South of the Border

If you've driven Interstate 95 from Virginia to South Carolina in the past 51 years, you've seen the florescent green, orange and yellow signs for South of the Border.

Unapologetically tacky, the billboards lure motorists off the highway with promises of souvenirs, fireworks, a place to eat and sleep, and discount tickets to Florida attractions -- never mind that you're still hundreds of miles from Jacksonville and even further from Orlando.

The first few signs at the North Carolina border are an interesting diversion on from the flat, rural concrete stretch of interstate. A giant sombrero-clad mascot, Pedro, who adorns all the billboards, offers such pithy prose as "You never sausage a place!"

Then it begins to sink in -- you have 150 miles and perhaps another 75 billboards before you hit the South Carolina border. Worse still, the kids have noticed the signs. They start to read them to you. Little voices cheerfully announce from the back seat, "Only 75 more miles to South of the Border...now only 70 more miles...now only..."

Well, you get the picture.

You know your fate is sealed: There's no way you're going to make it to Florida without stopping at South of the Border. The signs become more frequent as you approach Dillon, South Carolina. Then, just when you think seeing another Pedro will drive you mad, a 200-foot-high sombrero looms out of the sandy scrub.

Burritos, burgers, hotdogs, chili dogs are among the refreshments offered. In the background, the famous giant sombrero.

You have arrived at South of the Border.

For a price, you can take an elevator ride to the top of the sombrero, which offers panoramic views of...the miles of Interstate 95 you've just driven, and the hundreds of miles still ahead of you.

You could have predicted that a Mexican-theme attraction hundreds of miles from Mexico (and on the wrong coast) would look suspiciously like a tourist trap. Yet, the place is not without its charm. It harkens to family vacations before the bland uniformity and predictability of chain restaurants and hotels. South of the Border is from an era when the car drive was as much of an adventure as the final vacation destination.

Roadside America, a self-described online guide to offbeat attractions, calls South of the Border "one of the seven wonders." It stops short of saying seven wonders of what.

The place remains remarkably unchanged from year to year. Pedro smiles down from everywhere...the fireworks store, the gift shops, even the rest rooms. He seems charmingly innocent, oblivious to the threats to his very existence by encroaching modern development.

The owner and originator of South of the Border, 83-year-old Alan Shafer, did make one concession to modern times and political correctness a few years ago. Billboards that had Pedro speaking broken English were replaced in response to complaints of insensitivity from the Mexican Embassy and other organizations.

Baby Boomers, Shafer sniffed in an interview with the Raleigh News and Observer, have no sense of humor. Then, in true entrepreneurial spirit, Shafer gathered photos of the billboards into a booklet, "Pedro Presents Award Weening Billboards!" The booklet has a printed price of $1.00, but sells for 50 cents.

Tourists love a bargain.