Billboarded to Death: Adventures on a Road Trip

A couple of years ago I posted about some of the mind games I play while bored on a road trip. During a similarly long road trip in June, I enjoyed seeing some unique kitschy ways to advertise tourist traps such as the “See Rock City” barns in northern Georgia.

In traditional geeky fashion, I got to thinking about some of the other attractions in America that start advertising about 200 miles before drivers will actually reach them, in the form of billboard…after billboard…after billboard.

I present to you a list, in no particular order, of some of the more familiar ways to be billboarded to death. I have seen several of these billboards personally and I consulted with other GeekMoms to include those in parts of the country with which I’m not familiar.

Let us know how many of these you’ve seen! (And how many of you get so sick of the billboards, you choose NOT to stop?)

1.) Wall Drug – Wall, South Dakota

Believe it or not, I’ve been here. My family took a trip to the Black Hills area to see Mount Rushmore, among other attractions, and like so many others we were suckered into pulling over to see check out all the hype. The billboards started for us as soon as we hit I-90 West in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at Exit 396. Wall Drug is at Exit 110. You do the math.

I first heard of Wall Drug while in college, having read Dave Barry’s Only Travel Guide You’ll Ever Need. The account of him refusing to stop at Wall Drug is hilarious, and we were in a similar situation in 2010. My husband and I bickered for 250 miles about whether we were going to actually pull off the road and see this place. We compromised and pulled off the interstate to drive past Wall Drug, but did NOT stop! Besides, we had our dog with us and the attractions didn’t seem too pet-friendly.

I don’t have any good pictures of the billboards, but this blog post has a nice collage and a better explanation of what a visit to Wall Drug is like. The billboards don’t have many words—several just say “Wall Drug.” or “Visit the T-Rex at Wall Drug,” so your curiosity is quite piqued by the time you get to Exit 110.

Of course, you think it’s a drug store, which it is in part, but there’s so much more! You’ll have to visit to fully experience all it has to offer.

2.) South of the Border – Dillon, South Carolina

When I was in elementary school in Virginia I remember friends coming back to school after summer break, donning black t-shirts with the words “South of the Border” splashed across them in fluorescent colors. I never went south on family trips because all of our vacations were to points north for some reason, so from about 1980 through 2002, I never knew what South of the Border actually was.

In 2002, while heading to Melbourne, Florida for our 4th military move, my husband and I began to see the billboards on I-95 South just across the Virginia/North Carolina border.

In the lower right corner of the billboard is a countdown of how many miles to go until you reach South of the Border. Many of the billboards offer a hint of what’s ahead: Mini Golf! The Africa Shop! Leather shop! Hot Dogs! Fireworks! But most of the billboards simply bug you to stop . My favorite kitschy South of the Border billboard is “You Never Sausage a Place.”

Wikimedia Commons has a catalog of billboards for your campy enjoyment.

Travel about 180 miles south down I-95 through North Carolina and the billboards become more and more frequent. Kids in the car will get excited like my nephews did on a 2007 trip we took to Florida. Cross into South Carolina and you’re greeted with a very campy, fluorescent-colored rest area complete with a sombrero water tower.

Hmmmm…frankly, the place freaked-me-the-heck out. I’ve never stopped. There never seemed to be a lot of cars and the campiness always made me suspicious.

As a piece of history, though, there’s some cultural significance. South of the Border was once a popular watering hole during a time when North Carolina’s Robeson County to the north was a dry county, meaning that alcohol sales were prohibited. Customers drove to Dillon to get their fill. The town’s geographic position at the crossroads of I-95 and U.S. routes 301 and 501 made it a popular stop, especially for vacationers heading to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Today, South of the Border is so big it has its own infrastructure, fire, and police service. Visit its official website here.

3.) Ron Jon Surf Shops – Assorted Locations

I can only speak for the Cocoa Beach, Florida location, although I have seen a few billboards for outlets in Panama City, Florida and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I’m guessing the company took advantage of the numerous highways leading to central Florida to do its billboard campaign on I-75, I-95, I-4, and Florida’s Turnpike.

Ron Jon Surf Shop was founded in 1959 in Ship Bottom, New Jersey and not long afterwards set up an outlet in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

Ron Jon’s in Cocoa Beach is pretty massive. According to Wikipedia, the Cocoa Beach location is currently the largest surf shop in the world with over 50,000 square feet of surfing, skating, and other tropical-themed paraphernalia. You can’t miss the building. It’s huge and brilliantly painted. For the 3 1/2 years that I lived on the Florida Space Coast, Ron Jon’s was the go-to attraction for our numerous visitors. It’s open 365 days a year, 24 hours per day…for your convenience!

Is this worth all the billboards? This is probably the one thing on the list that’s close to being worth it. Buy anything in the store and you get one of those ubiquitous stickers free of charge.

4.) Rock City – Lookout Mountain, Georgia, near Chattanooga, Tennessee

The Rock City advertising story is a very interesting one. In this case, we aren’t going to see a ton of billboards, but rather barns and buildings along the roadsides painted black with “See Rock City” in white.

Go back nearly 80 years. In 1932, Georgia entrepreneur Garnet Carter opened his wife’s landscaped gardens on Lookout Mountain to the public. He came up with a win-win arrangement for depression-era farmers. He hired a young painter named Clark Byers to find barns along the well-traveled highways leading into the Chattanooga area. The first barns to be painted were along U.S. Highway 41 in northern Georgia. In exchange for the barn owners receiving tickets to Rock City, a free paint job for a barn, and some Rock City souvenirs, Byers painted huge slogans all along the countryside. It’s some of the most iconic advertising in America.

For the next 30 years, Byers painted more than 900 barns in 19 states with variations on the “See Rock City” theme. These barns have been sources of backseat kids’ games and overall intrigue for generations of motorists.

With the passage of the National Highway Beautification Act in 1965, areas closest to interstate highways had to undergo federal advertising controls and one of the provisions deemed that “See Rock City” barns closest to the interstates had to be repainted. Byers himself did much of the repainting, but he was getting older and in 1969 he retired to northern Georgia.

Today, “See Rock City” barns are still found along rural roads and along interstate highways when the barns are more than 1,000 feet from the roadways, especially along I-24, I-75 and I-59 in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia.

Read more about the history of the Rock City barns at their website.

Is Rock City worth all the billboards? Honestly, I’m not sure. I’ve never been there. A couple of my friends who have been there attest that it’s very pretty.

5.) Winchester Mystery House – San Jose, California

I’ll say up front that I’ve never visited the Winchester Mystery House, nor have I seen the billboards. But my west coast GeekMom peeps tell me that the billboards are still out there and that the house is still open to the public.

There’s an interesting story behind this tourist attraction. Sarah Winchester is the widow of rifle baron William Winchester. After William’s death in 1881, Sarah started construction on a mansion rich in Victorian architecture and woodworking.

The mansion’s construction continued from 1884 through at least the 1906 earthquake that knocked the top three floors off the house. That earthquake explains such oddities as the stairs to nowhere. The stairs’ destination was destroyed by the earthquake. There are rumors that construction continued through Mrs. Winchester’s death in 1922, but this blog post by Katy Dickinson cites some historians who have proven otherwise.

A lot of paranormal activity is thought to surround the house. Mrs. Winchester believed that continuing construction of the house would keep the ghosts of Winchester rifle victims at bay, so when construction stopped, the ghosts took up residence.

Is it worth all the billboards? GeekMom Marziah says, “It’s smaller than you’d expect, but it was still cool to get to see it in person.” GeekMom Jenny says, “I love the Winchester House. Been twice!”

Have you visited any of these attractions? What do you think? Which ones are worth all the billboards and which were disappointments?

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