Driving north on I-95 from Florida to the Carolinas, you see a bunch of strange signs. They start at Daytona Beach, Fla., and continue every few miles.
They’re big. They’re in neon colors. Many have a sombrero. Some are bad jokes; some are simple statements. One has a giant hot dog and says, “You Never Sausage a Place! (You’re always a weiner at Pedro’s) South of the Border.” Another with a hippie smiley face says, “Smile! You’re Almost There! South of the Border.” Or: “Your sheep are all counted at South of the Border” or “Kid Stuff! South of the Border.” (From the north, the signs start at the Virginia/North Carolina border.)
What is this “South of the Border” place? At first, maybe at the sign saying, “Only 263 miles to go,” you think it must be some gimmicky shop or something. But what little shop would put that kind of money into promoting itself? So you just have to pull off the highway to see what this thing is.
Curiosity has gotten the better of more than one trucker. “Pedro has more billboards than there are mile markers in the Carolinas,” says driver Doug Troxell of Higginsport, Ohio. Pedro is the nickname of Alan Schafer, who created the place.
The first thing you see from the interstate just south of the North Carolina-South Carolina border is a 22-story tower with a sombrero on top. It has a glass elevator leading up to the rim of the hat, from which you can look down on the interstate and surrounding pine trees.
Then you pull off the interstate, and you see bright colors everywhere. There are three gas stations, an 18-hole indoor miniature golf course, five restaurants, 10 shops and a 300-room motel. There’s a 40-foot-high monkey. Don’t ask. It’s a strange place.
Doug Troxell has been coming to South of the Border for more than 20 years. Sometimes he makes a family trip of it from Ohio.
