Planning Ahead for a Successful JUNK JAUNT®

The JUNK JAUNT® is the largest garage sale in the state of Nebraska.  Sometimes antiquers and garage sale buffs are lovingly referred to as ’Junkers’, thus the name.  It is 3 days of city-wide garage, yard & bake sales with “treasures” of just about every type and description. Along the way, in unexpected places, there will also be fun & unique things to SEE & DO (a chalk mine, 1870‘s frontier fort, wagon rides, karaoke and museums).

You will also find food courts and plenty of laughs.

THERE ARE A NUMBER OF THINGS THAT YOU MIGHT WANT TO BRING WITH YOU.

• CASH — Most garage sales and mobile food vendors will not accept checks nor are they set up to take credit cards.
• A SUN HAT and JACKET OR COAT — Nebraska weather in late September is rather unpredictable. It can be beautiful fall weather, or is can be chilly (50 deg.), windy, rainy, or all of the above in one weekend.
• YOUR PILLOW and a SLEEPING BAG — This is said in jest, however, if you plan to stay overnight and do not have reservations, you may find yourself scrambling for a place to sleep.
• YOUR SENSE OF ADVENTURE — Come prepared to to have fun and make new friends in unexpected places.
• And above all, PLEASE BRING YOUR BRAIN!  Your DRIVING BRAIN that is.  Nobody has been seriously hurt YET, but a number of narrow misses.

Examples . . . . . . . . . .

• Drivers suddenly stop their car and the car following could not stop in time.
• Drivers are so preoccupied with getting to the next sale they forget to look…. and turn in front of oncoming traffic.
• Drivers parking on the shoulder of the highway (illegal parking), fling open their car door and step out in front of moving traffic.

REMEMBER:  The people with the sirens, badges and traffic ticket books are also on the highways during JUNK JAUNT®, trying to keep you safe.  Do not let one careless moment spoil your JUNK JAUNT® experience.

The “Burma-Shave” ditties scattered throughout the Shopper Guide are not just for your entertainment, they carry a Safety Message as well!

Nebraska’s  JUNK JAUNT®  is always held the last FULL weekend in September … the last Friday, Saturday and Sunday of September.

This year’s dates are Friday, September 27  –  Sunday, September 29, 2019.

Probably not!  With over 500 Registered Vendors it is a remote impossibility that one can visit all the sales in 3 days.  One would need a very quick “shopping eye” or the need to exceed the speed limit.  Exceeding the speed limit is not advised!

To help you visit the sales that are of the most interest to you, we provide a JUNK JAUNT® Shopper Guide 

This 112-130 page guide will help you pick and choose your route according to the merchandise offered and the time you have to shop.  You can shop for an hour, half a day, all day or two or three days.

Vendors are encouraged to be open from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm or later, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  However, this is not always the case.  The hours of each sale are listed in the JUNK JAUNT® Shopper Guide.

That is anyone’s guess. We have towns with 6-10 sales while others have 25-30 sales, and a couple with over 100 vendor locations. Some people shop faster that others. You set your own shopping pace. Don’t rule out the “small villages” as they sometimes have more vendors than the larger towns.

There is no designated starting point or stopping point.  All of the towns organize 3 days of sales and fun.  It is designed so, no matter what direction your are coming from, the first town you hit can be your starting point.  You customize your own route according to the time you have.  Here again, the JUNK JAUNT® Shopper Guide can be very valuable if you are shopping for a particular type of merchandise, trying to cover the most distance, or have a limited amount of time.

Each of the past 3 years, we have had between 400 & 500 vendors, scattered throughout 35-40 towns.

Each year there are about 35 villages and towns that are part of Nebraska’s JUNK JAUNT®. About 20 towns are located on the actual Byway ‘loop’ while the others are located on both the west & east sides of the loop and in the center of the ‘loop’. Each JUNK JAUNT® town organizes itself so sales and events can be as unique as is the town itself. 

Nebraska’s JUNK JAUNT® is located in north-central Nebraska.  The JUNK JAUNT® route forms a ‘loop’, much like the Support our Troops ribbon or the Breast Cancer ribbon.  One end of this loop begins in Wood River, located about 30 miles west of Grand Island, NE and just north of Interstate 80 highway.  From Wood River it follows  the Loup Rivers Scenic Byway (Hwy 11) north to Burwell, NE where it changes to Hwy. 91 west.  It follows Hwy. 91 west to its’ beginning at the small village of Dunning, NE.

Dunning is the top of the JUNK JAUNT®™‘loop’ and where the Loup Rivers Scenic Byway joins the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway (Hwy 2) heading south and east.  The other end of the ‘loop’ stops in Grand Island, Nebraska.