Always the four-day weekend (Thursday-Sunday) after Mother’s Day in May, May 12-15, 2016, a 502-mile festive roadside sale will be held on U.S. Highway 11 from Meridian, Mississippi through Birmingham, Alabama, and towns in Dade County, Georgia, then Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Knoxville, Tennessee, and on to Bristol, Virginia.

The event, to be known as “U.S. 11 Antique Alley,” will be celebrated in each county up and down the US 11 corridor. Each town along the route will plan its own events, as festivals, antique sales, flea markets and yard sales, carnivals, etc., and many other activities to be held in conjunction with the”Happenin.”

This is an opportunity for folks to do what they like to do best, and that’s to get off the interstate highways and take the old roads. Especially on a spring weekend, through the scenic Tennessee Valley and the Heart of Dixie. They can shop for treasures, eat great food, join the festivities, or just enjoy the scenery or the friendly folks.

U.S. Highway 11 is, itself, an “antique”and serves as a route from the southernmost tip of Louisiana to New York state. The 502 mile “Happenin” is the brain child of Tourism and Chamber of Commerce directors in the corridor who have formed the Antique Alley Association, and who felt confident that the event could conceivable bring some 10,000 visitors, but in fact brought more than 30,000 through their counties during the three-day period. Because of the additional 252 miles in 2002, the days have been expanded to FOUR. Antique dealers, flea market vendors, and yard sale enthusiasts are expected to line the route from Meridian, Mississippi through Birmingham, Alabama, Dade County, Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee with Bristol, Virginia being the end of the event.