Deals worth the wait: the Lincoln Highway multi-state yard sale

Some deals only come around once or twice a year, but offer savings that justify the wait. This post is part of our series on such 'don't miss' sales.

It's the perfect marriage of travel and shopping: take a few days and shop along the road. Handle it right, and maybe you won't even have to get out of the car.

It's been called the longest yard sale in America, given that it stretches from West Virginia to Illinois along the Lincoln Highway (old U.S. 30 in most places). They officially bill this yard sale as a BUY-WAY Yard Sale (get it? highway, buy-way). This year is the fourth annual BUY-WAY and will be held August 7-9.

It's been getting more popular every year. It began in Ohio and Indiana, and in the third year picked up West Virginia and Illinois. If word keeps getting out, eventually, theoretically, the yard sale could stretch across the entire country.

But for now, anyone who owns property along the Lincoln Highway in West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois is free to set up shop and hold their own sale. In towns like East Canton, Ohio, and throughout charming areas like Plymouth Marshall County, Indiana, you'll find stands selling food and drinks, car shows and kids' games. Elsewhere, you'll just find shopping.

Stores literally set up shop, showcasing their wares. Families bring out their odds and ends onto tables in their driveways. And as you drive along the way, you can stay at a bed and breakfast, dine at a diner and just appreciate small town Americana. After all, they call this road "Main Street of America." And what's more American and Main Street than a yard sale?

Geoff Williams is a business journalist, primarily for Entrepreneur magazine, and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).