Pedro Says...

Every year, as kids, my parents would load us all in the Gran Torino station wagon and head south to visit the grandparents in central Florida. As a future destination marketer, it was on many of these trips that I first fell in love with the idea of travel, and one of my favorite things to do was “collect” brochures from every single Welcome Center that we would visit.

I would then spread them out in the car and rate them, some individually, and some comparatively. So many side trips came from these brochures — “Please Daddy? I’ll just DIE if we can’t stop at “See Rock City!”

One of the places that I just loved to visit along the way to Florida was a tourist attraction known as “South of the Border” in Dillon, South Carolina.

But it took several years of begging to talk my parents into it.

On 95 South, just past Richmond, VA, the billboards would start: “Pedro Says: Visit South of the Border!” This first billboard would start the begging process, as well as become something of a game for the four Baker kids — “is that billboard #5 or #6?” There were, at the time, 120 “Pedro Says” billboards between Richmond and Dillon. And we loved them all.

By the time we were halfway through North Carolina, our desire to visit South of the Border reached fever pitch.

And then, finally, my Dad agreed to stop for lunch. We literally left the interstate and drove THROUGH Pedro’s legs (could there be anything more exciting to a 12-year-old?) and into what can only be described as the world’s best-marketed taco stand.

We ate tacos (not nearly as ‘available’ back then as they are now), wore paper sombreros, even rode the elevator to the top of the “sombrero tower” — it was kid heaven! And, most likely, my Mother’s least favorite place on the planet.

But the marketing folks at SOTB knew their audience — they knew they were going after kids who had been stuck in a car for hours, who were looking for any diversion regardless of their love of Mexican food.

To this day, I have never seen ANY advertising or marketing for South of the Border other than those wonderful billboards. I have even been told that the billboards have been cleaned up tremendously, removing some of the less than politically correct language.

And even though, most of those long car trips had Disney World as our ultimate destination, I can honestly say that I was probably more excited about FINALLY getting to see South of the Border on that particular trip.

Much to my Mom’s chagrin, I took more photos at SOTB than I did at Epcot that year.

As Pedro used to say: Chile today, hot tamale!

Note: This blog entry was orginally published on my business blog - but I thought friends and family might enjoy, and so posted it here as well.