Sharon Baroncelli from the Shenandoah County Chamber of Commerce talks Rt 11 Yard Crawl!

The Route 11 Yard Crawl is back for another huge year! Mile after mile of deals and fun- here's what you can expect!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Sharon Baron Chelly's on the line withus from the Chamber of Commerce in Shenandoah
County, and you guys are gettingvery busy for this Saturday. It's the
yard Crawl. We're very excited.It's such a great time of year for
our businesses and our nonprofits and thecommunity and a great chance to welcome visitors
to the valley and make some money. So this route eleven Yard Crawl.

(00:23):
How long has it been going on? This is our eighteenth year. What
well, And it's incredible, youknow. I talked to friends from out
of town and friends from over themountain who'd never been to it. It's
a pretty awesome site. It's ahuge display. How many miles does it
go? It's so much fun.Forty three plus miles, starting to matter

(00:44):
where you come from along the eyetyone quarter. It could be Stephens City
on one end in Frederick County,or it could be Newmarket on the other
end in Shenandoah County. And boy, it is crazy to see all of
the things that people have got setup. Whose idea was this? Where
did this come from? Suzie Hill? Do you remember Shanandoah Suzie eighteen years
ago? The very big in thetourism industry for the state of Virginia,

(01:10):
and typically, even though it's agreat travel destination, retail sales are a
little slower over the summer. Sowe wanted a reason to come to the
valley and spend money. And thisis the brainchild of Suzie Hill. Wow,
and all these years later, suchan enormous success. People talk about
it all over So tell us whatwe should know about this year's yard crawl.

(01:30):
Weekends in the year for our retailers, and we start hearing from people
who are wanting to make their travelplans for the summer around the yard crawl.
They come as far as a way. We have nine we've heard from
Hawaii before that are going to beon the East coast and they want to
be a part of this. Allstates to the south of US. It's

(01:52):
pretty exciting to see and so geta lot of folks have moved in.
This will be their first time.Describe what they'll see throughout the forty three
miles and it's call the crawl fora reason. We are not going to
go our regular speeds on eleven.You are going to have individual homeowners set
up yard sales and their property.Businesses all have specials going. We have

(02:14):
twelve large sites throughout the crawl thathave anywhere from fifty to one hundred and
fifty vendors. At these large sites, there's plenty of parking. At the
large site, there's parking along Routeeleven. We make it very important that
folks do not park on Route elevenitself, but move to the shoulder of

(02:34):
the road and keep their eyes alertfor people crossing the road. But the
large sites, Laurel Ridge Community Collegehas over one hundred and fifty vendors,
not only the yard sales, butthey've got food vendors. And all of
our large sites have bathroom facilities aswell too, and that is so important.
So the thing that I want toalways stress it, if you remind

(02:55):
people over and over, is whatI call yard sale zombies, because because
there's just so much stuff that ifyou're driving your car, your eyes can
go to, oh what is that? Oh what is that? Because we
live in the age of adho adh, Oh, my gosh, what's
that? And and so you gottabe very right. So you gotta be

(03:17):
careful when you're driving, but alsobe careful for the people who are the
zombies walking right who are like theysee one thing and right across the street.
Oh my gosh, I've been lookingfor that. And then they go
right across the street and they don'teven look. So we have all got
to be careful and watch out foreach other. But it is, it
is so massive and so fun.It is. It's it's just so much

(03:37):
fun. You'd never know what you'regoing to get. Oh, what you're
going to find. It's great sales, great bargains. It's ant cheeks,
it's vintage, it's junk. It'sjust it's a little bit of everything.
It's true. Is there anything inparticular you look for during the yard sale
that I myself, I'm I'm busy. I don't get to show. I

(03:58):
thought that might be your aunts.Yea, yeah, a lot of your
shop. I don't get to shop. I'm visiting. We're doing pictures,
We're building phone calls all day longand visitors just directing them around, which
is great. We've got the ScavengerHunt returning. If they download the Traits
app, go to our Facebook pageand they can follow all the information of

(04:19):
about the Scavenger Hunt. That's prettyfun. So what are the common questions
that you get about the round elevenYard Crawl. We get a lot of
questions of people who want to bevendors. How do they set up?
We're to set up. We getthe traveling. We are the visitors center
and we'll direct them. We're forlodging establishments, were to eat. They

(04:42):
want to know best places to shop. Those are the main things. T
shirts I think would follow suit next. They want to get their T shirt.
So if I guess, the answersto all those questions would be where
the Route eleven Yardcrawl dot org oryou can try us on the official Route
eleven Yard Crawl Facebook page. Alot of information between now and Saturday is

(05:04):
going to be posted there, orjust give us a call here at the
Chamber office five four zero four fivenine two five four two Sharon, Is
there anything else that you would likepeople to know? As we head into
this weekend, be prepared for slowertraffic, eyes on the road and on
the walkers. Bring lots of waterwalking shoes, and look out for the

(05:29):
Rat eleven Yard Crawl balloons that'll signifyplaces that have specials going on and they're
part of the scavenger hunt as well. And it is officially just Saturday.
Is that correct? Officially Saturday.We love to work with our public safety
officials and they like to keep itin check. One day a year is
good. However, you know,the spirit and enthusiasm has grown in the

(05:53):
community, so folks get early starts. Yeah, they do. Well.
Listen, I know you've got abusy weekend. You take your vitamin and
the water and all the rest ofit, and we're going to have a
lot of fun. The Route elevenYard Crawl is here already this Saturday,
and you can find out all aboutit. Again. What's your website Route
eleven yardcral dot org. Rout elevenYardcrawl dot org. Sharon, it's always

(06:16):
a pleasure to talk with you.Thank you so much for joining us this
morning. Thank you, Chris rightback at Yeah, you have a good week