South of the Border (SOTB), that iconic, kitschy relic from the early 1950s, has been experiencing some hard times for years. Located on I-95, just south of the border between North Carolina and South Carolina, the roadside complex offers bathrooms, gasoline, restaurants, a bar, and a motel (that we stayed in a coupla years back), along with stores that sell everything from fireworks to every piece of kitschy goodness you can imagine. Here’s a summary of our pre-Covid visit.
SOTB was very popular with people driving up and down I-95 back in the 50s, 60s, and even into the 70s. But even by the 1980s, it was starting to show some rough edges. More people were flying instead of driving, plus there were many other rest stops that had cleaner, more modern facilities – so less people were making a stop to visit “the land of Pedro “We questioned if it was SOTB’s swan song when a Buc-ee’s location opened just 30 minutes south of SOTB. But it’s been a coupla years and the complex is still open (albeit getting grungier every day).
South of the Border may not be dead just yet, but we just got wind of some news that we wonder if it could spell the beginning of its end – the owners of SOTB are looking to sell about 30 acres of the complex. The price is listed at $2.85 million.
Granted, the parts they’re selling – the Pedroland amusement park, the “SOB Convention Center,” a motel, a mini-golf course, some vacant land and a former casino – have been closed or at least not in use for years. And the iconic sombrero-themed observation tower, souvenir stores and restaurants, a motel and campground and the reptile lagoon aren’t part of the property that’s for sale.
But still – SOTB hasn’t gotten the hordes of people it used to garner since well before the turn of the century. Even when we visited in 2017 or so, and stayed over in 2024, we wondered how it even stayed open – it was usually a ghost town, with just a handful of visitors there at any given moment.
Will the rest of the complex eventually be sold off too? Time will tell.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
