Living Our Dream

Frankfort, KY Part II: World's Longest Yard Sale

Frankfort, KY - Events of Friday, August 3 to Sunday, August 5, 2012

Since Frankfort is the capital of Kentucky, we were also going to stop after visiting Liberty Hall for a tour of the capitol building. We were the only ones on the tour at Liberty Hall, so we had lots of opportunity for questions. Our guide appreciated our interest, so she was was willing to take the time to provide plenty of fascinating information about the Brown family and about the two homes at the historic site. Therefore, our tour took a lot longer than we thought it would, and it was late when we finished.

Friday was also our wedding anniversary, so we also planned to drive about 30 minutes south to Lexington after we finished up in Frankfort to have lupper at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate. Since it was late and it had started raining anyway, we decided to just drive past the capitol for a quick look at the outside and save the tour of the inside for another visit.

Kentucky State Capitol

We took the road that circles around the capitol building. Behind the capitol building was a clock with a face made of living flowers.

Flower clock behind the capitol

The governor's mansion is to the east of the capitol. Built in 1914, it is Kentucky's second governor's residence. The house is open for tours most Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM.

Kentucky governor's mansion

After driving around the capitol building, we headed for the interstate to make our way to Texas Roadhouse in Lexington. By the time we got to Lexington, it was raining hard, and traffic after we got off the interstate was very heavy and was moving slowly. We finally arrived at Texas Roadhouse around 3:00.

Texas Roadhouse

Most Texas Roadhouses have an early-bird special before 6:00 PM of 8 or 10 entrees with two sides for $7.99. Their special usually includes a 6-ounce sirloin, which is what we always get. Although this restaurant has the early-bird special, it unfortunately did not include the sirloin. We love the steaks at Texas Roadhouse, so we both decided to have the 6-ounce sirloin anyway because we were both hungry for steak, and the regular price was still fairly reasonable at $9.79. We both got house salads with blue cheese dressing as one of our sides. For our second side, Margery got a baked potato, and Paul got mashed potatoes and gravy.

Steak dinner at Texas Roadhouse for our wedding anniversary

After lupper, we battled our way through rush hour traffic and rain to a nearby Sam's Club to pick up several items we needed, then we made our way through more heavy traffic and rain to the interstate. Fortunately, the traffic on the interstate wasn't bad, and we finally made it back to the motor home where we spent the evening watching the Olympics.

When we went out sightseeing that morning, we saw signs all up and down the road that passes the campground for yard sales. We realized it was the weekend for the 127 Corridor Sale - a.k.a. the World's Longest Yard Sale. U.S. 127 runs right past the campground and through Frankfort.

The 127 Corridor Sale officially started in 1987 and initially ran from Covington, KY to Chattanooga, TN. A few years later, the section from Chattanooga south through the corner of Georgia and into Alabama to Gadsden was added. In 2007, the route was extended northward through Ohio to the Michigan border; and in 2010, the section from the Michigan border to Addison was added making a total length of 690 miles. The sale starts on the first Thursday in August and runs through Sunday.

We had to make a Walmart run on Saturday, so we slowed down to check out some of the yard sales on the way. All up and down the highway, there were sales set up along the road... 

127 Yard Sale along the road

...in driveways...

127 Yard Sale in a driveway

...and in fields.

127 Yard Sale in a field

Potential customers cruise up and down the road looking for bargains. We're not sure what it is that attracts people to stop at a particular location. Perhaps they catch a glimpse of something that looks interesting, perhaps it is just intuition. However, the places where there was a larger group of sellers seemed to be the most popular. More sellers means more potential bargains for a given stop.

This is not a good time to be hurrying anywhere along U.S. 127. Cars stop suddenly, and they turn quickly across traffic. There are vehicles parked along the shoulder, and there are people crossing the road. Notice the skid marks at the location pictured below.

Watch out for vehicles parked along the shoulder, stopping suddenly and turning quickly.

We slowed several times ourselves, and we pulled off onto the shoulder a couple of times; but we didn't see anything worth getting out of the car to look at more closely. We don't have any room to spare, so it wasn't that hard to resist.

We made our Walmart stop and headed back to the motor home. We relaxed and watched the Olympics the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday. We also made some of our pre-departure preparations on Sunday because we headed out to our next destination on Monday. We'll tell you where our next stop was in our next post.

Lexington, KY

Our daughter, Lora, went to Asbury College in Wilmore, KY, just south of Lexington. Her former roommate Dawn, with whom Lora has stayed in touch, still lives in Lexington. Lexington was only about half an hour from where we were staying near Frankfort, so we arranged to stop by for a quick visit with Dawn, her husband Keith, their daughter Macy, and their new baby Wyatt. The next photo shows Margery with baby Wyatt.

What a cute little guy he is! He seems to be saying, "Now, where in the world did I put my Binky"?

Their 7-year old daughter Macy did a good job entertaining herself coloring while the adults chatted and "oooh-ed" and "ahhh-ed" over Wyatt.

During our visit, our conversation turned to food. We had planned to stop for a late lunch at a barbecue restaurant that is going to be featured on an upcoming edition of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (Triple D) on our way back to the motor home. However, Dawn and Keith recommended two other barbecue joints that they thought had better barbecue at more reasonable prices. So we picked the one that had a name that Paul thought was interesting, and we stopped there on our way back to the motor home. The photo below shows the exterior of Butt Rub BBQ.

Butt Rub BBQ, which is located in a small strip mall, takes its name from the fact they use Boston butts for their pulled pork barbecue, and from the fact they use a dry rub during smoking. They used those terms to create a clever name for the restaurant.

Boston butts are cuts of pork taken from the upper part of shoulder from the front leg of the hog. Unlike cuts of pork that were "high on the hog" like the pork loin and ham, the shoulder and other less desirable cuts were packed in casks and barrels (also called butts) for storage and shipment. The name has nothing to do with the end of the pig the meat comes from.

Paul decided to have a pulled pork sandwich. In keeping with our recent trend toward beef back in Kansas City, Margery had a sliced brisket sandwich. All the sandwiches come with one side. Paul had sweet potato fries, and Margery had onion rings.

Both the pork and beef were tender, smoky, and moist. As we said in our post about the barbecue restaurants we visited in the Kansas City area (click here to read our post about Kanssas City barbecue), we think good barbecue should have enough flavor and moisture to stand on its own with little or no additional sauce. The sauce should be available on the table and should compliment, not compete, with the meat. This barbecue easily stood on its own. There were both sweet and hot sauces on the table. We added a little of the sweet, which was a Kansas City-style sauce (tomato and molasses-based) that was thick and flavorful.

The onion rings had a light, crisp batter coating, and the onions themselves were nice and sweet. The sweet potato fries were crusted with cinnamon sugar and were outstanding.

Dawn and Keith also recommended Old Kentucky Chocolates located right next to Butt Rub BBQ, so we had to stop in to see what they had.

Like Rebecca Ruth Candies, Old Kentucky also had bourbon balls. They offered us samples of the bourbon balls as well as numerous other types of candy. After several samples, we couldn't walk out without buying anything so Margery had another chocolate-covered cherry, and Paul had a dark chocolate-covered orange jelly. Although the chocolate-covered cherry at Rebecca Ruth was excellent, Margery liked the one at Old Kentucky a little better. Paul's orange jelly was excellent, but his favorite was the sample of the chocolate-covered bourbon cherry.

There were a couple of other things we wanted to visit the area like the Kentucky State Capitol and the Kentucky Horse Park, but we ran out of time. We could have rushed to squeeze them in, but with summer winding down, so are we. We're starting to spend a lot more time relaxing and a little less time sightseeing. With the Labor Day weekend coming up, it was time to move on, so we left some things to do for our next visit. With a nice, quiet campground like Still Waters in the area, a return visit is very likely.

Frankfort, KY

We stayed a week in Frankfort, and we planned a mixture of relaxing, visiting and sightseeing.

Frankfort, KY, was founded in the late 1700s and is named for Stephen Frank, who was a pioneer killed by Indians along the Kentucky River. The nearby river crossing became known as Frank's Ford, which was later changed to Frankfort.

Frankfort became the state capital shortly after Kentucky became a state in 1792. The current capitol building, shown in a side view from an overlook on U. S. Highway 60 in the photo below, was completed in 1910.

 

Our first full day in the area we stopped at Walmart and at Kroger, which is Margery's favorite grocery chain. She was most disappointed when Kroger pulled out of the Pittsburgh market in the early 1980s, and we stop at Kroger every chance we get as we travel.

Our next stop, which also involved food, was at Rebecca Ruth Candies.

In 1919, Rebecca Gooch and Ruth Hanly quit teaching and co-founded a candy-making business that they ran out of of the Frankfort Hotel. They rented the barroom, which had been closed by Prohibition.

in 1924, Ruth Hanly married Douglas Booe. Although Ruth and her husband moved away from Frankfort, Ruth continued to make candy. When her husband died only a few years later, Ruth moved back to Frankfort. In 1929, Rebecca decided to get married and sell her share of the business to Ruth.

Kentucky is bourbon country, and in the 1930s, Ruth perfected a recipe and a process to combine bourbon into her candy. Her bourbon balls became wildly popular.

We went to Rebecca Ruth Candies during the week hoping to take a tour; but unfortunately, there was nothing going on the morning we were there. We had to settle for a sample of their bourbon balls, which were yummy. You could definitely taste the bourbon, but it didn't overpower the richness of the chocolate.

Temptation got the better of us, and we bought a couple of pieces of chocolate candy. Paul had an orange jelly with dark chocolate, and Margery had a chocolate-covered cherry. We stopped on a bench outside the shop to enjoy our treats.

We also bought some bourbon/pecan brittle for the road. It was yummy, too.

North of Lexington and about 45 minutes over hill and dale to the east of where we were staying in Frankfort is Georgetown, KY, which is the location of a Toyota automobile plant. Officially known at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK), this plant manufactures Camry sedans, Camry Hybrids, Avalon sedans, and Venza crossover SUVs. The plant was opened in 1988.

The Toyota plant has tours, so we headed over one morning for their 10:00 AM tour. Reservations for tours are required. The photo below shows the driveway to the visitor entrance.

 

And the next photo shows the tour entrance.

It's difficult to get a good view of the plant from the road, but with an area of about 7.2 million square feet the plant is immense. There is a scale model inside the visitor center where you can only get a small inkling of the sprawl.

At the beginning of the tour, everyone gets headsets so they can hear the tour guide and safety glasses before boarding trams. Photography is not permitted in the plant, so we'll try to give you a quick description of the manufacturing process.

There are two assembly lines in the plant that can turn out a combined total of almost 2,300 cars a day. Current output is about 1,900 cars, which is much better than their lowest point of less than 1,200 a day.

Each line has two shifts with several hours between shifts. The time between shifts allows for overtime should the shift not be able to make the required number of cars for the day's orders.

A trailer truck load of steel in the form of large coils comes into the plant about every 30 minutes. Huge sheers cut blanks for various body parts. Robots load the blanks into punch presses to form the body panels, and more robots perform thousands of welds to assemble car bodies in a shower of sparks.

It takes about 20 hours from the time the steel is first cut until a car manufactured from that piece of steel rolls out the door. The vehicle shell spends about 9 of those 20 hours in the paint department where is is washed, prepped, dipped, primed, sanded, painted, clear-coated and inspected. We got to see almost all parts of the manufacturing process except the engine plant, which is in a separate building, and the painting. Because the paint department must be kept free from dust and dirt, access is limited. Employees of the paint department must wear coveralls, hats, hairnets, etc. to keep the air as clean as possible.

The bodies, trunks, hoods and doors of each vehicle are all painted at the same time. After painting, the cars start down the assembly line. The doors are separated and go upstairs to have windows, speakers and locks installed. As the cars roll down the line, teams of four workers install dashboards, wiring, accessories, seats, brakes, engines and transmissions. Each team member can sound an alarm if he or she has a problem. The team leader will rush to assist, and if the problem can't be resolved, the team leader has the authority to shut down the line. Near the end of the assembly line the completed doors return to the bodies in exactly the same order and at precisely the right time to rejoin their original bodies.

TMMK practices "just-in-time" manufacturing, which was pioneered by Toyota. Just-in-time means raw materials and parts show up on the factory floor just as they are needed for the next step in the manufacturing process. No more than four hours worth of parts and materials are in the plant at any given time. This means every delivery from an outside supplier and each step of the assembly process must be carefully choreographed so shortages don't develop.

Paul, who has a manufacturing background, was very impressed by the Toyota operation. He has never toured an auto plant before, and the size and complexity of the operation really impressed him. Commitment to quality was stressed throughout the tour (they say quality is their most important product and safety is their most important process), and it's easy to see why Toyota vehicles are so popular.

After the tour, we watched a short movie that provided info on some of the areas we didn't get to see on the tour like the engine plant and the paint department. Back in the visitor center, we checked out some of the new cars on display like the Camry in the photo below.

 

We still have more to report from our stay in the Frankfort/Lexington area, including a review of another barbecue restaurant, so stay tuned.