Another childhood memory meets the wrecking ball.

[flatbutt]

??

https://www.sobpedro.com/

https://www.thisismysouth.com/what-the-heck-is-south-of-the-border/

https://www.thecommontraveler.net/is-south-of-the-border-sc-worth-visiting/

[A930Rocket]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

The last time I actually stopped in there 3 yrs ago. The place was disturbingly creepy. Was like a ghost town. Shelves in shops were bare. One or two people in the restaurants..

.

Agreed. The first time I drove back there in years, was when the kids were little. I saw the signs and said, we have to stop! We finally got there, walked around a little bit, drove around a little bit and got the hell out of Dodge. It was old and outdated.

I can remember back in the 60s, as you pulled in, they had workers attaching a south of the border bumper sticker, but back then, with chrome bumpers, it was held on with wire.

During the summers, we passed going south to visit relatives in Georgia/Alabama. On the way back, we stopped to pick up some fireworks, on our way back to Connecticut.

[berettafan]

Same as others here, as a kid it was exciting to count down the miles on family trips to Disney. Only stopped a time or two.

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by mocha07

News paper quoted;Renovating and upgrading the attractions.

Ok so it's going to continue as the attraction just renovating . Good luck to them I hope it is a success .

[hbueno]

Stopped there once only to find it was a cheesy tourist trap. The billboards were entertaining, though. It's demise is sad only because things that seem to have existed forever in our lifetime are actually just blips in the greater scheme of things.

[id10t]

Still have my late 80s vintage T-Shirt from there.... god the memories of that place on family vacations...

[sc_rufctr]

It looks like the forum isn't updating.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by masraum

I've often wondered what it would be like to have lived a "normal" life like that. But if someone offered me that option at the snap of their fingers, I'd keep what I had. Starting when I was 4 or 5, we started moving around. I seemed to have been more fortunate than some military brats in that most of the time we were in one place for 2-3.5 years. I didn't really start to "put down roots" until I moved to Houston. The first half of my life was moving every 3 years or so. The second half so far has been pretty stable by comparison.

Still, even if I don't have a home and my relatives have all moved to other cities, my first "home" will always be FL, at least in spirit.

I know that feeling. Dad was an Air Force pilot, and every single year in school, except as a senior, I heard the phrase "Class this is Glen, the new student".

We lived in San Marcos, TX for two years, drive into Sn Marcos and for several hundred miles you will see the signs for Aquarena Springs, and the swimming pig!

We went a few times with out of town guests.

[Tobra]

Did you ever go to Natural Bridge Cavern near New Braunfels? Kids liked the exotic animal park adjacent to it better. Hope all those critters did not freeze last year

[Rikao4]

well the Caves still get folks..
but the snake and critter farms along the way are gone..
much of that part of 35 is one long outlet strip mall..


Rika

[GH85Carrera]

Anyone that has traveled I-44 in Missouri has seen the signs for this place.

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/missouri/massive-gift-shop-mo/

From what I hear, if there are kids in the car it is pretty much a must stop site. Since I have no kids in my car I have never stopped, but I sure see the signs for many miles.

Some signs promise free chocolate samples.

[URY914]

Kids don't look out the windows in cars anymore. They're glued to the screens. My wife is the same way. She's asleep or looking at her phone.

I wonder if those big billboard signs are even worth it these days.

[GH85Carrera]

We made a trip up to the Lake of the Ozarks from Oklahoma City with a group of Porsches a few years back. One of the guys driving a 993 went with his wife and twin kids. They certainly saw the signs. He said they were pestering him for many miles to stop. Obviously they were fairly small kids to fit in a 993 back seat. They had to stop there on the way back as well.

[masraum]

It looks like the forum isn't updating.

I'm unable to "quote" anything using the quote or multi-quote functionality.

Did you ever go to Natural Bridge Cavern near New Braunfels? Kids liked the exotic animal park adjacent to it better. Hope all those critters did not freeze last year

There are a bunch of exotic animal things around here, and yes, last winter a lot of those exotic animals died. Native/local animals survived for the most part, but some of the tropical African animals could not deal with the cold. I've seen articles about thousands of animals dying.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210305005605/en/Texas-Wildlife-Ranch-Works-to-Recover-From-the-Devastating-Texas-Deep-Freeze

Bill Hall says, “We are heartbroken by the toll the storm took on our animals. We are afraid that more than 2,000 of our over 4,000 Axis deer population were lost, along with about 60% of our Black Buck antelope population. Fortunately, few of our Oryx were lost, although we can tell they are impacted by how slow they are to move away when approached. They just don’t have the energy to run. No Red Deer were lost, and, needless to say, as always the feral hogs are doing just fine.”

[masraum]

It looks like the forum isn't updating.

I see what you mean. New posts show up, but the home page is not updating to show those new posts. This thread is at the top of the list, is not updating post count and shows "berettafan"s last post as the "last post."

[sc_rufctr]

This also happened a few weeks ago.

[Baz]

[gordner]

Ah, many fond memories of that place from our annual drives down to Florida. Was a must stop when we were kids!

[dafischer]

It looks like the forum isn't updating.

Also shows I'm the only user logged in.

[DonDavis]

ay caramba!

Loved those billboards as a kid riding along in Dad's '67 MB 250S.