Florida Kitsch - A Trip Down North East Florida Back Roads

On Saturday June 28, 2014 my husband, Jesse, took me on a small adventure through some backroads of Florida between Jacksonville and Kissimmee. His plan was to take me to as many kitschy stops as possible. I'm a sucker for the weird and horrible. I love kitschy Americana stuff and horrible road side attractions. And by horrible, I mean really cheesy in a good way. We started down US 301 and our first stop was a huge fireworks store. Right outside they had a giant purple rooster just asking to have his photo taken. So we happily obliged.

After we picked up a few sparklers and black cats we headed off down the road. The next stop happened to be a nice little produce stand. Now if you live in Florida, chances are you've seen roadside oranges before. This seems to be a common thing because we LOVE our Florida oranges. So of course this little stops claim to the kitsch was...you guessed it, an ORANGE!

But wait...there's more! They also had this beautiful, but pitiful strawberry!

We picked up a jar of their homemade Hot & Sweet jarred pickles. These things are awesome! The spice really sneaks up on you after the sweetness wears away. Glad I've got a jar to use on burgers and sandwiches! Then we headed on down the road some more and our next stop brought us to Grannies where we only stopped for a quick photo of this slowly dieing cow.

A little ways down the road we found ourselves at Waldo Flea Market. I've been wanting to visit this HUGE flea market for many years now. My father and I used to go there when I was younger and I remember finding all sorts of neat things out there! Somehow though, I never noticed this huge rocking chair. I really wanted to climb up and see if it would actually rock.

With no time to go in and look around we hopped back in the car to head to our next destination. Tony's Taxidermy! Complete with a FREE Museum to check out. We first went into the gift shop and checked the goods. I was in search for some postcards, but they had none. They did have all kinds of other cool goodies. We picked up a small marble with a beetle encased for our daughter. I'll give a full report on the taxidermy place later in a separate post, but for now, this should hold you over.

Yup, that's me and a stuffed zebra. This place was definitely pretty cool. After the quick tour of the small museum we got in the car and kept driving. Apparently two of the places my husband had mapped out were closed and we weren't able to visit. That's okay though because we did eventually pass by this handsome soldier somewhere near Ocala.

We're pretty sure it's made out of propane tanks or something very similar. This guy was unexpected and another we drove by without realizing and had to turn around to snap a photo from the car. Getting back on the road we're getting very close to Kissimmee and Walt Disney World. We decide to go check out some of the gift shops on Irlo Bronson before our dinner reservations, but just as we think we're done with the kitschy stuff another great place pops up so of course, we had to stop. This place is called Showcase of Citrus: 100% Pure Florida Fun. You know this is going to be good!

A destinations post. According to this we were 5 miles away from Disney.

My husband, Jesse, with a gator holding a bag of citrus.

Yeah, let me know if you figure this one out.

And of course, a giant shark. 

They had a shop of all kinds of Florida souvenirs and jams, jellies, hot sauce, and so much more. We were feeling a little thirsty and decided we should probably get something to drink. This is what you get when you stop at a place like this.

Jesse chose the Kitty Piddle and myself, I, was drawn in by the glowing green Bug Barf. These sodas were delicious! That's right D-Licious! They were made with real sugar and no thick syrups like your normal processed sodas. If you ever see these, try one out. There were about five or six other flavors we saw. Now with us being so close to our final destination there was one more stop we had to make.One we pass by and laugh about on a very frequent basis. The Alligator Motel off West Irlo Bronson. 

After this we spent the remainder of our time going to gift shops looking for postcards and enjoying some of the things we normally don't spend time checking out. We had 6:30 p.m. reservations at Sanaa located at Animal Kingdom Lodge at Walt Disney World. This was such a great and wonderful trip my husband planned for me. It's not something we ever do, but he knew I really dig this kind of stuff a lot. I can't wait to share the taxidermy photos or give you a review of Sanaa, but those posts will come soon enough. Thanks for adventuring through my kitschy little trip!