LAKE CITY, Fla. — Two sisters drove from Jacksonville to Lake City in a truck packed with everything from trash bags full of clothes to a box of griddle tools on Sept.12.
“We decided we would go as far west as we could make it,” Tammy Czigan, 57, said, “until we fill up the truck, run out of money or get to the other end of Florida. Whichever comes first.”
Czigan and her younger sister, Cindy Harrold, began their mission after hearing about Flea Across Florida on Facebook — a chain of yard sales and vendors that stretches along U.S. Route 90 from Jacksonville to Pensacola.
The event happens twice a year — the second weekend of September and the second weekend of April, unless it falls around Easter. Participants can find each specific location on a map that the administrator, Terri Thomason, creates and posts on Facebook.
“It’s a way to bring people back to the rural areas that the major highways have taken business away from,” Thomason said. “It brings revenue into our small towns.”
Thomason took over in 2019, motivated by her love of yard sales and repurposing.
“No one else was stepping forward, and I couldn’t stand to see it go away,” the 57-year-old from MacClenny said.
However, she believes that even without any formal organization, the event would find a way to continue.
“It has a life of its own,” Thomason said, explaining that many vendors have been there for years and would probably still set up.
In the future, Thomason hopes to see more advertising done and more coordinators, at least one for each county. Thomason and her team are all volunteers. As a result, she also wants to find some way to offset the expenses, such as selling T-shirts or hats.
After 20 years of the event, people are still coming to Flea Across Florida. Some even drive from outside of the state and from all over Florida, according to Thomason.
Czigan and Harrold came to unwind after catering an 180-person wedding for their niece the weekend before. For them, yard sales are like good therapy.
“We shop at thrift stores. We rarely buy new things, and this is just our way of life. It just makes sense,” Harrold said.
The two grew up searching for the best deals. From a young age, their grandma would take them to yard sales with a serious outlook.
“If I wasn’t there at 7:30 in the morning, she would leave me,” Czigan said.
Czigan works as a photographer, and Harrold works as a caterer. Among their finds was a $5 pair of shoes, a $1 beach painting and a $1 pot.
“You don’t have to buy anything,” Czigan said.
“You leave with nothing or you leave with a treasure, something that you’re really happy with.”
Tami Palsrok, 51, has been selling at Flea Across Florida since 2023.
“I thought it would be fun to do something a little bit different since moving from Washington State,” Palsrok said, adding that she wanted to meet new people.
She lives in Madison County but came over to Lake City for this year’s event.
Palsrok was set up in front of Renewed Thrift Store, a nonprofit that asked vendors for a $10 donation to their food pantry.
The low price and good cause were enough for Palsrok to make the extra drive.
Palsrok’s products are a family endeavor. Her mother makes all the macrame, her spouse makes the leather keychains and she makes the scarves and her favorite creation — hair ties.
“They were inspired by my youngest daughter,” Palsrok said. “She has super thick hair. I wanted to buy her nice hair ties, but as you know, they are expensive. The dollar store ones, you get what you pay for. So I started making an in-between.”
14-year-old Grayson Patterson has been making 3D products for about a year. Now, he makes some money from his hobby.
This is Grayson’s and his mother, Nancy Grossman’s, second time participating in Flea Across Florida as vendors.
From models of ghosts to butterflies, Grayson said his favorite thing about 3D printing is “the ability to make all the things that I can.” Planes are a particular favorite of his.
10-year-old Khi Elliott brought home a new lizard companion from Grayson’s stand. The pink and purple 3D creation, named Jack, will add to his collection of around 10 lizard toys at home.
However, the addition of this new companion was a complete accident. Khi and his mother, Kim Elliott, weren’t even aware of the flea market. Elliott, 55, was driving when they spotted the tents and her son insisted on going.
Despite stumbling upon the flea market, Elliott thought it was a worthwhile stop.
It gets everyone out,” Elliott said. “You get fresh air, bargains and to socialize."
Among three tables of sparkling jewelry, beads, keychains and pens, you could find two businesses: Hogsett’s Crystals and Aunt G’s Treasure.
Jessica Hogsett and Angela Santos-Ventura, the respective owners, met on a TikTok live from China while purchasing beads and crystals to make jewelry. They began talking in chat and realized an incredible coincidence — the two lived only 30 minutes apart.
They met up a month later and began to bounce design ideas off each other, constantly evolving their jewelry and small businesses.
“We don’t do anything same-old-same-old. It’s always different,” Santos-Ventura said.
Flea Across Florida provided a great landscape for them to connect with other artists and crafters in the community.
“I like to talk to people," Hogsett said. “It opens us up to a whole new world of ideas and we meet a bunch of new friends.”
Santos-Ventura found that most of the sellers shared a common creativity.
“Most people are really kind and generous, especially here,” she said. “We bounce well off of each other because of that bond that we have.”