While at my mom’s house for Thanksgiving, I got a chance to look through a bag of travel mementos that she’d set aside for me. Inside were stickers, pamphlets, receipts and ticket stubs from her travels over the years.

My eyes zeroed right in on a South of the Border bumper sticker in the stack. I knew I was there as a kid but haven’t really been able to place the exact time. Now, thanks to my mom’s olde tyme blogging on the back of an envelope – I know. July 17, 1988. I was 14.

Apparently we actually stayed over at a motel there. I wish I could jog my memory for any dusty recollection of this. I don’t remember going up in the sombrero tower or seeing any of the fiberglass figures around. Other than a dim memory of perusing some fireworks in a store, I’ve got nothing.

My mom scribbled down the toll rates, mileage, times, dates… I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

I have been talking to my daughter Chloe about going to South of the Border. I’m not even really sure why. I just want to. She seems to be all in on taking the trip. Maybe it’s a rite of passage in the Fuzzmop family 😀

Side note: “Vargina”? Really, Mom? 😆

Update:

While going through the papers today, I found that we stayed in a Howard Johnson’s at I-95 exit 193 in Dillon, SC for the bargain rate of $37.40, including tax. Today that HoJo is long gone.

The South of the Border brochure is super kitschy.

Just check out the deluxe crushed velvet honeymoon suite! Velvet lamps on chains, carpet covered champagne chiller, entertainment system in the clamshell headboard thingy. Hubba hubba!