South of the Border!

As a fan of Roadside America I have of course heard of South of the Border. It is a legendary bit of tacky kitsch in South Carolina. It was never close to where we were going on a trip, but when we drove to Willmington to pick up Millie, our route took us right by! I hadn't done any research about our route before we left, but we started seeing billboards and I started freaking out!

This place is super dated, but it is a beautiful example of a mid-century tourist trap. And there are a million photo ops!

We had two dogs with us, so we couldn't go in any of the buildings, but that was fine. There was so much stuff to pose with outside!

I would love to have this guy in my yard!

Kabuki is a great poser!

I'll take this guy as well. 

Every single building was adorable.

We had only had Millie a few hours when we stopped here, but she was already settling in. She LOVES riding in the sling! She was happy to just hang out in there.

I love this too! I wanted to get a picture with it, but there was always a family getting their picture, or kids playing on it.

Family portrait. 

How many dog pictures is too many for one post? 

LOOK AT HER FACE!!!!

There is a bridge over the main road that has a nice view of more attractions. Like reptile lagoon and a restaurant in the shape of a sombrero. You can see "Pedro" the mascot in the front here. They could definitely stand to lose all the representations of him in the place. It is pretty racially insensitive for 2016. I would love to see this place updated a little (aka take out the racist stuff) but keep the vintage style charm.

I love the snake on here!

And this giant shell!! 

Travis and Kabuki listening to the ocean. 

He was very worried about this.

Guys, this is such a small fraction of the photos we took of the dogs. There were just too many places to pose! And Millie and Kabuki are so cute.

I mean, look at her!

Another family portrait. They painted jeans on this gorilla and it was so hilarious looking. 

Travis sat in the car with the air conditioning on so I could look around one of the many gift shops. It was FULL of so much junk! Some of it awesome, and some of it seemed like it has been there for 40 years!

I bought this mug, I couldn't resist!

I wanted one of these ash trays, but I resisted.

They were selling the BEST postcards for 10 cents each. I think I sent three to Crystal because I liked them so much! They seemed really old, I wonder how many old boxes of postcards they have stacked in the back. They had a post office box right outside, perfect!

I bought this too. Obviously. 

I mean.

We drove from South of the Border to a hotel for the night. The pups slept in bed with us, and the next morning we continued on through Asheville. Of course we had to stop for some doughnuts at Vortex. Delish! 

Then we went home. It was a LONG couple of days. Over 20 hours of driving from Friday night until Sunday afternoon! But it was so worth it. Mildred is a perfect addition to our family.

Funtown Mountain: Jewel of Cave City

One of the activities at the "Grand Awesoming" was hitting each other with fun-noodles while wearing vintage mascot heads. My kind of a game! Marc and I picked heads and went at it. I'm not sure who won...

Another star attraction was the Haunted Hotel! I'm a total scaredy baby but I knew I had to do it.

You are greeted by Charmin' Charlie playing his organ. Then you push through the front door into pitch blackness and tight hallways. AHHHH!

It was so scary! But fun scary. It was mostly lights coming on to show a plastic skeleton, or a gross rubber corpse. We screamed so loud! I kind of loved it/hated it.

Cute details everywhere.

Lebowski van in the parking lot. I have the "I can get you a toe" one on my car.

It was such a fun day. I wish we could have stayed for the outdoor viewing of Pee Wee's Big Adventure, but we had to get back to Nashville to see Miss Fame perform at Play. More about that later.

Since we were in town I wanted to show Crystal and Marc some of my favorite haunts. I really wanted to do the Mystery House but we missed the last tour by a few minutes! Dang!

These old stickers are the best thing in the shop, believe me!

At least we got to pose with Big Mo. Such a cutie! And the same species as the star of the new Jurassic World! Did you see it yet? I LOVED it!

His tooth came off!

And of course we had to stop by the teepees. I want to stay there again! I'm hoping later this summer we can do one of the outdoor movies at Funtown then stay here. Perfect weekend!

I love you Cave City!

Funtown Mountain: Grand Awesoming!

I have been stoked about the "Grand Awesoming" of Funtown Mountain since I heard about it a few months ago. The guy who owns one of my favorite stores, Why Louisville, and runs Lebowskifest bought a rundown Western theme park in Cave City and is giving it a makeover. This is just the first phase of many, I can't wait until it's done! Opening day had scattered storms which put a damper on things (pun intended?) but Crystal, Marc and I had a great time! Sadly, Travis had to work and couldn't be there.

Greeted by an animatronic band. Love it.

Always the cutest window displays.

In the gift shop there was a whole random section with shelves full of cool weird vintage and modern stuff. There were so many things I wanted! Like this wind up elephant.

I was so close to buying this big chalkware dog! They had a whole chalk carnival prize section! I'm a sucker for those. I have a little collection you can see here.

Seriously, just cute stuff everywhere. The guy that owns this place has very similar taste to me. I would love to see his house!

They have their own take on the "old fashioned photo" here, and just five bucks! You dress yourself up and the photo is taken in photobooth on a Mac and printed out for you! Isn't that a great idea? We did one of these before in Gatlinburg and I think it was something like $35 bucks!

Crystal was in love with this tiny dress and I couldn't stop laughing. It is so perfect and short! And the hat! I couldn't find much that fit me, so I went funeral chic. I ended up liking it.

Love it! Even if the frame isn't the right way, haha!

We ran out to get shaved iced between rain showers. Shaved ice/sno balls must be popular right now because trucks/stands are everywhere! I don't think I've had shaved ice in years, but I've probably had it 5 times in the past few weeks! Marc got tiger blood at my suggestion (it is my fav!), Crystal and I couldn't resist the butter beer flavor. It was pretty good!

I'll be back to share the rest of our adventure with you!