Goodbye To Pirates Island Themed Attraction & Florida’s Oldest Hardware Store in Downtown Kissimmee
Downtown Kissimmee Scooter Tour
Transcript
0:03
welcome everyone adam may the woo here
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this coordination of the hat in the
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shirt completely unplanned in fact i
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wasn't gonna wear the hat until i got my
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car and realized i had this in the back
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seat i thought heck i should use this to
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protect myself from the sunrise even
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though right now they're slightly
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obscured by the clouds it might rain i
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did not bring my umbrella but i did
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bring
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my scooter for a scooter tour of
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downtown kissimmee florida something i
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have not done in about a year and this
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is going to be a little bit different by
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the way as a recording of this wednesday
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april 6
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2022
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scooter tour i'm gonna go through some
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of the side streets and some of the
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little obscure back roads that i
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normally do not
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traverse through because i am poofing it
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now today i have this i'll be able to go
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into some of the nooks and crannies of
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downtown kissimmee because somebody is
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about halfway between walt disney world
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and saint cloud florida kind of right in
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the halfway point about 20 miles from my
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homestead celebration in florida i'm
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inviting you
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to join me
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shall you and as i ride down this way
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i'm noticing the little manhole cover
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here that has the cows on it states that
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kissimmee was founded back in 1883.
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sometimes you get some pretty good
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information
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by just looking whatever you do
1:20
make sure you look down
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that's a little sewer sewer grates sewer
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holes if at all possible my game plan is
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to try to discover things i did not know
1:30
little areas
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that i didn't know much about
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that's the plan i cannot get inside here
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this is known as the field of dreams
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the field of dreams is kind of sort of
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locked up
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yeah it's locked up that's locked but i
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think you could probably just take this
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and unwrap the chain i'm not going to do
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that because i think the intention is to
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have the field of dreams
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locked i did not realize that this was
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kissimmee's field of dreams
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until i saw this by pulling up here
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dedicated to the glory of god and honors
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our clyde crotty
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for his many years of faithful service
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to the methodist church the field of
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dreams
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isn't that interesting
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had no clue that there was a plot of
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land
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called the field of dreams and there's a
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little gazebo
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here as well
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and it is located
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right next to this newer building
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just zipping right along on this thing
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and also over here is a old-timey
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baseball fencing behind home plate
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is the sun drop-in center
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at 5-1-2 on this corner
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a little housing development a little
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community which i did never even really
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understood or even knew it existed
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until riding by on this on this on the
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little scooter didn't know this was here
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the shopping cart here
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some of these businesses i have to
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wonder if they're even still open
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example the hutch
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and such now it does say closed on the
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door now this looks like it's been
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active recently
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but the sign up there has been taken
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down you can faintly make out the words
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the hutch and such now i'm going to say
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this place definitely
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not in business anymore but it still has
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the signage
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up top as well
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even though the letters have been
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removed you can still read the wording
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there
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i like this building though with the
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pillars here on the side
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and that's peeking in the dirty window
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here
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my camera right up right to the glass
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728
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john young
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it is a very beautiful area
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i had contemplated moving to downtown
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kissimmee i was still still a few blocks
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away from the downtown area
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but it was one of the places i thought
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about moving back to saint cloud thought
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about moving here to downtown kissimmee
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i chose celebration i'm pretty happy
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with my decision
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but this is a beautiful area
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i like this one over here on the corner
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of vernon and my bat
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it's also for sale a lot of these homes
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are for sale
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that's a business there but a lot of
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these other ones
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have for sale signs in front of them the
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trees are magnificent
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and it goes from
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you know traditional concrete into the
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old timey brick
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through here
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gosh i bet some of these homes are like
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100 years old especially that two-story
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one up here
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like plantation style
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right up here i was not expecting to see
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this type of telephone booth
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this is a surprise you never know what
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you're gonna find
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oh this telephone booth has been
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converted into
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a library they put the kickstand down
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yeah this is one of those give a book
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take a book libraries that's awesome
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now i've seen these mobile libraries
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before but i've never seen one in a
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telephone booth like this
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that cool
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some really great looking homes through
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here some of them need a little bit of
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work
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they're pretty fantastic
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this one has a balcony all the way at
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the top i like that
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way up there like a third floor balcony
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here's someone on the golf cart coming
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by
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okay inside here there's a little
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alleyway
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there are these two painted murals
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but then inside the alley with the
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old-timey tile work down here this gate
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is open
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but there's a barber shop over to the
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side there's these little
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paintings here
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all through here take a look at these
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the angel wings
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i never knew this was back in here just
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tucked away in this alley
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some picture frames
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you know what that reminds me of i think
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there's a room in the in muppet visions
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at hollywood studios which i think was
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the last jim henson project heavy worked
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on before he passed away
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it kind of reminds me of the little
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atrium from muppet vision
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and that one scene i don't know why
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didn't mean to have a muppet muppets
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reference in there but yeah
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okay now we're coming back out the back
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inside
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glad these gates were open
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pretty neat
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a little bit of a breeze out here today
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too
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got no not only the u.s not only the
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state but also the city flag up there
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waving in the breeze the kissimmee city
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flag florida state
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and the u.s flag
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waving in the breeze it's a nice day
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a lot of good murals around here there's
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one up there of a bird up on the top
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over there there's another one right
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here around this corner this is the
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corner of east darlington
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and broadway there is a tiger
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which i don't recall this being here
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last year when i was kind of
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perusing around there's been a lot of
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murals added
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in recent years this tiger
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and they always like to show the artists
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if the artist's name is on there
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and if you follow this around to the
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corner of pleasant street
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you have these which date back from gosh
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i don't know how many decades these
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paintings are here's richie's barber
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shop
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then you got carly's candies and cakes
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got a clown down here
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i've showed this before i always like to
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pop in back here to this little side
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street
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next to the parking garage this is a
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parking garage not a business
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this is all parking free touhou square
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parking garage
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i like that this still exists and has
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not been painted over or tagged up or
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anything
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pretty cool this might be richie
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that might be his barber shop richie's
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barber shop there's a couple guests down
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in there
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waiting to get their hair cut
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this is neat
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matadors taco
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bar has this
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sweet transportation device here
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underneath another mural
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and these horses
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here at broadway plaza now one block
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down at i think it's called three
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sisters bar and grill they used to have
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one of the epcot
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you know not shuttle buses but the the
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epcot omni buses the two-story omnibuses
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down there one more block next to make
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as its hardware there's a whole other
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subject i want to cover because making
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sense has since closed
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in the last five or six months or so
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since i've been down here
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but these have an omnibus for an
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upcoming it's no longer around so i
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think somewhat up north bought it used
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to be right over here used to be parked
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right over here where they're building
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this new
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structure right over there in the corner
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next to making sense hardware
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yeah they're building something new
9:58
no more omnibus
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this whole area is growing considerably
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and changing considerably
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that's back in the day yeah make it says
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i think don't quote me on this was one
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of the oldest hardware stores
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left in the state but it just closed
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last year or six last six months and
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just pulling around the back here
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yeah hardware store is no more
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yeah there it is the old making sense
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hardware
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those guys wanted to be in the video so
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i put them in the video
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hey this is the lynx bus station up here
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the lease bus drop off i believe
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not a lot of these
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heart type of hardware stores left you
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know a lot of the big box stores
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kind of taken over making since held on
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for a long time though
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frankly i never thought they'd go away
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they kind of outlasted a lot of the
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other other independent ones oh my big
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brimmed hat there
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there's another new one
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greetings from
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something as you can tell when someone's
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from out of town because they say
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kissing me
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instead of kissimmee
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i say i
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when i go to when i travel i always say
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town names
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as if i don't live there because i don't
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live in a lot of towns so
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it's an understate it's understandable
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how someone will pronounce it
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differently
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the locals call it kissimmee those from
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out of town call it kissimmee
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excuse me how it goes
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and yet another one right over there
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and that noise
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was cars going over the tracks right
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there train tracks
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and of course can't forget about the
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monumental
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i didn't mean to make that pun
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monument of the states
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very tall sculpture that's been here for
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many many years
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with rocks and other items from
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different states across all of the us
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placed here back in 1943
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at least that's the date that's on
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that particular
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inscription the monument of states
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commonwealth of pennsylvania over there
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there's new hampshire
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there's an item from michigan
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massachusetts also represented
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the governor of ohio back in 1941
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gave this this little unique looking
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item that looks like something from the
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prehistoric age
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also came from michigan
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massachusetts texas kentucky
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gulf of mexico up there
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that little item
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tennessee
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indiana
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got some items from arkansas
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and also not just in the states but also
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there's some from africa
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that's from
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illinois nova scotia right there
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it's a stands here
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now last time i was down here this
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little rubies plaza was not open they
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are open today so i got myself a water
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here and a lot of areas down here were
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blocked off you know because
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the extension of what happened in 2020
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and until last year
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couldn't get in a certain area so the
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lighthouse over there he couldn't get
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you but i think today
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everything is accessible so the stores
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are back open at least a little cafe
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and the lighthouse over there you can
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see it kind of out on a little
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a little walkway out to the water so go
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see the lighthouse it's kind of a
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relaxing day
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look
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big ben
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closer to the water it gets a lot
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windier
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which makes sense but just stating the
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obvious
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years ago you were allowed to walk out
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on this dock
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those days are over
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it's now restricted
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hinders anyone
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from going past onto the may not be
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structurally sound anymore now looking
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at this
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probably not structurally sound
15:41
back in the day you could walk out on
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this
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a lot of new developments popping up
15:46
over there too apartments for condos
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beautiful day the information placard
15:55
that used to be here is now gone too
16:05
and from what i recall the one it would
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explain how the water
16:07
would go in here
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well to be honest i don't even remember
16:11
what it's at
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it's been a while since i read what was
16:17
on there it has something to do with the
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lake water going into here and then
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recycling around
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back over at the hardware store now
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i'm starting to wonder if this will be
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repainted over so it probably should
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document this
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for posterity
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just in case
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i would hope it doesn't but you know
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what's to say you can hope in one hand
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and
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you know what in the other see i don't
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know what i don't know what the phrase
16:41
is
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right up top there's a lady in the
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window
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making some hardware
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carol makinson and jim jm katz opened a
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general merchandise store on the corner
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of darlington avenue
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pleasant street
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in 1883 help arrived when william
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burroughs makers and senior arrived and
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invested some money into carroll's
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business
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the following
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w may vegas i took over the business and
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opened what is today florida's oldest
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hardware store
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and kissimmee's oldest business
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yeah it was
17:44
florida's oldest hardware store
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it's now gone
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there's a store over here that looks
18:18
interesting called the hollow pumpkin
18:21
now they are closed at the moment
18:22
beetlejuice here
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beetlejuice has said that they are
18:26
closed i'm not going to say his name one
18:27
more time and he'll come to life
18:30
that's like a pretty cool little place
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gift shop for the
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spooky obsessed their slogans house
18:37
only open on the weekends and back over
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to the parking lot where my car is
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parked
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put the scooter away and drive around
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with some a few other spots
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that old ambulance that just went by was
18:52
now used for a plumbing business that
18:54
was interesting
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looks as if this grocery store has
19:00
finally closed now before it was a
19:02
sedanos or sedanos
19:05
it was an albertsons
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that's what i recall it as when i lived
19:10
in this area in the 90s i lived in
19:12
kissimmee i lived in saint cloud for a
19:14
while i lived in kissimmee in the late
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90s early 2000s
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it was an albert since i would do my
19:20
grocery shopping here
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and next to albertsons
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but this took over for albertsons and
19:26
then this closed recently since the last
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time i was passed by here
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and over next to the pharmacy on this
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end
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it's like a clothing store but that
19:35
clothing store used to be a music store
19:37
now back in the early 90s 93 94
19:41
around then 92 93 94.
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i got my license in 91 i was 17 i
19:47
started driving around
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and started buying cassettes and bought
19:51
cds
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over at a music store over there they
19:55
had a ticketmaster booth now it's called
19:57
donato
19:58
clothing
20:04
and right inside there i would go in and
20:04
i would ask the employee
20:06
what concerts are coming to town and
20:08
they would list off the concerts i'd say
20:10
i'll take two of those i'll take two of
20:11
those i'll take two of those that would
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just go to a mess load of concerts i'd
20:15
always ask a friend to go i bought my
20:18
nirvana and breeder's ticket
20:20
in lakeland in florida i bought it right
20:22
inside there
20:24
from ticketmaster just before the
20:26
internet you couldn't just search what
20:27
bands were coming through
20:29
you had to
20:30
had to go to either ticketmaster or get
20:32
a magazine and had it in or see it in
20:33
the paper
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but that's where i bought my my hard
20:36
ticket to nirvana right in there that it
20:38
was now
20:39
the clothing store now when i worked
20:41
here it was office max
20:43
worked here five years
20:45
then after i left they merged into
20:47
office depot it was office depot for a
20:50
while now
20:51
it's going to be a planet fitness
20:57
look at that
20:57
looks like getting a little behind the
20:59
scenes
21:00
construction update no more office max
21:03
no more office depot
21:04
putting the sign up here planet fitness
21:08
well they changed the front doors too
21:10
right next to the osceola mall used to
21:12
be attached to the osceola mall the
21:13
mall's called
21:14
something different now
21:16
there were two movie theaters this is
21:18
one of them the other one's been
21:19
converted into something that's been
21:21
utilized for
21:22
something different for many years now
21:24
but this one
21:25
was under renovations
21:27
but now the construction has just kind
21:29
of halted but you could tell it used to
21:31
be a movie theater
21:33
fact
21:41
right over there is where the posters
21:41
were
21:42
and you can even see
21:44
some of the original signage that says
21:46
enter over there on that end
21:56
extreme close-up
21:56
zoomed way in
21:58
yeah this place has been closed for a
22:00
long time as i'm driving back towards
22:02
celebration here on highway 192
22:05
pirates island adventure golf
22:08
from what i can tell
22:11
is no longer quite operational closed
22:16
either temporarily or for good
22:19
there have been a lot of miniature golf
22:21
courses on 192 that have fallen by the
22:23
wayside over the years wouldn't surprise
22:25
me if it's permanent
22:26
i hope it's not because this was an
22:28
awesome
22:30
place with the pirate ship and
22:32
everything the grass is a little grown
22:34
over
22:35
some of the props have fallen down this
22:37
headstone here
22:44
yeah i see it's kind of
22:44
the woods decomposing
22:55
i used to work at a miniature golf
22:55
course river adventure golf
22:57
also now abandoned
23:00
grown over really nothing lafay removed
23:02
most of everything
23:11
you obviously don't want to jump to any
23:11
conclusions it could just be closed for
23:13
the time being but
23:26
our matey a foul smell
23:26
be assured it ain't our sea he thinks
23:28
it's that village sewer tank
23:30
the lift station
23:32
ah over there
23:38
i did play a round of golf here
23:38
years ago it's been
23:40
i don't know
23:41
20 years
23:43
here's blackbeard's challenge
23:51
the interesting thing is i didn't see
23:51
any signage of any type saying
23:54
open closed
23:56
stay off the property nothing
23:59
just traffic going right by there
24:06
in fact when i pulled up there was
24:06
someone else who i thought worked here
24:09
walking around and i realized
24:11
it wasn't an employee or an owner it was
24:13
just someone else just looking around
24:15
looks as if some skateboarders came in
24:16
here laid some wood down using that as a
24:18
ramp
24:23
nice little skate spot
24:23
ah what's the saying another one bites
24:25
the dust
24:29
i could be wrong
24:29
i hope i'm wrong
24:32
let's just say i'm wrong
24:42
hope i'm wrong
24:42
everything's pretty much been removed
24:43
from the front counter and the office
24:46
area
24:55
good photo op there reminds me of the
24:55
one in magic kingdom
24:58
coming out of frontierland on the way to
24:59
the haunted mansion
25:12
at the bell up there this place is
25:13
i'm always sad when a miniature golf
25:14
course
25:15
goes away at some point in the future
25:17
might be distant future
25:20
have to stop back by and see if it's
25:22
reopened
25:23
and this is interesting this right here
25:25
states the name
25:28
billy bow legs
25:37
when i was a youth i ran in a race
25:37
it was a lot thinner and a lot faster
25:39
back then
25:41
i was very young
25:43
i ran into race in the panhandle of
25:45
florida when i lived in knightsville
25:46
florida i think it was fort walton beach
25:49
there was a billy bow legs midnight run
25:51
and i ran
25:53
in the billy bow legs run
25:56
yeah he was a pirate
25:59
it's amazing what you remember from when
26:00
you're young
26:02
really is
26:10
all right pulling back into celebration
26:10
now and that's gonna do it for today
26:13
casual day
26:15
taking my scooter cruising around
26:16
downtown kissimmee and then a few other
26:18
spots on highway went into a little
26:20
update
26:21
lots of things on 192. heading past the
26:24
water tower here
26:25
not a lighthouse
26:27
here this is the water tower
26:29
i'll see you in the next video the vlog
26:31
thanks for watching i really appreciate
26:33
it the vlog
26:34
is over