In search of the Lost Stuckey's

Or, My Kids Thought We Were Going On a Fun Trip To Grandpa's

When we decided to make the trek from Orlando, Florida to Biloxi, Mississippi, my devious mind was fast at work, mentally ticking off all of the FSB locations I wanted to visit and photograph. Of course, my kids might have had other ideas, but I was able to keep them happy with a large supply of Stuckey's Pecan Log Rolls and souvenir Elvis items as we bounced along. Regretfully, we found more closed up stores than operating ones. The final tally was eight FSB's, two active stores, and one phantom that I am not sure of.

I had in mind retracing the old tourist routes of U.S. 90, U.S. 41, and U.S. 19-98-27, all once popular with southern bound folks before the advent of the accursed Interstate Highway system.

"Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything. " - Charles Kuralt

Along the way, we discovered a lot of lost roadside America. In Defuniak Springs, Florida, we stumbled across an old Horne's with its trademark garish yellow roof that was in the middle of a morph to a Chinese restaurant. At the Florida/Alabama line on U.S. 90, the skeleton of a long abandoned Florida Welcome Station (Florida was the first state to build them) sat in forlorn silence. How many Florida bound tourist families in old station wagons had stopped there for free orange juice, coffee, and maps over the years?

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