Another childhood memory meets the wrecking ball.
 

One more old time place meets its fate..
I'm sure this will be familiar to our east coast pelicans.
Stopping there on all those road trips down to Florida whe I wS young. (Even though I still pass it # of times a year.

Back then it was great. When I got older you realize how cheezy the place was.:D

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I remember that place from my early childhood family trips.

Wow.

I remember all the I-95 billboard signs counting down the miles to South of the Border. For a bored kid in a car on 6-8 hour trip, the anticipation was unreal.

South of the border was the gateway. The beaches weren't that far away!

My dad would always stock up on Fireworks(on the way back), putting on the most spectacular shows for the neighbors over the neighborhood lake. Smuggling all that into Virginia where you couldn't buy quality fireworks, they weren't so much fireworks, as mortar rounds. Such is the life of a suburban outlaw. ;)

Have driven by that place so many times over the years . It was a little hokey but fun in it's own way . Anyone know if anything is planned to replace it ?

Chili Today, Hot Tamale!

News paper quoted;Renovating and upgrading the attractions.

The older you get, the more this happens. Having lived in this small area most of our lives, we use landmarks over street names to navigate. Often saying thing like: "Where Ray's 76 Union station was"...

The landmarks may change, but the locations don't.

Oh man, South of the Border is a fixture on I-95. Several times our family would use the kids' spring break to drive all night from Northern VA to the Florida Keys for scuba diving trips. I vividly remember seeing the signs miles beforehand and those things would sometimes be the only thing keeping me awake (oh, and maybe an energy drink) as I drove by at 2:30 am.

South of the Border: You never Sausage a place! :D That one was my favorite.

Never visited it myself, but have many childhood memories of the billboards and especially the bumper stickers. Adios.

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..

.

Me too. We'd always hit those on the way to Jacksonville to visit family.

Wow, bummer, like others here, the count down helped pass the time on family vacations.

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I remember seeing those signs when a group of us would go from Fort Bragg down to Myrtle Beach back in the 70s.

We made a cannon ball run there one time from NOVA to load up on Fireworks when I was in maybe 9th grade. An older guy drove and we made money on the deal selling a lot of what we bought for WAY more than we paid.

I just say the signs in July in NC when we drove south to the beach.

That is a shame to see it torn down, but maybe it will bring the folks back in if its renovated.

Is it gone for good or demo'd to steve austin it ( bigger better stronger faster)???

Now where am i going to go for rubber dog **** and bumper stickers everyone hates on their bumper???

Wow, yeah. I remember South of the Border. We never stopped, but I've ridden and driven past it a few times.

WOW- always looked forward to stopping in as a kid. I agree with Vinny though. It was a bit creepy the last time I stopped.

Still going to mis it.

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.

Spent a night there on the way to visit my oldest brother in Virginia.

It was during the 1993 Chicago Bulls championship (first 3-peat) season and that night they played Game 6 against the Knicks and won the championship.

I watched it on TV at South of the Border. :D

??

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/

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.

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.

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

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.

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

It looks like the forum isn't updating. :(

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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."

This also happened a few weeks ago.

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

It looks like the forum isn't updating.

Also shows I'm the only user logged in.

ay caramba!

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