With a passion for travel, Patricia McDaniel has come up with a creative way to subsidize her on-the-road adventures on one of the nation's most historic byways.

An antique dealer from Dublin, Ind., this nomad recently passed through Washington County promoting her Historic National Road Yard Sale Days.

"I've always been attracted to the lure of what may be around the bend," said Ms. McDaniel who's supported herself for 23 years through the sale of antiques in her home, build in 1837 on the National Pike (Route 40). It is the second oldest in Dublin, a small town of fewer than 700 residents, east of Indianapolis.

Wanderlust struck her early. While an undergraduate at Indiana University, she chose to write a paper on Frederick Jackson Turner and his theme of western expansion and the effect of the frontier on the American psyche. She also became a fan of Bill Moyer's "Listening to America" in which he wrote of his impressions of the American towns he visited, and William Least-Heat Moon's "Blue Highway," a chronicle of traveling for three months around the country.

In 2004, Ms. McDaniel implemented a plan designed to indulge her love of both travel and antiques when she launched the first Historic National Road Yard Sale Days on a 37-mile stretch of the National Road in Wayne County, Ind.

"I knew the bicentennial of the National Road was coming up in 2006 and wanted to create something everyone could participate in," she said. "So I contacted the county tourism office and passed out flyers. Because my goal is to not spend money, I avoided advertising, but the event yielded bumper to bumper traffic."

The humongous yard sale got the attention of the print and broadcasting media, which made yard sale number two an even bigger success. The following year, she decided to take the event even further afield and began promoting it in the six states traversed by the National Road. After finding someone in each county who organized yard sales, she asked them to be her local rep. To get the word out, she began a 30-day road trip that took her and Mr. Eli, her Airedale-Wolfhound mix, from St. Louis to Baltimore on the National Road, an 824-mile stretch of highway.

Along the way she stayed at bed and breakfasts and ate in restaurants on a complimentary basis in exchange for a write-up in her trip Journal, a link on her Web site. On her travels, she said, she's dined on everything from barbecue sandwiches to four-course dinners.

"I have three do-nots when I travel -- I never travel with a radio or cell phone, I don't eat in chain restaurants and I never travel with anyone else because they interfere with me talking to the locals," she said. (Mr. Eli has since passed on).

During her most recent visit to Washington County earlier this month, she left yard sale brochures with the Tourism Promotion Agency in Washington and contacted Jan Dunker, owner of Jan's Tea Shoppe in Scenery Hill, a woman Ms. McDaniels calls a "mover and shaker in the area."

"I think the yard sale concept is a good one, and I'm going to try to get people in the area to put out things the week of the National Road Yard Sale," said Mrs. Dunker. "However, I think it'll take a group effort and several years to really get the idea off the ground."

Before starting out on her travels, Ms. McDaniel books all her lodging in advance. While on the road, she takes copious notes about the places where she stays and dines and uses them for her travel journal commentaries, which she updates from computers in local libraries and hostelries.

No stranger to the road, she spent 3¹/₂ months traveling around Australia and New Zealand 11 years ago, financing the trip with insurance money left over after her mother's burial. Although she has never married, she said she had her chances but likes her freedom even more. She also claims to never get homesick or lonely on the road and she tries to stop early enough in the evening to ensure her safety.

"When people see my Yard Sale logo on the side of my van and sweatshirt, they usually open up and become friendly," she said.

Now in its fifth year, the Historic National Road Yard Sale falls the first Wednesday through Sunday after Memorial Day. Her rationale for the time slot is that people aren't yet on vacation, youngsters aren't yet in summer school and the weather is usually pleasant.

"If I had to pinpoint why I do what I do, I'd have to say it's partly to fulfill a baby boomer's dream of a road trip, partly to draw people's attention to my antique store and partly to give something back to the communities along the National Road," she said.

For more information, go to www.oldstorefrontantiques.com or e-mail Ms. McDaniel at info@oldstorefrontantiques.com.