Tee’s Tacky Trip To South Of The Border

I travel to North Carolina every couple of weeks, and I've always wondered about the history of South of the Border. You've seen it if you've traveled on I-95 from South Carolina to North Carolina—Tee's Tacky Trip To South Of The Border.

It's on the SC-NC line and started as a small place to buy beer. The county next to it in North Carolina is Robeson County, and in 1949, the county outlawed the sale of beer, Alan Schafer purchased some land just south of the state line, built a small building, and started selling...yep... you guessed it, beer.

He called it South of the Border Beer Depot, and from there, it grew into what it is today...300 acres with its own mini golf course, motel, truck stop, campground, and hundreds of thousands of souvenirs standing tall over it all is Pedro, also known as "The Big Fellah"--all 104 feet of him. Tee's Tacky Trip To South Of The Border.

BTW...all of those souvenirs? You can thank a traveling salesman from Florida for that.  A guy stopped in one day, and he had samples of back scratchers and stuff to sell, and he told Mr. Schafer he was out of money and needed to get home to Florida. He said, "If you feed me dinner, I'll give you these samples." To Alan Schafer's surprise, all of the samples sold out quickly, and the man had a large order from Mr. Schafer when he returned to Florida.

I stopped by this past week and took some pictures and may or may not have bought some refrigerator magnets and key chains --all with Pedro's face on them--and a sombrero or two! Stop by the next time you're traveling around the SC-NC line on I-95, and enjoy! Check out the pictures below!