Icon Park Closes More Attractions After Guests Get Stuck On The Wheel - International Drive Updates
International Drive Orlando Updates
Transcript
0:03
today's adventure begins by me looking
0:03
at the
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I guess you would call those swings very
0:06
tall swings here on attraction I've
0:08
never been on I probably never will go
0:10
on
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because that is way up there guests are
0:13
300 plus feet
0:15
above International Drive
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as a recording of This is Monday January
0:20
9th
0:21
already well into the new year 2023
0:24
I think I've finally gotten over the
0:26
fact that I'm not saying 22 anymore so
0:27
2023 this is one of the few attractions
0:30
still open currently at this moment here
0:33
at Icon Park in fact I believe it was
0:35
New Year's Eve that the big Orlando Eye
0:39
formerly the Orlando Eye now the wheel
0:40
at Icon Park was shut down and over 60
0:43
people were Evac
0:46
and they were stuck up there on New
0:48
Year's Eve and I'm gonna just go check
0:49
it out and see kind of what they're
0:50
doing to it if so check the website
0:52
close for maintenance welcome everyone
0:53
out of the woo here this is definitely
0:55
an attraction I have been up in maybe 30
0:58
40 times there was even a Time years ago
1:01
that I had an annual pass to go on there
1:03
back when it was
1:04
when it was an icon Park when it was
1:06
just the Orlando Eye
1:08
but right now don't know if it's going
1:10
to reopen just like the drop ride has
1:12
been closed for a while things aren't
1:14
going too well for this property
1:17
I'm just gonna walk around cruise around
1:19
and just kind of see what I can see join
1:21
me
1:23
it's pretty wild with the kind of
1:24
silhouetted out I was noticing on the
1:26
intro there my my face was silhouetted
1:28
out because the sun is on the opposite
1:30
side of this this is a slow moving
1:32
attraction I think it takes probably
1:33
about 15 minutes to go fully around you
1:36
can see it's not completely moving my
1:38
intention originally was to show up here
1:39
today and go on it and ride it
1:42
and it's kind of weird if he would have
1:43
been on this on New Year's Eve I believe
1:46
they did get everyone off before the
1:47
stroke of midnight but you would have
1:48
been stuck on this for a a long long
1:51
time which also kind of makes me think
1:53
what would happen if you were to get
1:54
stuck on the Skyliner
1:56
you know if the Skyliner broke the
1:58
Skyliner broke down
2:00
at Disney World going from the resorts
2:02
over to epcotter over to Studios you
2:04
would have to kind of get Evac that way
2:06
as well and I was saying definitely a
2:08
stroke of bad luck this year for this
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park you can see on the back side of
2:13
this we're on the front side I'm on the
2:14
back side on the back side of this is
2:15
the the drop tower which I do not think
2:18
will ever reopen is only open for like a
2:19
week or two
2:20
and then someone fell out of it and they
2:23
have not reopened since and probably
2:25
will not reopen so I'm curious to see if
2:27
it's just a maintenance issue and if the
2:30
wheel itself here at Icon Park will
2:32
reopen time will tell
2:34
dismantling this thing
2:37
yeah that would be that would be quite a
2:39
project now the guests that were stuck
2:40
up on there they had to have the fire
2:43
department climb up the side of the
2:44
ladders which would have been kind of
2:47
interesting I always think about when
2:48
you're up in there are you in there with
2:49
other guests because if you're there by
2:51
yourself I guess it wouldn't be too big
2:53
of an issue you know if you had a if you
2:55
had to use the facilities or something
2:56
like in a cup or something like that
2:58
because I don't know what you do when
2:59
you're up there if you had to go to the
3:00
bathroom if you've been up there for a
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couple of hours but if you're with a
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bunch of strangers it might be kind of
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kind of a weird vibe up there obviously
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no one was hurt in the experience and
3:09
they ended up getting lifted down by
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some of the the fire department lifts
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that they had and then eventually they
3:14
got this thing running again and it went
3:16
back down to ground level so everyone
3:17
thankfully was okay there's also a
3:19
slingshot over here that they built but
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I don't even know if the slingshot has
3:22
been operational since the the drop
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tower closed everything here was going
3:27
to be the largest and biggest so as far
3:29
as like the biggest tallest slingshot
3:31
tallest drop ride the drop ride the
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swings which are still operational and
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the wheel all 300 feet plus tall
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but the drop ride like I said it only
3:43
worked for about a week or so and a lot
3:45
of people do not want it to reopen so I
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kind of highly doubt you can see the up
3:50
at the top is the top portion of the
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ride vehicle from the drop right how
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similar what they have at Universal
3:57
Studios and other theme parks like Tower
3:58
tears nowhere near that high but got a
4:01
different setup of tower there obviously
4:03
that looks like some sort of a volcano
4:05
theming there as well you can see they
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got the fences up all this is blocked
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off and have been for a while they got
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the fencing all around the top of the
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here they got the sandbags kind of
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holding it in
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in fact it was kind of interesting as a
4:21
few years ago when they were building
4:22
this in some of my some of my blogs I
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was doing then I would show them over
4:28
here
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kind of like jackhammering the these
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pylons into there so I was like wow this
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is really going to be something else and
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now now it's open for a short while and
4:38
then and then close down
4:42
in fact I don't know if the slingshot
4:43
itself
4:45
ever
4:46
was open I don't know if anyone's ever
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been on the slingshot if that was going
4:50
to be something that grand open after
4:51
the fact when the drop ride
4:55
closed as well
5:02
in a way this is like kind of getting
5:02
around the it's a theme park in its own
5:04
but it's not a theme park
5:06
so it's like you have to pay admission
5:07
the whole thing is free you have to pay
5:08
for each individual attraction so you
5:10
got the wheel closed you got the drop
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ride here completely closed and you got
5:16
the slingshot which I don't even know
5:17
it's never been open or not before
5:25
just the only thing I can think of
5:25
that's open would be the wax museum
5:27
Madame Tussaud's box Museum the there's
5:30
a little small well it's a couple
5:33
restaurants but there's like a small
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aquarium over there and then earlier
5:37
when I walked up the swings
5:39
are still currently open for now but see
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swings are the same height as this and
5:44
the same height
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as this one thing I was noticing about
5:47
inside
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the gift shop was even open so you kind
5:51
of walked in they had the ticket booth
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and there wasn't hardly anything anybody
5:54
in here buying tickets even though they
5:55
did have
5:56
you know some of the stuff inside like
5:58
the snack bar area and the aquarium and
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even that of two sods was open in there
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but the ticket booth was pretty empty
6:03
the two employees really weren't ringing
6:05
anybody up and then the gift shop there
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was actually a gift shop that is open
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and for whatever reason it's open even
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though you can't go on the wheel itself
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there was nobody except me in the gift
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shop itself there's some kind of nice
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souvenirs in here even some new
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merchandise that's the last time I was
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in here which kind of leads me to
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believe that they are probably going to
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reopen in fact I asked one of the
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employees is that once they get the word
6:23
it will reopen it's just they don't know
6:26
when that will be so even even the
6:27
employees don't know according to them I
6:29
always had my reservations well not
6:31
reservations to like book to go on my
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reservations that I just wasn't
6:34
comfortable going on this and now after
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what's happened on the last couple
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attractions I don't know if I'll ever go
6:39
on this as it goes to the top and then
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comes all the way down I think for a
6:43
while we're allowed to film on there
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with the GoPro I think now you can't
6:45
even film in there with the GoPro so if
6:47
I can't film it why would I why would I
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like have the living wits scared out of
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me on there if I couldn't document it as
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I'm looking at it from this angle just
6:55
thinking of being stuck all the way on
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top I mean you get a pretty scenic view
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from up there like I said I've been on
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this thing probably at least a dozen or
7:02
more times probably 20 times
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over the course of it being here
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probably one of the tallest items on I
7:07
drive you can see all the way to
7:08
downtown Orlando because the clouds kind
7:10
of moving in slowly kind of creeping
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into the wheel itself you see Universal
7:15
various because the universal is not too
7:17
far from right here you can also see
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Disney you can see the convention center
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you can see kind of Epic Universe the
7:22
construction doing an epic Universal
7:24
Universal and all that as well but I
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wonder what the people that got stuck up
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there for that amount of time what do
7:29
they get do they get like a lifetime
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pass to come back on it
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or do they get some other kind of
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compensation
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I want to know kind of curious
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and I'm going to go on this once once it
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reopens I don't know if I'll be here the
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first one in line but
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I really like going up on this thing
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all right let's see what else I could
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find on iDrive
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there's no one in there now there's no
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one in there now
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but there were people up in there
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they probably thought originally when it
8:02
stopped they're probably like oh it's
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only going to stop for a couple minutes
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and then it was like time went by time
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went by
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and from what I was kind of reading some
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news articles and seeing some news clips
8:14
the fire department pretty much went up
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there to just to kind of like
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ease their thoughts a little bit just
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let everyone know it would be okay
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because the fire department and those on
8:24
the ground
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they couldn't see into the Pod because
8:27
at night because the windows are tinted
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they had to climb up the side
8:32
and climb up there and just let them
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know everything would be all right it
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was everything was fine
8:36
but just you know got to be patient when
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you're up there I guess so if you ever
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go on this you have to think I'm gonna
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start thinking that about the any ride I
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go on from now on especially the
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Skyliner because these look a lot like
8:46
the Skyliner Pods at Walt Disney World
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I've mentioned that twice it's because
8:52
that's what's fresh in my head all right
8:54
moved up just a little bit next to where
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the Bloodhound Brew Pub and Eatery is
8:58
bargain Planet which does not have a
9:00
marquee filled with anything but it is
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open
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one of my favorite little unique spots
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here on I drive where it has the alien
9:08
over there and the spaceship the UFO
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and I am happy to report that there is a
9:14
new attraction coming over here in front
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of this Ramada this has been a series of
9:18
different things over the years in fact
9:19
a long time ago there used to be a a
9:24
little sculpture of Michael Jordan over
9:26
here with the basketball on bended knee
9:28
down over here Michael Jordan with his
9:31
leg kind of leg down he had the
9:33
basketball it was changed into something
9:35
else it became quite a few different
9:37
things over the years and now that
9:40
sculpture that was Michael Jordan is now
9:42
gone and now there is a robot that is
9:44
being placed over here now there's now a
9:46
robot attraction of some sort that is
9:48
coming to iDrive do not know what this
9:49
is but I drove by and I thought what the
9:51
heck there is a robot out in front of
9:54
this place it looks like they're
9:55
painting it right now is this I'm
9:58
actually witnessing this being this
9:59
being placed here in real time for the
10:01
after the new year now this is like the
10:03
same artist I believe or the same
10:05
sculpture that made
10:07
the Michael Jordan with the basketball
10:09
made this soccer player
10:21
out from that last place so just imagine
10:21
when similar to this holding a
10:23
basketball
10:24
that was a form of Michael Jordan
10:28
I don't know what they did with it but
10:30
this one is just sitting over here
10:31
underneath this power pole I'm pretty
10:33
sure it was the same sculpture same
10:34
artist that did it
10:37
this one's not a robot yet
10:39
maybe it will morph into a robot over
10:41
time a sweet ponytail though or his hair
10:45
pulled back
10:46
at a soccer ball
10:53
went over here to someone's talking
10:53
went over here too what used to be the
10:55
artegon mall now it's desert land
10:56
walking over to the Bass Pro Shop it's
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been a while I've been in the Bass Pro
10:59
Shops one thing I'm really not into I'm
11:01
not you know I don't fish I don't do a
11:03
lot of outdoorsy camping type stuff when
11:05
I'm in this place I really I feel like I
11:08
want to it's displayed so well that I
11:10
feel like I I feel like I need to buy
11:11
something I'm going to curb that desire
11:13
not buy anything but yeah I kind of feel
11:15
like that when I come in here
11:22
I mean even even it's Bass Pro Shop or
11:22
maybe a stock called Bass Pro anymore
11:23
gosh maybe it's just called Outdoor
11:25
World
11:26
all right it's no longer Bass Pro I
11:28
stand corrected it is now oh no it's
11:30
Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World Florida's
11:33
Great American Outdoor Store
11:35
okay maybe it used to be Bass Pro
11:38
and now it is Outdoor World
11:45
Johnny Morris Outdoor World okay I stand
11:45
corrected I thought it was a Bass Pro
11:47
Shop maybe I've been wrong all these
11:49
years but it's adjacent down there to
11:51
where the car museum
11:53
was down there is there any koi in here
11:55
yeah
12:01
gosh this is not called Bass Pro anymore
12:01
there is a bass boat out front
12:04
Johnny Morris Outdoor World
12:07
very interesting with a wooden Pelican
12:09
here carved out
12:11
yeah Florida's Great American outdoor
12:14
store oh there's an alligator
12:16
there's an alligator right there it's
12:17
not a real alligator but there's a
12:18
there's like a metal alley or metal or
12:21
concrete alligator crop in the water
12:33
whenever I walk in here I just want to
12:33
quote Ace Ventura 2 when Jim Carrey's
12:35
walks into that one look at this it's
12:37
like Gaston would be proud of this
12:38
antler thing too with a full-size
12:40
grizzly bear right here and a fish
12:42
bigger than almost the grizzly bear is
12:44
that is definitely wow that is huge
12:48
there's a map of Florida I was just in
12:50
the keys recently in fact I was right
12:52
down here
12:54
keys look at the size of that fish this
12:57
thing is bigger than the bear got a deer
12:58
over there got a big horned Ram which
13:01
reminds me of Big Thunder Mountain got
13:03
this which kind of everything kind of
13:04
reminds me of Disney this kind of a
13:05
Country Bear Jamboree and then of course
13:08
the Moose over here I equate everything
13:10
to a Disney park and with a lot of these
13:12
establishments there is a huge aquarium
13:14
down here at the very end check out the
13:16
fish there's even a couple right over
13:17
here you take a look at these fish
13:19
there's a big fish right there kind of
13:22
hanging out in the corner and a whole
13:23
group of there's a whole school of fish
13:25
if you will right over it up top there
13:27
and then up here we got the deer and
13:29
then there's like a panther up there
13:31
like a cougar another deer kind of
13:33
looking down at the fish as well on a
13:36
water tower
13:37
yeah they're just all kind of fish in
13:39
here these aren't too big though I've
13:41
seen other places that have a lot bigger
13:43
fish than these and I will not be
13:44
jumping in here that is definitely
13:45
frowned upon do not jump in the Bass Pro
13:48
Shops Outdoor little tanks don't do it
13:50
these fish do not need any company in
13:53
their tank with them they do not need
13:54
humans swimming around they want to be
13:56
left alone these fish this one
13:59
especially this one right here is giving
14:00
me the little little meat mug in me from
14:02
the side here give me the eyeball
14:04
treatment or it's looking forward and
14:06
not even noticing it that's probably the
14:07
latter okay this is something I could
14:09
purchase here though is a moon pie do
14:10
love moon pies I did not realize they
14:13
had moon pies at Bass Pro Shop Outdoor
14:15
World if any place is going to have them
14:16
it would be this place I've been to the
14:19
moon pie General Store and Pigeon Forge
14:21
I didn't realize they had moon pies here
14:23
they even sell the thick boxes of them
14:25
around as well for 7.99
14:28
per case
14:30
oh man I love moon pies I like all the
14:33
flavors but kind of partial to vanilla
14:35
if you're in the mood for some hot sauce
14:36
with unique names we're talking serious
14:38
bone second sauce right there or how
14:41
about some pigs ash from
14:44
Boot and booty and then down here you
14:46
can rub some butt slap some on Professor
14:48
Payne butt pucker hot sauce
14:53
I don't know if I want to try that one I
14:55
don't need that to happen now years ago
14:56
this used to dump out directly into the
14:58
artegon mall but you know years ago they
15:00
sealed it off with this little like kind
15:02
of little tarp over here oh way up there
15:04
is a possum kind of dangling from these
15:06
sticks as well oh and there's like a
15:08
it's like a raccoon over there and this
15:09
big mouth bass that I'm really kind of
15:12
drawn into this possum right up there
15:14
hello awesome I was saying I probably
15:16
would never really buy anything in here
15:17
because I don't really Hunter fish or
15:19
anything like that but I would I could
15:20
probably do some camping like real
15:21
camping with a tent I could purchase a
15:23
tent like this and go out and do some
15:25
camping out and about I can see myself
15:27
doing that at some point that'd be kind
15:28
of fun I love that mural down there of
15:30
these guys white water rafting in a
15:32
canoe
15:34
down at the end
15:35
kind of reminds me of that movie with
15:37
Kevin Bacon I think it was called like
15:39
white water summer or something like
15:40
that John Lithgow was it no John Lithgow
15:42
was in
15:43
in uh
15:45
gosh the one with Sylvester Stallone
15:47
where he was up on the side of the
15:48
mountain I can't remember who was a
15:49
villain in the Kevin Bacon whitewater
15:51
rafting was but it just kind of like
15:53
went off on a tangent there and then up
15:56
is a is like a woolly goat up to a
15:59
mountain goat I could see the little
16:01
sign on there the mountain goat there
16:04
there's just some of these should be
16:05
animatronics should be some animatronics
16:07
in here that kind of like sing and dance
16:09
and stuff but they're not take a look at
16:12
this bore right here
16:15
now even though I wouldn't use this
16:17
decoy turkey because I'm not 100 or
16:20
anything like that'd be kind of fun to
16:21
own a decoy turkey just like have them
16:23
around riding around in my car I could
16:26
like you know have the decoy turkey like
16:28
wave at people was it have hands oh
16:30
that's how many are never mind there's
16:31
no
16:32
there's no arms on it and walking
16:33
outside I always like to exit out this
16:35
way and just kind of peruse and see what
16:37
they've done to the former Vans skate
16:39
park entrance it used to be the Festival
16:41
of a ball that became ardegon and now
16:44
desolate used to be an entrance over
16:46
here and with progress started building
16:48
apartments and whatnot over here
16:52
but here's the old
16:54
outdoor section of the van skate park
16:56
last time I was here someone that works
16:58
here let me in here let's hear a
16:59
thrilled to my gun we got to walk back
17:02
into the skate park itself
17:04
but I'm kind of looking at it from this
17:06
angle here
17:11
's the old skus is all part of the van
17:11
skate park
17:13
former van skate park memories from
17:16
I guess probably the late 90s early
17:18
2000s entering through this section
17:20
of the park parking way over here I
17:23
think there was a sign here
17:25
as well
17:26
new apartments over there that are being
17:28
built
17:38
still a pretty good skate park still
17:38
just sitting here emptying not even
17:39
being used
17:49
and there's the apartments over there
17:49
that are being built in what was the
17:51
parking lot around this system around
17:52
this side
17:55
Sun's about to set
18:05
how very ironic no skateboarding
18:05
rollerblading or bicycle riding this
18:07
probably was here from back when Vans
18:09
was here or maybe they just don't want
18:10
people jumping the fence and
18:12
and doing that over there very
18:14
interesting sign though now back over in
18:16
celebration they are officially finally
18:18
removing all the Christmas decor the
18:20
Garland all that the streets over here
18:22
are not blocked off through this section
18:24
anymore and I believe they took the
18:27
Christmas tree down as well so on Monday
18:29
January 9th as a recording of This
18:32
Christmas is officially finally over
18:34
here in celebration took them a while to
18:36
pull the tree down and the Sun is
18:38
starting to sell it's kind of magic hour
18:39
out here as well I know a lot of places
18:42
pull the trees down like the sixth and
18:43
the seventh celebration waited till the
18:46
night look at the sun the sun setting
18:48
behind me glistening here across Lake
18:51
Reinhardt very very beautiful in a way
18:53
it's like I'm kind of glad the holidays
18:54
are over because I start the holiday you
18:56
know I start the holidays early
18:57
September or even earlier than that with
18:59
Halloween with the Halloween stuff and
19:01
then into all the all the Christmas
19:03
decor and in November and in December
19:05
and then New Year's hits and not seeing
19:07
all the snope and stuff on Market Street
19:09
and the tree is officially gone
19:12
as of right now earlier they were
19:13
pulling it down they have all the moving
19:15
trucks out and the tree is officially
19:16
gone by tomorrow morning to be able to
19:19
drive just like regular time during the
19:21
year down Market Street air the sound of
19:23
Christmas tunes and families enjoying
19:25
these snoke festivities I have to wait
19:28
till next year this is like very
19:29
beautiful with the cloud formation like
19:31
that
19:32
and the sunsets the fountain is back on
19:35
over here yeah this is beautiful at this
19:37
hour I got back just in time to see the
19:41
sun kind of glistening over there on the
19:43
horizon that stork just went by that
19:45
bird just went by is there any Gators in
19:48
I don't see cooler or the Gang
19:52
because cool is one of the Gators that's
19:53
in here and then the rest of his crew oh
19:56
there was a squirrel walking over there
19:58
now how are the Ducks out here I call
19:59
them Howard because you know after the
20:01
movie
20:02
Howard the duck decoy duck fountains on
20:05
over there
20:10
it was a good day a random day had no
20:10
real game plan I just wanted to go
20:12
see if the wheel was open
20:14
there goes another bird going by
20:17
the wheel is not open and I'm curious to
20:19
see there's another bird going by look
20:21
at that
20:26
all those birds are going by the Sea of
20:26
Howard the decoy duck is real
20:28
spoil alert it's not real
20:38
ending in celebration but starting off
20:38
at Icon Orlando
20:42
update
20:42
and I saw that robot it was a robot
20:45
like a little feather just went by
20:48
I probably didn't show up on camera but
20:50
I saw the robot at the place over by the
20:51
the alien and the UFO gift shop
20:57
and what's the Orlando what's the icon
20:57
Orlando what's the Orlando Eye reopens
20:59
if it ever does if I'm in town I might
21:01
be traveling but if I'm here I'm gonna
21:03
go back on it
21:04
but that's going to do it for today a
21:06
very beautiful sunset
21:07
I'll see you in the next video thanks
21:09
for watching I appreciate it
21:12
the Vlog
21:13
is over
21:22
oh hello squirrel
21:22
yeah I know I already ended the video
21:23
but bonus footage
21:25
squirrel
21:47
getting a little snack at squirrel
21:47
I see you there snacking on that I think
21:49
it might be an acorn or maybe it's a not
21:51
sure exactly what that is but this
21:53
squirrel I've got oh you're looking at
21:55
me squirrel
21:56
oh you threw it down he didn't like it
21:57
you'd finish with a squirrel
21:59
you're done squirrel
22:01
up you got a squirrel another swirl
22:03
coming in here to get here whoop don't
22:04
don't
22:05
fight squirrel plenty for everyone
22:09
plenty forever looking at me squirrel
22:10
but no switch
22:12
okay they're friends
22:15
Chippendale
22:17
they're shipping down Chipmunks not
22:18
squirrels but I must call you sweet
22:20
potatoes yeah there's a turtle
22:21
underneath the gator here look at this
22:24
they're they're like they're like
22:25
friends oh
22:26
something just splashed up and the
22:29
turtle the turtles feels that the turtle
22:31
is underneath cool here oh
22:41
there's a turtle right there it's just
22:41
not it's a turtle gonna mate with it
22:42
it's gonna be it's gonna be a weird
22:43
species in here