Dinosaur................. World (oh man!)

So... um.... there's this place along the side of I4 in Plant City you pass going to Busch Gardens from Orlando called.......

 Dinosaur World. 

Well... five years of curiosity got the best of me so I made a visit with Jeff one afternoon. Seeing is how it was always just off the highway on the way to Busch made it so hard to wanna stop and visit, knowing I could just go a bit more and ride Kumba or SheiKra but what we found ended up being rather amusing and while not overly worth saying it was worth the trip I can at least now say umm, I've been?

Ooooh man!

Yeesss!

I wish they had sold this in the gift shop, seemed like a missed opportunity.

The park ended up being much bigger than we assumed.

For the most part you walk along well shaded boardwalks and look at sculptures of dinosaurs and other animals.

Uh, like these Woolly Mammoths!

And these.... things

(most are labeled but I didn't get photos of everything)

Tyrannosaurus?

?????

????? 2.0

Parasaurolophus! Hey look, I can identify one!

Um... yeah ???? 3.0

Carnotaurus!

(Definitely not our Dino!...... GET IT?!)

OOOOH MAN!

This is gonna be good!

(as I sing the Jurassic Park theme song to myself)

What the hell is this?!

Oh my god!

WTF?!

Guess they weren't kidding...

Haha, showing off how they ripped off Dinosaur Comics

(Had to get a cell saying "internet" too!)

Umm.... yaayyy!

How odd.

Dinosaur World

SMAC, or... how I rode 500 miles in a Food Truck.

Long story short.... Jeff decided he wanted to own a Food Truck and sell Gourmet Macaroni and Cheese. After months of planing and such... suddenly we found ourselves in Florence, South Carolina and Jeff was about to drop more money than I've made in my life... buying a Food Truck.

SMAC, South Carolina Mac and Cheese

Twitter - https://twitter.com/SMACfoodtruck

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/SMAC-Food-Truck/1421841454701021

Website - http://www.smacfoodtruck.com/

(I just kinda tagged along for the ride and sort-of documented the adventure.)

So, uh, well... here it is! The SMAC Food Truck!

Coming soon to Central Florida / Orlando area events soon!

(extremely soon! :D)

A few photos of the exterior, including a hidden palmetto tree

(you know, the state tree of South Carolina!) 

Hey look, its me :D

Inside the prep-area photo?

A few photos of the cab...

Hey look, the jump seat I'll be riding back to Orlando in....

And the view I'll have on the way.

Oh Jeff, you're like a kid in a candy store

(or like me when I see an animal)

And, were off. Only 500 more miles to go!

Woo woo... adventures!

Sweet, we made it to the Georgia state line!

And a lunch stop at TJ Flats! <3

Potentially the first photo ever of the SMAC Truck in Georgia!

Back on the road again, soon after lunch we were crossing into Florida <3

Gas stop (snack stop?)

Damn.....

Shout out to Wild Adventures!

(soon?)

Jacksonville! Uh, the largest city in Florida. And also one of the first landmarks in our travels.

Umm... I'd like to not be on fire.

Sunset from the 95/I4 interchange in Daytona.

Ah, The City Beautiful

The lights of Downtown Orlando blur past us.

And.... we made it.

Uh, I guess this is also the first time I've ever been dropped off at my house in a truck?

Sweet... Well, any day now SMAC should be on the streets of Orlando serving up super yummy Gourmet Macaroni and Cheese and I hope for the best for Jeff and his new business. Come check it out once its rollin'

Once again, a plug for the SMAC twitter and Facebook pages

(Be sure to follow and like!)

SMAC, South Carolina Mac and Cheese

Twitter - https://twitter.com/SMACfoodtruck

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/SMAC-Food-Truck/1421841454701021

                                           Website - http://www.smacfoodtruck.com/

BONUS PHOTO!!!

Uh, 31 big blocks of cheese in my fridge!

(mmmmm, cheese)

So this one time at Denny's........

Yeah....So I love finding all these random "off the beaten path" or Roadside type.....things....

Anyone who's looked into this blog should know that by now

anyways.....

So this one time Jeff and I were at a Denny's on 192 in Kissimmee that had just been refurbished with all these photos from the 40's and 50's and one that caught my eye was a reproduction of a postcard showing "the Monument of States" this awful looking tower... thing. I pointed it out to Jeff and we pretty much assumed whatever it was... was long gone (not even knowing it was *in Florida*) 

A few months later we just happened to be driving around downtown Kissimmee and ended up going right past the thing! needless to say a parking spot was found and photos were taken.. After wondering what the hell we were even looking at I googled Monument of States and found an article about it on RoadsideAmerica. Yeah....

 And... there it is!

The completely awesome Monument of States!

 Each "brick" contains stones and items from a different state, 48 at the time it was built

(now it includes all 50 as well as some 21 other countries!) 

Oh.. and did I mention that one of the other items happens to be a human skull?

And of course I found the Massachusetts brick, dated 1941.

Disney even has a marker... 

placed some five years (almost six, given its placement in January) before the Walt Disney World Resort even opened!

Yeah, you could say I was pretty amused.. even dumbfounded yet oddly excited to have found such a treasure.

More info on the Monument of States can be found on the amazing website RoadsideAmerica