The Emptiest Mall In Central Florida & Sad End To Church Street Station - Downtown Orlando Memories
Downtown Orlando Nov 2024
Transcript
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welcome everyone Adam the woo here as
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the recording of this Wednesday November
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27th 2024 standing here at the Orlando
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Fashion Square Mall this is where I'm
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beginning the day well not necessarily
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because I drove an hour and 10 minutes
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it took me to go the 25 miles door too
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from my home to here on Colonial Drive
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an hour and 10 minutes to go 25 miles I4
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and the back streets there was a there
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was a little bit of a a wreck on I4 so I
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had to Veer off some of the surface
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streets and let me tell you driving the
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surface streets in Orlando is not what
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it was when I originally moved here in
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1991 was 17 years old got my driver's
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license in the early '90s got to know
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the Orlando area pretty well and you can
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pretty much Traverse around pretty
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quickly every mile was about a minute if
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you drove you know a little bit more
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than that but now it is a completely
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different ball game when it comes to I4
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and very stressful getting over here but
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I have arrived
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at the Orlando Fashion Square mall going
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to meet up with a buddy we are going to
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do a few things downtown we're going to
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go to beefy King a place that him and I
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really love here on Colonial Drive
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really great roast beef place but first
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I'm going to pop in see what's going on
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inside this mall which really has seen
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better days a pop inside of fact the
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east side beastro is closed and I
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believe this
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eye this eye place here is also closed
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and the inside last time about a year
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ago
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him and I kind of wandered around in
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here and noticed a lot of stuff was
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closed and I can't imagine it's any
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different now it might even be more
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things closed than there was a year ago
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check it out and do a have a downtown
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Orlando day join me good to have you
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here shall you kind of used to traffic I
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travel a lot there's always you go to
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cities there's a lot of traffic but it
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is unusual when you're not used to it in
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your kind of your hometown City really
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have seen the progress of traffic and
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gri lock and bumper to- bumper traffic
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which sometimes when you think it's
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going to take a half hour and it should
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take a half hour and it takes way longer
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than that it kind of kind of throws you
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for a loop all right popping inside last
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mall I was in that looked like this is
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the is the Back to the Future Mall which
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they have since announced is closing and
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that is out in P Hills the P Hills Mall
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in Southern California where the parking
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lot scenes from Back to the Future were
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filmed but this almost looks a little
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more a little more rund down or close
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down than that one of course that's been
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a couple months since I checked that out
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it might actually look more like this
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but look at this there's nothing this is
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maybe the deadest mall I've ever I've
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been in in a long time goodness gracious
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yeah this has definitely progressed
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downward since a year or so when I was
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in here there are looks like there's a
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couple things that should be open that
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maybe are not open today it's
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1232 right now so it's a half hour
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afternoon this place is I mean even they
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even have all their Christmas garland up
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yeah this place is empty thanks for sure
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the gridlock on the surface streets of
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downtown Orlando those cars were not
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heading here there's none of those cars
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were going here except for my buddy he's
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here he he was probably heading here
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he's part of that need to do my part and
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I need to stay 6
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feet 6 feet apart I need to do my part
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and stay 6 fet apart there is an open
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Macy's I always I remember back in the
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day back in the 90s I would come in I
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can I remember I can always remember a
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lot of people walking up and down here
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walking down the I always remember this
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corner being a bountiful supply of
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people walking through here but now look
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at
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this what the heck okay we got some
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people up here there's a few people
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there's a few three or four got Stuart
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Little just chilling right here
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steuart I thought that was a real dog
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but really oh my gosh it's like
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okay which is that you barking is that
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you is that you doing a little barking
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right
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there okay so yeah everything down there
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empty closed closed closed closed Flex
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girls closed Clos close close Okay one
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store open another store open there of
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course the corner of the Macy's here
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closed yeah there's no way year
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shouldn't have this place is still going
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to be standing this is like Prime real
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estate I would imagine this is something
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look at this lonely just one little
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lonely massage chair right here in the
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middle whether there's another one on
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the other side so actually it's two
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massage chairs back to back but that was
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just kind of a was like right there kind
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of like looking down upon look at
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this wow I mean I can't even imagine
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what it would what it would be to rent
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one of these or at least one of these
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spots I don't know how
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well being an entrepreneur opening a
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store in here would do can't imagine it
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being that good because not there's no
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customer base there's no other stores to
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thrive off of but then you go to the
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Mall of America and that place is slam
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packed there are a few malls that are
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successful but I would say most malls
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are are finding the demise of this
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Spencer over here is open anti an's
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right there it looks like Santa is going
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to be in here meeting up I don't see
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Santa's out at the moment looks like
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Santa's going to to be out at some point
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they've turned off the escalators no
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reason to run the electricity of the
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escalators but they still do have the
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fountain on which is awesome you got the
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cinema up top you got the fountain right
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here yeah there's no sense in actually
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it's kind of weird that they do have
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these though cuz you could just use
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these as
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stairs please stay off the escalators
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violators will be trespassed ooh
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that that's scary
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really just an eerie feeling walking
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around here I'm getting some uh some
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Romero Dawn
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Vibes little walking around through here
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and you always these empty Ms you always
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see these little you put the quarter in
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you put the 50 cents in all right going
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up to elevator the only way to get to
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the second
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floor is that clock the right time no
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it's 12:40
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fancy meeting you here Micah
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hey just hanging out a fion b that's
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right maybe I so we were here a year ago
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and I got to say this place has gone
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even more desolate than we were here a
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year ago did except for the theater
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theater's thriving theater's thriving
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people makeing popcorn buying tickets
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okay yeah you also know what's really
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interesting is there's no one in this
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mall and we just so happened to get in
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an elevator with the only other people
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in the mall yeah when I came in earlier
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there was no one in here Dawn of the
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Dead Vibes I was saying the same thing
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outside especially look at this JC Penny
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you can't even round up everyone in the
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entire property to get 10 people to
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reach the
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capacity
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wow it is weird they just don't leave
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these off uh move this out of the way
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and let people walk up and down but
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right when do you think s is going to
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arrive I'm confused if there is going to
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be a s there's got to be well it says a
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selfie St station oh a selfie station
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that's what said on there Santa doesn't
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even want to be
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here you just go down there and take a
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selfie with the Christmas trees there's
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a big seat but he's not going to show up
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I'm amazed that running the fountain no
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this is wild I imagine if they don't it
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would probably smell really bad for
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stagnant water that's a good point bugs
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so yeah the only thing really happening
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is the theater over here yeah bet you're
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going to come see the number number one
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movie red one yeah red one I just saw
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that when I walked over I was like oh my
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gosh this probably be the best place to
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see it cuz no one's going to be here
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that's a good point okay this is this
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this gives me hope it's only
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temporarily it's only temporary I love a
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good good food court like a retro food
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court there it is right over there yeah
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they just don't want people walking
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around up here so they're putting up the
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little little barricades and stuff so we
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won't go past those but interesting
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though when you buy a ticket over here
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at the theater you do not go up to the
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regular ticket stand you go to the
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concession stand inside so they're no
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longer even using the Premier Cinemas
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ticket booth right here they just you
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have to go to ticket to up to the you
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have to go up to the popcorn stand but I
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love the retroness of this the retroness
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of the the carpet down there and the
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nachos and the popcorn you got all the
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neon this is definitely a really really
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cool spot this is like integrated into
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the carpet welcome to Premier Cinemas
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Premier C oh it's double on both sides
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then you got the popcorn down below you
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got the 3D
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glasses right down there you got the
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little popcorn stand over here you got
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the little the video games and whatnot
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arcade Classics and the claw
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machines that is that is really cool
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that is really cool this door must
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remain unlocked during hours of
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operation I didn't realize they were
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doing operations in
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there and no smoking within 30 ft of the
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doorway you can definitely film a zombie
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movie
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here it's exactly what I said earlier in
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my video we think I like we do but I got
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here I was like this is in I mean the
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top of the mall it feels like we're in a
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zombie movie
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yeah it's so weird cuz everything
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outside of this little bubble is
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jam-packed around Orlando just right
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there on that road on 50 you go back on
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Colonial right there oh I I was just in
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it I was just I was just in
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it but it's so quiet over
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here look at this empty parking lot
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right here I never realized this might
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be well I don't say it's the best view
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of the skyline cuz that's a pretty good
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view of the skyline of the closer you
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get though it goes down it shrinks so
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back here it's better back here it's
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better cuz I walked all the way down
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there and those trees block all of it
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when you get down there this is the best
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spot W Here Comes dude just
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like fly boy yeah there he is Fly Boy is
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there coming over that is
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wild right when you got here that was
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man who did the soundtrack Goblin need
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that music look at this is this elevator
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yeah there's no way there's no looks
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just like Fly Boy does it work yeah
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watch this are you Ser does it have a
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pan just like Fly Boy I think it's a JC
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Penny it could be a JC Penny this
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elevator Works watch this no
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way I'm showing Adam we've we've been in
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this elevator earlier but I'm showing
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Adam this this elevator come on
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on there it is dude the way it opens
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yeah that's crazy and then get in there
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it feels like the lighting and
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everything feel just like it it's not
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exact paneling not the same paning not
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the wood paneling but yeah it's close
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where you would have tried to get
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out down to the first we might be the
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only the first people that been in the
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this elevator in years you hang your
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coat on
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that I don't know what that is there's a
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spider Bo
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though yeah the way it opens
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holy cow
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man I shock this elevator still works oh
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it's a parking garage okay the bottom of
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the parking
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garage when there's no more room in
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hell look at this just JC JC Penny here
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just like in the film of course we're
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nowhere near mon rille but isn't it
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comforting in a way like when you see
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things like this and because of that
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film that film it to to people like you
12:29
meet Jay you're the only people I knew I
12:31
could talk about this film and it's like
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it's a comforting like Sean Clark Sean
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Clark Sean loves it too it's yes he does
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it's very much a
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comforting coming video movie to watch
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you like locations like this that feel
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like that I know it feels like I'm inro
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I was in that monoville mall doing
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location thing I was like I don't want
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to leave this spot this is this this
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feels more like the movie than that does
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cuz the Moville mall is actually kind of
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thriving it is it is it's real thing I
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love the the open light above you and
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then the one that's closed over here so
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that one's fine but the one above you oh
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yeah imagine that like flickering and I
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kind of have a tradition whenever we are
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in this area of Orlando where we go to
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beefy King I don't think you and I have
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been to beefy King probably since the
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last time we walked around this
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mall couple years they blocking up the
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door they're blocking up all the they're
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pulling the truck up to the doors that's
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right that's right we got this man we
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got this by the
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ass that's the best that was a good
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impression we ended up street parking
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cuz it was difficult to get
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in the parking now there is parking over
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here but it's kind of hard to wedge in
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here because look at the line of
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cars this place is very very
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busy I got to check the hours because I
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don't really
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know I don't think it's open later in
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the day I think it's open
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pretty pretty
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early beefy King
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get your beefy King merch early for the
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holidays and uh we're here at beefy King
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now they have pumpkin pie shakes they're
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back look at this look at this a mess of
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car is is just like this it's crazy they
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do kind of like the same thing they got
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a guy out here taking the orders the
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cars this place is hopping it
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is this place is hot halber stram it's a
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beehive of activity halber stram this
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place is hot I think that's where I
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started saying beehive of activity I'm
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sure American like gu I just realized
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that there's definitely plenty of seats
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in here but look at the
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line to get some roast beef sandwiches I
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mean it is busy in the Drive-Thru and
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it's busy in here but nobody evidently
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wants to dine in they all want to get it
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to go we're going to dine
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in kind of reminds me of like old like
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Pizza Hut type of chairs we got there's
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the first employee t-shirt right there
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they slice it all fresh right there with
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that machine kind of going back and
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forth and the slicing machine I love
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these like little I guess you call that
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stained glass these remind me of like
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old Pizza Style Diner
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lamps yeah this place is busy drive-thru
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is busy the line inside is busy I guess
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everyone an i4 was coming
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here all right I've ordered the sandwich
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extra large meal I got the
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spuds yeah looks like they have like
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some new merch too including this they
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ended up purchasing a little decal for
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$2 I do have a shirt
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somewhere somewhere in my
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closet yeah little BK not Burger King
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beefy
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King we've been in here many many times
15:49
this is definitely the busiest as far as
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drive-thru and the amount of people in
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here I like it though I like it there's
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a proclamation
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beefy King Day look at
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this the 15th day of June
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2013 is Beefy King I didn't realize
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that beefy King de look like some old
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menus right here back with sandwiches
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were $19
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they did have a fire in here a few years
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ago but thankfully the whole place was
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not destroyed they were able to rebuild
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part of it the dining
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area all right this is what we're
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dealing with I got myself a little sweet
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tea here horseradish sauce your squirt
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ear on there oh
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yeah so I never tried this so Micah
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convinced me to go with some cheese yeah
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and some onions on there as well not
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caramelized onions but like sliced not
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sliced they're like diced on diced
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sliced diced but not
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caramelized see what it looks like here
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no D oh there we go yeah
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sliced
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action go with a little
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uh very
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nice these are the spuds and I guess the
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meal deal comes with SLO and a pickle I
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never gotten a meal deal
17:48
before and they're shouting out onion
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rings I guess have onion rings also this
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is considered an extra
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large you made it downtown now pretty
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close to lakeola
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haven't been over here in a while last
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time I was over here so this is where
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the Ernest safe's Christmas house used
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to be Jim Barney's house from from the
18:06
movie was right here they tore it down
18:09
and then they built this new one last
18:10
time I was here it was under
18:11
construction now it's finished looks
18:14
nothing like it did in the movie but
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this is this is from Earnest safe
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Christmas right here this little Street
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the rest of the street kind of still
18:20
looks the same where they had the right
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here where they had the cars
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driving in the Santa
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this is another thing so whenever Mike
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and I are in this area we always go to
18:33
beefy King and we always check out the
18:36
Ernest safe Christmas house
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yep yeah there it is looks nothing like
18:41
it did in the movie at all they've
18:42
redone everything even the sidewalk this
18:45
is nothing from the film everything is
18:47
new the only thing that's original is
18:49
where the brick connects and the the
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previous owner the old man who lived
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here told me he sat out here with John
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cherry and they had the the dolly system
18:58
set up and they would move the the the
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thing apparently they got more shots
19:02
than they used in the movie because the
19:03
movie is literally just a painting shot
19:06
just like that it shows the it shows his
19:08
mailbox yeah and all the you know
19:10
knickknacks and stuff downtown
19:14
holidays what this sign says we're right
19:16
downtown off of orange I don't know
19:18
what's going on over here but this over
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here is all boarded
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up
19:26
wow that's interesting
19:29
all boarded up over there we're just
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kind of Meandering around downtown and
19:34
we walk over to Church Street see what's
19:36
going on over there you like the start
19:39
there you go they got
19:42
the Christmas decor up that mural there
19:45
it's got a lot of the iconic pieces of
19:50
Orlando there this another Earnest St
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Christmas Spot discussed that before but
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we're just passing by Sidewalk is closed
19:57
cross here back in the day back in my
19:59
band days when I play in a lot of punk
20:01
rock bands we play right in here it was
20:03
the back Booth it load in over in this
20:05
parking lot what was that VIN you called
20:08
I played there back Booth back Booth yep
20:11
yes this was the back booth now
20:13
cocktails and
20:15
scream Yep this was the front entrance
20:17
the back Booth right
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here right here what's back
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Booth crazy
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never looked down this stairwell before
20:37
tank
20:38
NE I was just about to film
20:41
that funny enough Adam's never looked
20:43
down here where the mwise are that's oh
20:45
my
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gosh totally has that Vibe threshold of
20:52
Church Street South Orange this looks
20:54
like a
20:56
dandelion right one of those like
20:59
flowers you pick up and make a
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Street all right more boards over here
21:17
at dawn Hefe tequilo
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parlor yeah this downtown
21:25
yeah it's going on downtown on Church
21:27
Street a lot of closed up
21:30
places look at that Saints Center's
21:33
Cafe maybe someone broke the
21:48
look the old train station
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here still standing even though it is
21:51
all fenced off and not be able to use
21:54
and then you got the
21:55
historic the ever so popular Church stre
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station back in the
22:00
day that's the old train station the old
22:02
train station but back in the day back
22:05
in the 9s I's say late ' 80s early 90s
22:08
this was promoted as heavily as the
22:10
theme parks you see a lot of
22:12
advertisements and time share places and
22:14
whatnot promoting Church Street Station
22:17
which was just this little corner so if
22:20
you ever find any old paraphernalia from
22:22
the 9s I mean they were they were
22:24
promoting this almost as heavily as like
22:25
Magic Kingdom SeaWorld and Universal oh
22:27
yeah it was all the commercials you see
22:29
the the the can can girls dancing D
22:32
there's a a famous concert of Jerry Lee
22:35
Lewis he performed here my buddy Tyler
22:38
his dad Ronnie McDow performed whole CD
22:42
here in here yeah right that's cool
22:44
Street live in the 80s man this place
22:46
was thriving the killer thing this was
22:49
uh hamburger Mary yeah it just closed it
22:52
did Mary will no longer serve you a
22:55
hamburger here anymore they do now in C
22:57
they mo they moved to CMI move to CMI
23:00
this bumby Hardware this where the old
23:02
Hardware Old bumby oh there's a sticker
23:05
from uh yeah there's a hamburger Mary
23:07
sticker this door is
23:15
open I've seen a lot of shows in here
23:15
this door is open is
23:17
it kind of it's locked at the top
23:21
hamburger Mar oh yeah they're renovating
23:23
in there that was where the bar was
23:25
right there
23:31
one of the greatest fight scenes ever
23:31
Miami Connection took place right here
23:33
Miami Connection not filmed in Miami
23:35
filmed in downtown
23:37
Orlando this is where it went
23:40
down let's find a way to get up there
23:43
yeah Miami Connection right here right
23:45
there great scene these are not being
23:47
rented too often you're just sitting
23:50
here it is kind of a bummer seeing every
23:53
place down here
23:54
close every place on Church Street from
23:57
what I can tell it's completely closed
24:00
maybe there's a night life because it is
24:02
a little earlier than
24:04
nighttime but I don't know you can you
24:06
can even hear the little alarm beeping
24:07
like the fire alarm they haven't changed
24:09
the battery yet oh yeah you're right
24:11
that's what that is but there's that
24:13
Western fi down
24:16
here I4 is right there
24:19
yeah going over the
24:26
top this is wild it looks it's so
24:26
different like you see that old
24:28
promotion stuff when this place was
24:29
thriving these buildings weren't all
24:31
here fun fact 55 West I almost moved
24:33
there many years ago I consider moving
24:35
downtown kind of glad I didn't they had
24:37
the horse carries out here and all the
24:39
promotional videos and
24:41
stuff like the Horse Carriers down here
24:43
they promote all this all the hand can
24:46
girls down here guys in the western
24:50
outfits hey this is wild look at this
24:53
Grandma and
24:55
Grandpa Merry Christmas 1985
25:04
885 Kaitlyn and Kathy there's
25:04
88
25:06
yeah
25:08
85
25:10
76 Mississippi loves
25:13
Kansas this is all late
25:16
80s mid to late 80s I wonder if there's
25:19
a look at these some of these are hand
25:22
SL in
25:25
signed that's wild right any familiar
25:28
name on here that's what I was saying my
25:30
head
25:31
like and this little wall over here that
25:34
says coming soon bumby arcade Food Hall
25:37
that's been up for like a couple years
25:39
it
25:45
has great sea urchin seiche I've just
25:45
quoting American Psycho a lot today all
25:47
right here's a little relic of the past
25:48
look at this
26:06
nothing going on at Church
26:06
Street I've been downtown a few times in
26:09
the last couple years and every time
26:11
this D dto store downtown Orlando store
26:15
for one reason or another something's
26:16
going on an event and they're have a pop
26:18
up somewhere else and it's not open so
26:21
I'm hoping today it is open cuz I want
26:24
to go in here and check out some dto
26:27
some down downtown Orlando merchandise
26:31
and it is in fact opened went in perused
26:34
around a lot of good 407 merch downtown
26:38
Orlando merch Central Florida
26:41
merchandise
26:44
shirts keychains
26:46
magnets postcards
26:49
paraphernalia quite an assortment of
26:51
stuff in there
27:03
dto yeah the last few times I walked by
27:03
here it hasn't been open so glad I got
27:05
to pop in there and they're closed
27:06
tomorrow and the next day holiday
27:09
weekend upcoming so that I popped in
27:11
there and they closed in like 15 minutes
27:12
so got to peruse around a little
27:24
bit right over here is a taco place
27:24
looks to be kind of boarded up there is
27:26
a lot open down here but there's defin
27:28
probably just I'd say half as many
27:30
places are closed as they are open yep
27:34
like example I'll boarded up not boarded
27:37
up but papered up all right made the
27:41
Traverse back down
27:43
over down Interstate 4 some toll roads
27:45
back over to
27:47
Celebration yeah definitely Central
27:49
Florida traffic is getting busier than
27:52
it used to be but that's to be expected
27:53
I guess a lot of people moving
27:55
here whole Central Florida area is
27:58
growing is that an
28:00
owl I just he an
28:03
owl thanks for watching I'll see you in
28:05
the next video the Vlog is over