Forgotten Small Towns On Backroads of Middle Mississippi - Road Trip Thru Empty & Abandoned Areas
Backroads of Mississippi Dec 2021
Transcript
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today's adventure begins just across the
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state line
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about to pass into mississippi
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my birth state
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about a mile or two away
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before crossing over been driving a few
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hours already as the recording of this
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it is tuesday
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december 7th
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2021
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and i will be heading through
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kind of sort of the middle
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of mississippi heading southbound on my
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way back to florida
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you're looking at an abandoned
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desolate
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and now closed
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drive-in movie theater
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over there in the distance i figured
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this is a good place as any to start the
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video
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welcome everyone adam
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the woo here
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oh feels great out
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have my
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my sweatshirt on
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it's probably not necessarily needed but
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it is a nice crisp coolness in the air
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especially when the wind
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is blowing and you see the pine cones
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here in the south
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should find some interesting things
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today
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as i
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cruise along
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there's some gentlemen off in the
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distance digging a hole
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with some shovels i don't want to ask
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any questions
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on what's going on with that pay no
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attention
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to the whole digging
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but pay attention to the
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the driving movie theater screen right
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there pretty awesome guess there was a
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there's two of them you can also see
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a plane going by off in the distance
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with the memphis airport
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believe us memphis memphis isn't too far
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from here
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i'm inviting you to join me as i cross
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the state line
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my way back to florida back roads small
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towns
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lots of goodness today
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could have been a long intro i should
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probably put my
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shades on
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and get going join me
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shall you
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crossing over on 61 south
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there is no signage
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saying that it's a state line
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but there is this gentleman from boom
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city fireworks
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about the size of a muffler man
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not holding a muffler though just
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holding a very long stick
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it has some sweet shades
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i am now
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in mississippi i stand corrected there
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is a sign here
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birthplace of america's music i also
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passed another sign back there a few
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feet back that said this is the the
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blues highway
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that i'm on currently
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well i'm on the side of the road but the
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road next to him not too much in the
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community of walls
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but there is a water tower
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this is the first little town i
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see going over the state line
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passing through lake cormorant now
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this would be the downtown section
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possibly a old general store
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got an advertisement here on the side
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just one or two little
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former shops
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not a large population
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robertson's was the name of the store
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i love this kind of stuff little relics
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of the past
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painted on the side of buildings
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rest of it's tough to make out oh
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robertson's general
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something probably a general store
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so good i have veered off onto a smaller
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road
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highway 3 southbound now
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that was a tractor
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pulled over right here for a peaceful
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moment
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with this tire
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wrapped around the signage with the wind
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blowing it
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at these crossroads
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just to show
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how there's not a whole heck of a lot of
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traffic
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through this section
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there is one vehicle way down there i
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can see
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way off in the distance
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very windy
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and very beautiful
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solitude and peacefulness
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i'm turning onto this road and
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heading that direction now just wanted
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to share this moment
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out here
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plenty of elbow room
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the water tower off in the distance says
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crenshaw
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mississippi
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also the super saver convenience store
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population of just over 1 000 folks in
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this area
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crenshaw mississippi
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soul food restaurant looks to be close
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got some caution tape up around it
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and next door is bose auto parts
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also
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car quest
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auto parts
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now made it over to como
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c-o-m-o
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also see the water tower there and i was
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looking at a
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placard on the way in here says this
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entire historic downtown
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is on the national register
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of historic places
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that's pretty neat
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right there where that gentleman's
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walking out of is the post office
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it's attached to the downtown
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historic district and reading this about
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otha turner
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presided over the annual fife and drum
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picnics
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and goat roasts on his property
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in nearby gravel springs
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a goat roast
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also used in a
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or documented
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in a martin scorsese film
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now arrived in sardis looks like the gas
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station there it's now a pet shop
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there's a tax place
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very quaint downtown here
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and i'm really liking this movie theater
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up here
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to the side
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right over here on the on the right side
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looks pretty amazing the architecture of
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it about 1800 residents
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here in this community
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i'm gonna guess that might have been a
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restaurant at some point
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that reminds me of an old school
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burger spot
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and of course every town has a post
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office
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some of the smaller communities
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have true value hardware stores
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and if you have bed bugs this is the
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place
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to get the products to get rid of them
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but as stated
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very fantastic
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theater right here
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because it is december
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it might not be a movie theater it might
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be
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specifically for acting
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right up there
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gotta love a
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a good marquee
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oh wow
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this is exciting
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look at this
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beauty
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holy cow
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how many years has that been
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painted on the side of this alley wall
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that is good stuff
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old coca-cola murals a little americana
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this one untouched by graffiti
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not too faded out
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could have been retouched up
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but it looks like it's been there for
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many years if this wall could talk
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could definitely
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tell some tales of
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past years
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right here in the town
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alley off to the side
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that is amazing
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according to that water tower
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i am passing through oakland now
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it's an old homestead
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and it appears as if the downtown area
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is right up here
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down on the corner there's the post
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probably was a building here at one
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point could have been burned down or
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torn down
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all caved in and fallen over
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and there's a bank
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the new bank is right next door
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but the old bank is here
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look at the moss that has grown up
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here on the steps
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this is for checks only can go in here
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oh look it even has the cobwebs
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on it there
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if you peek in the door you could see
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the entire roof
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it's falling out
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you can see the roof there
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it's kind of falling in and the brick
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look at the brickwork here
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it's kind of caved in as well
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this was a store of some sort
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take a look there's clothes in there
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there's a lot of clothes
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got a farmer over there
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driving his truck away with the
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the horse trailer and all
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after continuing on a ways down the road
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i've now arrived in a town
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that i feel very comfortable in
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it's a real place i'm not making this up
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coffee ville
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there's the arcade
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coffeeville arcade
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and over here this mural seems to
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have seen better days it's part of the
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mural
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it's been kind of torn off or painted
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over
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or washed away
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a little picnic area here
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but there's the coffeeville train
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station
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with the tracks there there's the train
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the hamlet mo the hamlet hotel
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oh they even
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representing the train tracks down here
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oh interesting goes along the pavement
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and then morphs
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into the side of the mural
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as well
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that's neat i've never seen that before
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very creative
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coffeeville
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made back in 2004
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by pat manree
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rodriguez who's the artist
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pat mannery
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rodriguez
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coffeeville chamber of commerce
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doing a little road work
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through here
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oh there's a advertisement for some
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tonic
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over there
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winter smith's
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chill tonic
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there's the water tower off in the
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distance there
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pretty cool
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now i was wondering if they were going
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to have a coffee cup as their logo and
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they do
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establish 1838 this is the town hall on
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depot street there's a coffee cup for
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the logo of the town i love it
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so they do embrace it
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you can only park here for five minutes
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if you park here you gotta make it quick
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i think the temperature has dropped a
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little bit i just checked it's currently
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45 degrees
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here in coffeyville
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i'm not really seeing any coffee shops
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at least
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in this little area through here not
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seeing any coffee shops piping hot
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caffeinated beverage
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be pretty dang good right about now
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the 45 degree weather
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the city of bruce
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you know cities can be kind of small
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towns as well
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but the town's name is bruce
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just passing through
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approaching some cows
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well hello there cows
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how are you
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doing well
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doing a little grazing out there on the
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field
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yeah just doing some back roads here of
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nice to see you too cow
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carry on cows there's a lot of cows over
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there that are
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chowing down on the round bale
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i don't want to distract you
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from your round bale consumption
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they got a lot of hay to go through they
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got to eat all these round bales
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that's like a buffet
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of hay
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i said holy chow you're chowing down
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chowing down on
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some foliage out there right
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there's a calf
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you don't want to say holy cow
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cattle is that right
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someone is quite the collector of
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pallets
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houston
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right up there past those electrical
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boxes on the
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side of the pole there the water tower
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says houston
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it is the county seat
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even though it's only home to about
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three
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to four thousand residents
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it's a nice little town square and
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courthouse
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chickasaw county
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and a very impressive building here in
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the town square
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i like it
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as the trucks go by
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we got the
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the lights kind of adorning the tower
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there
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not even traffic lights
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well behind me there is but at this
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intersection there might have been one
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at some point now there's just a stop
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sign
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kind of embedded here
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with this stanchion
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using the word stanchion
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correctly at least i assume
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i'm using it correctly
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there's a kim's beauty supply
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a few cars down here too popular
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downtown oh yeah
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that's what i like to see
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relics of the past
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always looking for those there along the
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brick
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i'm into it
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whenever i go to any kind of town square
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or any
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any community i'm always looking for
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advertisements on the side of bricks the
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couple different ones
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got the coke classic because there's
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another one
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some wording there that's really tough
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to make out
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right there above that balcony
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got the wrecks all here on the corner
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yeah see
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not the houston you're thinking of next
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up okalona
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oh wow that's a
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laundry facility
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thought it was closed but as i went by
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the window there was someone sitting in
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i guess that laundry facility
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looked to be closed
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that's interesting
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there's a little building back in that
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tucked away back in there
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but the laundry was open either that or
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someone's in there
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a very unique looking city hall right
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there this is the city hall this one
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with all the rock work
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going under this bridge or the train
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going by here in amory
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i know the name amory very well because
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my grandparents lived in aberdeen
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down the road and these always always
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would go to amory
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and the final town
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for crossing the state line
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gatman
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right on the state line
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pretty much get out of my car and walk
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across
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out of mississippi
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not really sure what's in gatman
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i believe it's classified as a village
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not a town
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not a city you don't see many villages
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in mississippi
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but that's what it's classified as there
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is a blinking yellow and red light back
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so if you were to just
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go that direction a few feet the state
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line
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i believe this is the downtown
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of this
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little village
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there is one store front right there
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i'm going to end this episode here
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and probably drive a few more hours
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try to make up some time
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should be back
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in florida by tomorrow evening not sure
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if i'm going to film tomorrow maybe i
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will maybe i won't
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but if all goes well i will be home
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celebration florida
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the very near future
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which i'm excited about i have
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been making the commute cross country
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my place in orange county california i
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have
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downsized given that place up
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and put everything from that
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place into my car
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and i've been driving cross-country and
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i'm pretty much almost home
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just which is going to be nice
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this has been kind of a little sample of
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what i'm going to be doing now this last
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week or so going cross-country of what i
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will be doing after new year's
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will not be doing daily videos up until
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until the end of that time but after new
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year's gonna be hitting the road hard as
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much as i love documenting going through
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these tiny communities and all the back
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roads i feel like i need to spend a
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little more time
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in certain areas instead of rushing from
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point a to point b
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and that is what 2022
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will be all about
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you