In Which I Go South of the Border

Greetings! I am back from beautiful, rainy Tampa. While on a 15-hour car ride, it is important to stop frequently to stretch. The best place to stop on I-95, if passing through South Carolina, is Pedro's South of the Border. It is the most garish, gaudiest, most tourist-trap mini-city I have ever seen. It looks like it must have been the coolest thing ever in 1958, but now it has withered away to "just passing through" status. The stores are tawdry and cheap. The diners look scary. The famous hat shop has fewer hats than your local toy store. On the other hand, it is definitely worth seeing. I couldn't believe my eyes. To make it even better, there are billboards advertising it for a hundred miles in each direction. the website, thesouthoftheborder.com,  has a collection of them to read. It makes driving more interesting, I'll tell you that.