South of the Border
- Thread starter MSCH
- Start date
MSCH
Well-known member
I have been to both Pedro's South of the Border and Wall Drug numerous times. Wall Drug is worth a stop once in a lifetime. If one never stops at Pedro's South of the Border, nothing will be missed.
Wall Drug's story/ history on it's founding enhances the stop,
Roadside Attraction Wall South Dakota
Promising free ice water to all visitors, a simple thought eventually turned into a million-dollar idea for the roadside attraction in Wall, South Dakota.
MSCH
Well-known member
fellas, I think stopping at those places is just a step back in time to when Amerika was not so totally repetitively commercial.
Main reason for stopping nowadays is just to see a piece of automotive travel history, a blast from the past.
remember that old days stuff... seeing SEE ROCK CITY signs all over, or Wall Drug.. all that stuff is gone.
all the old tourist traps are slowly disappearing and it is worth it to get pictures of them before they are gone.
Main reason for stopping nowadays is just to see a piece of automotive travel history, a blast from the past.
remember that old days stuff... seeing SEE ROCK CITY signs all over, or Wall Drug.. all that stuff is gone.
all the old tourist traps are slowly disappearing and it is worth it to get pictures of them before they are gone.
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MSCH
Well-known member
yes and no.. Its a gas station literally halfway between FL and NY. not much around there.
you can imagine back in the day it was just a way to get people to stop.
all of those places have disappeared.
US road travel via Interstate is just an endless repetition of McDonalds, Denny's and chain gas stations like Racetrac, Buccee's etc
I remember first coming to Floriduh in the early 80's and the Citrus Stops were spaced out along several interstates and old roads
selling Alligator heads, and Tshirts and oranges and boiled peanuts etc .
just old fashioned..but they are almost gone
there is still one in Citra Floriduh that goes way back... it is on US 301... so time sort of bypassed the area and it doesn't look much different than it did 50 years ago.
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Azjeff
Active member
We've always been destination travelers. Pick someplace interesting, drive there in a day (or 2) and spend a week or whatever then drive home. 2 reasons for it, as a kid we always did a 2 week vacation with a pop-up camper. Parents wanted to see things and show us kids things so we seldom stayed anywhere longer than 2 days. It was drive, set up, take down, drive, again and again. All my sister and I wanted was to stay somewhere and swim or play or whatever. Didn't want to put our kids though that. The second reason was we owned a small business and didn't have unlimited vacation time so we had to make the best use of 7-10 days and spending most days driving wasn't best use of time. So we didn't/don't stop at places like South of the Border, but we're trying to change how we travel now that we have all the time we want. We like to hike, bike, get out away from people and see the cliff dwelling you have to hike to, not the one you can drive up and walk to the end of the paved trail to see. I really want to do a trip this spring that we stay off of the interstates as much as possible and see what we find along the way. Maybe. Tourist traps new or old don't interest us too much it seems. And traveling with dogs changes what you do too.
MSCH
Well-known member
I grew up the opposite.. my parents would take us one place and stay there for 2 weeks.. which is fine when you are a child , because every kid utters " HOW MUCH LONGER TIL WE GET THERE" all the way no matter if it is 20 miles or 2000
. I agree on the time schedule with travelling with time limitations, you generally don't have alot of time to see the sites, especially with kids along.. so you pick one or two.
Once my kids got bigger we didn't take them anymore, as they preferred to stay with their grandparent's.
So we have taken the road less travelled most of the last 20 years.. We try not to plan, because my wife is good for
saying " hey, can we stop here or go to this place" , which aren't exactly on the route we were taking. So I divert all the time.
Probably explains why it is hard for me to say I will be there on a specific day.. I might get sidetracked. Its fun that way, unless you are OCD.
MSCH
Well-known member
no, that isn't OCD,,, OCD is the person who has a multi week trip planned out day by day and hour by hour, right down to the time they will pull out of their driveway, the time allotted for a particular gas station where they will buy gas, what restaurant they are eating at at what time, etc... all the way out to the end.. and gets worked up when something interferes with the plan..
Now you're talking! When we retire we think we'll purposely avoid the interstates as much as possible. We have already driven from IL to CO avoiding interstates a couple times and it sure it much less harried, much more enjoyable.
My wife took a picture of me leaning on that guy.
MSCH
Well-known member
yeah, its a better way to travel as long as you just don't want to make as many miles per day. It will take a little longer but you will probably never get trapped on the highway if something goes wrong and the added advantage of not having to just stop at an exit and deal with that mess. You just see a place along the road and say he lets stop and get this or that instead of being force fed to an Exit..
I just had to run to Orlando yesterday,( we used to have to go to Orlando regularly with my RV, so this was the route that was best) my BIL died and they were planting him service at 930 AM, just past the peak of rush hour in prime snowbird season..
.. I live near Naples F, and there are 3 basic indirect routes to take and the best one for me is the back way thru the Everglades, to Moore Haven and then Okeechobee Fl, then up to Yeehaw Junction and get on FL turnpike there. because I could take I 75 to I 4 which is like sticking an needle in your eye , or I could take SR 29 to Palmdale Fl and then US 27 to I 4 which is just an alternative way of sticking a needle in your eye... or the way I do go to Orlando, which is2 lane obscure county or state roads for 140 miles... and then the turnpike the rest of the way..
when you get in the lower populated areas of this country, those old highways are in many cases much more easy on the psyche..