said.
“We are very glad we went, she said. “It gave us some good quality time together and we got back in time for my mother to celebrate her first year wedding anniversary on Aug. 9 which was also her 94th brthday.”

McAlester News-Capital. Click here for print edition home delivery or click here to see the Smart Edition for your computer, tablet, e-reader or smartphone.

Contact Jeanne LeFlore at jlelfore@mcalesternews.com.

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