Forgotten Attractions & What’s New On International Drive Orlando - Inside The Closed Vans Skatepark
International Drive Orlando August 2022
Transcript
0:11
welcome everyone adam
0:11
wu here has a recording of us thursday
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august 18 2022. it is already scorching
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summer heat
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here in central florida
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no piping hot caffeinated beverage
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started off with the water from the
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starbucks where i usually get a huge
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latte each morning i have been drinking
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coffee throughout the course today
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peppering in them if you will but trying
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to stay away from sugary caffeinated
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beverages like the lattes and whatnot
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and in the mornings i try to just go
0:37
with a water and replace go to the same
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places i usually go to but replace them
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with healthier options which hopefully
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will coincide into better habits
0:47
throughout the course of you know eating
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in the future at other places i don't
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know it makes sense to me anyway i'm
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inviting you to join me today as i go
0:54
over to international drive meeting up
0:56
with a friend of mine and gonna just see
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what's changed on i drive
1:01
international drive to you and i
1:04
or international drive that's i drive
1:06
to you and i join me
1:08
it is hot out here it is scorching
1:12
shall you i am not going to fabricate or
1:15
lie about the fact that it is
1:18
not
1:19
cool out here
1:20
it is freaking hot in florida in the
1:24
summer if you've never been here it's an
1:26
experience oh yes the always exciting
1:28
bottleneck on i-4
1:30
and 535.
1:32
starting to move cut a little quicker
1:34
though but always bottlenecks there here
1:35
now one thing i really want to check out
1:37
while i'm over here is this brand new
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just opened very recently i think a
1:41
couple months ago
1:43
massive
1:44
disney store not on walt disney world
1:47
property
1:49
you can see the little
1:51
advertisement up there on the side of
1:53
that parking garage it's massive
1:56
got mickey and donald up there
1:59
the castle
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celebrating the 50th anniversary i'm
2:02
parked here at the light able to zoom in
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on it
2:06
might be the biggest disney store
2:09
off property that exists anywhere
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don't quote me on that but this thing
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i gotta wait till i get in there to
2:15
confirm that but this thing is
2:17
huge
2:18
and believe it or not
2:20
there are leaf blowers
2:23
and world of mica as soon as you start
2:26
recording yeah
2:28
now micah informed me that the disney
2:29
store he popped in there the other day
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is not as large as you would think it is
2:33
from the road no it's more or less like
2:35
a
2:36
half the size the one the airport okay
2:38
so just the signage makes it look
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massive also a trolley going by
2:42
now that i've never gone on
2:45
i mean i hate to say never say never but
2:48
i think that was a james bond movie
2:50
now these i have utilized in fact i went
2:54
on these before and now i actually own
2:55
one not not this brand but
2:58
you ever been on a scooter oh dude this
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looks so much fun one of these days you
3:01
should do yes i need to do it oh and
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here is the trolley stop that's not a
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trolley that's a lawn maintenance but
3:08
that's
3:09
kind of needs to go on the back of the
3:10
back of one of those
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but the trolley
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i don't know if you'd probably let us
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tag along in the back of that but
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there's a iride trolley map right here
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look at the little trolley it has a face
3:24
on the front of it all right so the drop
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rod oh there was a truck behind us that
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made quite a noise the drop ride was
3:29
right here well still is right here but
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i do not believe it is quite
3:33
operational they've also added a couple
3:35
things over here to
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icon park including a ferris wheel you
3:39
want to explain
3:41
how hot it is out here
3:43
what's the what's the heat like in
3:44
florida and it's it's sticky even in the
3:47
shade it's
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it's bearable in the shade for those who
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have never been to central florida
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probably get out of the way of the leaf
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blower
3:55
what is humidity like describe humidity
3:57
it feels like you're inside of someone's
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or something's mouth
4:05
that's a good description inside
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someone's mouth i've always described it
4:07
as taking a hot shower going outside of
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the restroom and then realizing oh i
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forgot my phone or a magazine or
4:13
whatever in the bathroom walking back in
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and then going whoa
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that's what that steamy shower felt like
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after i've walked back into the coolness
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that's what it's like out here in the
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summers i i agree or inside someone's
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mouth either or but
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i did try to
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mind change my mind about the
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temperature and everything because today
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was duncan's like unveiling or was
4:37
yesterday the pumpkin oh pumpkin pumpkin
4:40
i had a pumpkin cold brew this morning
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trying to get into the fall because
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halloween's already started magic
4:45
kingdom so i was like all right let's
4:46
get into that as soon as i stepped out
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of my car i was like nah man give me a
4:49
pineapple drink we're still in summer
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we were kind of just standing here
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discussing that
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probably both our opinions this will not
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open if it does
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it won't be for a very long time and
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in all honesty it may never open again
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in fact it wasn't even open very long
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maybe a series of weeks or maybe a month
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or so
5:22
now a lot of these pirate cove pirate
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adventures
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that are around central florida have
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closed one on highway 192 closed the one
5:30
on i drive is still open at the moment
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and there's another
5:33
rather large themed
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miniature golf course that closed over
5:38
at the crossroads by disney which they
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are demolishing that whole area i drove
5:43
by there today and
5:44
is really they bulldozed a lot of it but
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this one's still open
5:48
currently this pirates cove adventure
5:49
golf still open all right we're gonna
5:51
see if the train track i think the train
5:52
tracks may have been removed man yeah
5:55
they were right there you could see the
5:57
indention
5:58
so over here near the or next to in
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front of the orlando heli tours which is
6:02
reopened it was closed for a long time
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used to be one of the old trolley train
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tracks
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yeah you're right you can't see kind of
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the indentation that used to be here on
6:11
the road oh it is still on the road
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we'll have to walk over there
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and look at that
6:16
and then over here it's just kind of
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interesting
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there is a
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nesting hawk area you weren't kidding no
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there's really others
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you thought i was joking i just didn't
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think it was gonna be this ridiculous
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like look at that thing yeah so if this
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does not terrify you i don't know what
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will so this could be you right here
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or me
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i know
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it's a protective nesting hawk
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so you don't want to get too close to
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the tree
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i don't this might even be too close now
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you're supposed to stand on this side of
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the side well although
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the sidewalk goes by there
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but there's a nesting hawk up there
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because last time i was here i was
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finding the train tracks i was in that
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you were in there i was in there looking
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for the tracks
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that side's been there for a while
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though
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i kind of want to find the nesting hawk
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just to see it okay there's another sign
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over here
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so this says proceed with caution it
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says proceed with care i do not want to
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disturb the nesting hawk
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and this is located right across from
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where race rock used to be there's only
7:24
a couple relics of race rock left
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and there's two trucks from this former
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attraction it was bulldozed and
7:30
outstanding busters
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they're located at old town in kissimmee
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there's two trucks that have the race
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rock emblem on it it's kind of
7:37
interesting to do these updates you know
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every year or so i've covered a lot of
7:41
this before but it's interesting to do
7:43
it because there's always changes and
7:45
over time this will be able to be
7:46
removed they'll probably pave over this
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and there'll be nothing left
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of the old train tracks that round out
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ran
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down i drive so i just like to cover
7:54
things you know every so often i'll
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kind of rehash stuff and just do updates
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on the tracks right walk in the tracks
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that's it
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and you can see kind of in the grass the
8:12
and it went down
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the other side there there used to be a
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trolley that sat here in the grass as
8:17
well oh nice yeah where it circled okay
8:19
there's a little relic over here too
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nice right here backpack where pity wise
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lives down in down here
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we all float
8:34
down there oh there's more here now you
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can't go any farther than where mike is
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walking up to there's a sign of
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washboard sign
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can't go past that but check this out
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this is dang cool
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it went completely around
8:55
that's the point of no return right
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there it stops right there but i believe
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you know
8:59
obviously it went around the whole thing
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for the grand circle tour they probably
9:03
put that over the top of them almost you
9:05
see where it went this way
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and then they just put the brick over
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the decorative brick yeah
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i just love stuff like this i think it's
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probably the reason we're friends
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because this kind of stuff
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me and you get excited about this
9:16
everyone else is fast forwarding yeah
9:19
and here's a little closer angle at the
9:21
trolley here
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i ride trolley
9:30
okay arrived at the base of this parking
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structure slash hotel
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where the walt disney world store is
9:35
sitting and there's a little
9:37
got a little mark not a marquee but a
9:38
little painting over here of the castle
9:40
which is kind of tucked away in there
9:43
and then of course up top it says
9:44
walt disney world store oh and this is
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pretty dang cool check out spaceship
9:49
earth there in all its glory little
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little painting of spaceship earth all
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right after stepping inside kind of
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realize it just pretty much is just one
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big room it's just basically one huge
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room not the entire hotel which i
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thought it was going to be
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from looking on i-4 when i was driving
10:04
off i-4 off the
10:06
off the intersection to get onto
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international drive it's just one big
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room it's almost kind of like someone
10:11
like a scaled-down store that you'd see
10:13
at disney springs or maybe even one like
10:16
in the park
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per se as well they do have a lot of
10:19
different items in there that you could
10:20
if you don't want to deal with the
10:21
crowds of the parks you can get i also
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have a ticket center you can go in and
10:25
get tickets for the park in there as
10:26
well and a whole dvc area
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or if you want to become a member of
10:30
disney vacation club they have a little
10:31
promotion for disney vacation club
10:34
they have a lot of generally pretty much
10:35
a lot of the same stuff that they have
10:36
at downtown disney or now disney springs
10:39
i should call it so disney springs and
10:41
and in the parks at the emporium and you
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know all the resorts and stuff like that
10:44
even some snacks and whatnot
10:46
definitely pretty cool to see this on i
10:48
drive kind of a nice addition what's new
10:50
on i drive summer 22. and the only thing
10:53
i purchased
10:54
inside there was this
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smart water you can see it's at the base
11:00
of
11:02
to the base of this parking structure
11:04
those are the old ticket door handles oh
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you're right they were yellow back in
11:07
the day
11:08
good eye you're right like the retro
11:10
style yeah
11:12
look at chewy like i never do that
11:19
relics of the past
11:20
that is so cool man they blocked this
11:21
door off
11:24
oh look at this
11:25
it's got the kind of the older version
11:27
well yeah a year or two ago they changed
11:29
the logo to all capital yeah here's
11:30
another one right here
11:32
it's pretty neat this is the official
11:35
look at this the official visitor center
11:38
i've never walked through this little
11:39
catacomb of
11:40
little hallway here
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now where are you saying did you do a
11:49
video on this micah that this is the
11:50
world's largest checkers yeah um
11:53
supposedly this is the world's largest
11:54
says it on the inside supposedly okay
11:57
all right it says world's largest epic
11:59
mcdonald's
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named that after it was referred to the
12:02
world's largest mcdonald's
12:04
and caddy corner to that was going to be
12:06
one of the world's largest roller
12:08
coasters from what i heard across the
12:10
way here on the corner of san laken
12:11
international was going to be
12:14
what they said was going to be the
12:15
world's largest
12:17
also some links buses going by roller
12:19
coaster
12:20
but it just never happened it was going
12:21
to be right over there by that perkins
12:23
and over by hogan's beach shop
12:25
all right behind hogan's beach shop
12:27
which i've always said
12:29
this probably was a 7-eleven at one
12:31
point this probably
12:33
yeah it's an old it's an old sebby is
12:36
that it i don't know but inside they
12:37
have quite an assortment of products
12:39
from the hulkster hulkamaniac days early
12:42
days then also it became hollywood hulk
12:45
hogan also rocky iii
12:48
you know an assortment of merchandise
12:49
i've been in here before i bought a few
12:50
things from here but i always like in
12:51
fact years ago i actually saw hulk hogan
12:55
in close proximity around the back side
12:56
of the store hulk hogan walked by there
12:59
was a large line of people to get his
13:01
autograph and he called me brother he
13:03
actually i said my life was complete
13:05
hulk hogan called me brother that's why
13:07
when you see hulk hogan you just want
13:09
him to call you brother now besides
13:11
rocky 3 if you had to pick a favorite
13:13
hogan movie what would it be mr nanny mr
13:15
nanny yes okay suburban commando is the
13:18
derby community
13:19
that's a good one and then he was in a
13:21
television show
13:22
that
13:23
disney put out and filmed a lot around
13:25
the disney property that's right uh what
13:27
was it
13:28
thunder in paradise and if you continue
13:30
off i drive
13:31
behind hogan's
13:33
little relic back here
13:35
of florida tourism all fenced off we're
13:37
gonna be able to go too far but
13:44
just completely empty
13:44
it used to be a fun spot on 190 no we
13:46
used to be a fun spot on 192. no i'm
13:48
thinking of fun in wheels
13:50
by the old osceola mall
13:52
so this was the fun spot what the third
13:54
fun spot yep i think this was like one
13:56
of the first
13:58
this is one of the first very
13:59
small property and right over there i
14:02
think is some of the track
14:05
the old uh
14:07
track
14:08
so now there's a fun spot at old town
14:09
kissimmee and there's a fun spot farther
14:12
down i drive i'm going double
14:14
double duty here with the
14:16
umbrella and the hat just not taking it
14:18
i'm just not taking any chances on the
14:20
sun micah no you're not
14:22
and it looks like one of the one of his
14:24
adversaries
14:25
came through here and knocked this down
14:27
it could have been the iron sheik could
14:29
have been vader
14:31
i make you humble is that what the iron
14:33
shake says yeah i think if there's a
14:35
couple more accidents there's a few more
14:37
expletives in there now i stand here
14:39
looking at this parking structure so
14:40
it's just a parking structure not a
14:41
hotel just a parking structure
14:43
that's new yes not just the disney store
14:46
underneath it but the structure itself
14:48
is relatively new to the skyline
14:50
by dropping
14:51
the 19. you can get a thousand gifts in
14:54
there for only a buck 99. that's like
14:56
what's like less than a penny each yeah
14:58
that's pretty freaking awesome
15:00
yeah this has to definitely be one of my
15:01
favorite little icons going through here
15:04
i i'm not
15:05
not trying to
15:06
put it into the icon park scenario but
15:08
just an iconic structure here on i drive
15:12
this alien just kind of putting out the
15:14
vibe sitting up there yeah
15:16
and the hat's on sideways it says
15:18
bargain planet
15:19
it's the top of like it looks like a
15:20
water tower
15:23
this cow right here i don't know if this
15:24
cow really wants to be the mascot or not
15:26
in front of the steak house
15:28
you know this cow is just like why did
15:30
you put me here whoa look at this
15:32
there's minnows in here oh my gosh there
15:34
are minnows the water's moving i thought
15:36
it started raining there are minnows
15:38
inside here
15:40
wow there are live fish
15:43
inside this little pond of rainwater
15:50
i thought it started raining at first
15:50
yeah
15:51
look at this
15:52
they're all moving around out in there
15:54
this was a haunted attraction it didn't
15:56
last very long so i got some of the
15:57
theming
15:59
see if i can kind of peek in here
16:22
it's been closed for a few years all run
16:22
down now
16:31
definitely got to stay hydrated except
16:31
by noticing here at this gift shop
16:34
even though i kind of want to wet my
16:35
whistle again
16:36
i'm out of luck
16:38
because no drinks
16:40
does that mean i can't bring a drink in
16:41
or they're not going to drink they're
16:42
not going to sell a drink to me no
16:44
eating or drinking they're smoking it's
16:45
like if i buy a drink in here
16:48
there's no drinks in here yeah they have
16:49
no drinks that's
16:51
probably what they're saying no drinks
16:54
no dice a lot of large paintings around
16:57
here a lot of theming on these gift
16:59
shops
17:00
like this astronaut right behind me
17:01
there
17:03
i think if i walk you walk over here
17:04
there's even more
17:05
there's another miniature golf course i
17:07
think there might be some live gators
17:08
over here okay there are some down here
17:11
there's a few gators down there also see
17:13
some tadpoles down there too oh hello
17:15
gator
17:16
and some real fish there's some big fish
17:17
down in there too
17:19
caught your attention didn't i gator
17:25
quite a few it's like
17:25
one two three four five six seven eight
17:27
nine at least 10 or 12 in here
17:30
they're all kind of congregated under
17:32
that bridge
17:34
and over here some of them are sunning
17:35
themselves with faces on the rock there
17:46
to be honest i kind of wish i was
17:46
a little dip in some water too it is so
17:48
toasty out here
17:50
but it's a nice and refreshing down in
17:52
there i'm not going to hop in there with
17:53
you gators
17:55
definitely don't want to do that but
18:01
the water looks refreshing
18:02
i call these wheel of fortune moments
18:04
try to figure out exactly
18:07
what they say this is a tough one
18:10
that's a tough one right there
18:21
okay
18:21
i know this sounds weird but i know the
18:23
bottom right there the t-h-y-e
18:26
yeah i want to say
18:28
no because it's not spot right it's a
18:30
tough one i thought it was rhythm at
18:32
first because there used to be a rock
18:33
and roll show over here i was gonna say
18:34
it said rhythm and blues or something
18:35
yeah i'm at a loss on this one
18:38
maybe that's medallion
18:40
all right we're now we're driving around
18:41
the back of desert land used to be the
18:44
artagon mall before that was the
18:45
festival bay mall
18:47
and i always like to check in on the
18:49
former
18:50
van skate park that used to sit back
18:52
here there's now an apartment complex
18:54
that's being built
18:55
adjacent to this they can't go all the
18:57
way around the building
18:59
but the public parking does go around
19:00
here by the trampoline
19:02
park and the old skate park
19:05
outside portion of the skate park still
19:08
exists
19:09
back here right over here
19:11
has the the ramps and the
19:13
and everything from the skate ramps all
19:16
right we're getting a little behind the
19:17
scenes now here this is bobby
19:20
you might be in the video that's cool
19:21
what's up what's up everybody yeah so
19:23
bobby's showing us around a little
19:24
little behind the scenes here some of
19:26
the new cars are going to be putting out
19:28
but what i'm fascinated about i mean i
19:30
love all the cars
19:32
but this is the inside of the old van
19:33
skate park
19:35
from back in the day
19:38
this is bringing back a lot of memories
19:40
when i was in here
19:41
like 20 years ago i would stand up here
19:43
and watch people skate
19:45
that is so crazy this is the inside it's
19:48
funny because we just drove around the
19:49
back and showed the outside of the skate
19:51
park but this is the inside of where the
19:52
van so is that the old ramp over there
19:55
wow
19:56
look at this where the ramp was over
19:58
remember seeing video footage like bam
20:00
margera skating in here all kind of
20:01
people skating in here
20:06
lock us out oh you don't get locked out
20:06
gonna put this cone here
20:09
they were coming
20:11
down there we go
20:17
cool oh wow this is like blowing my mind
20:17
holy cow this brings back memories
20:21
we just drove back here
20:23
you know how many times i've looked over
20:24
the fence i've been like oh i remember
20:26
this place back in the day people tried
20:27
to dump the fence oh i can imagine yeah
20:36
dude look at this little bowl here
20:36
i mean obviously people been in here you
20:38
know tagging it up yeah
20:41
this is cool
20:43
because this is you should be at a park
20:44
over here and this you would entrance
20:46
into the mall this way and then they
20:47
would leave the doors open so your
20:49
parents could watch oh right here yeah
20:51
someone wrote bring back vans yeah
20:54
the insurance is crazy here which is why
20:56
they're not down there oh i'm sure
21:02
this is crazy man that's cool right yeah
21:02
i'm sure people probably hop defense all
21:04
the time they have to
21:15
i got to go back and watch some footage
21:15
of the inside there for sure
21:17
it'll bring back all the memories
21:22
yeah i think it was the festival bay
21:22
area or festival bay era
21:25
and then it became artagon
21:27
but this closed way before artagon yeah
21:37
you have fans on yeah
21:37
yeah i've been wearing vans forever man
21:40
i'm wearing the walmart vans right now
21:42
oh yeah
22:03
look at that holy cow
22:06
so how many new how many of the classic
22:08
bugs did you just get in oh that's a
22:10
good question so all over there are all
22:12
the new volkswagen well new to you guys
22:14
whole museum right here
22:16
all the way from that row
22:18
and then somewhere hiding so you're
22:19
going to detail and fix all these up and
22:21
those are going to go with some of these
22:22
on the show so he's going to take the
22:23
ones that are pretty roughed up put him
22:25
in i think he's gonna do a restaurant
22:26
with him
22:27
a restaurant other ones yep he's gonna
22:28
put him in the museum
22:32
it's up to him he's got the last say
22:35
so this was all the skate park
22:37
hold down there pretty massive man yeah
22:41
now when you say him is it desert it's
22:42
desert okay
22:45
oh nice so yeah part of it is down there
22:48
part of the bowl's down there the ramps
22:49
are gone but
22:50
that's where the half pipe was over
22:51
there the hat bike was in the corner
22:54
that's cool
22:55
look very faintly but there's some vans
22:57
logos still up there
22:59
so the snack bar was over here in the
23:00
corner yeah i'm pretty sure if i
23:01
remember correctly
23:04
man
23:05
it's all coming back to me now grab my
23:08
so you used to skate here too back in
23:11
so now you're working in a place you
23:13
have a lot of memories from skating at
23:14
yeah it's actually really cool
23:18
probably one of the few remnants of vans
23:19
that's even left in here yeah the
23:21
painting on the side there
23:26
i just have so many van stickers those
23:26
big ones
23:28
yeah you like the vans outlet mall or
23:31
something and they were just like here
23:33
have some stickers yep
23:35
oh my gosh
23:37
look at these clowns
23:42
i never thought i'd be able to get back
23:42
inside the old fan skate park
23:44
it's funny because we just showed the
23:45
outside earlier driving in the car did
23:48
you guys go to the museum yet we've been
23:50
to the museum not today but we've been
23:51
through it before yeah yeah it's awesome
23:57
i like how it goes in time you know
23:57
timeline
24:02
now we're just we're thinking that this
24:02
is probably where they this is the store
24:03
you have the skateboards inside of there
24:05
it looks like that's where the store
24:06
would have been the bottom here on the
24:08
bottom level and of course we were just
24:09
up there on the up the
24:11
up the stairs and down here is where
24:13
they had all the ramps
24:14
all right that was definitely very
24:16
unexpected and a thank you for
24:19
being able to be shown around inside
24:21
there inside desert land
24:23
and oh a little bit of an echo standing
24:25
right here yeah
24:26
notice there's like an echo right here
24:28
very much so i don't know if it probably
24:29
doesn't transpire to the did you just
24:31
whistle yes
24:33
you kind of like there you go yeah it's
24:34
like 360.
24:36
yeah pretty cool i mean it was it's cool
24:37
seeing the cars i did a full tour in
24:39
here once
24:40
probably about a year ago or so
24:43
but we're kind of neat seeing some of
24:44
the
24:45
the stuff back in the old former van
24:48
that's pretty dang cool going back in
24:50
there so appreciate them showing us
24:51
around okay back in my own vehicle now
24:54
rain is happening
24:56
central florida storms
25:00
that was just a little pause by going on
25:01
anything over now
25:04
gotta love rain
25:06
cleared up for a minute but looks like
25:08
another storm will be rolling out the
25:09
clouds up there
25:11
that's gonna do it for today
25:20
you can only see where the storm cloud
25:20
kind of ends rain cloud ends and the sky
25:23
opens up
25:24
i think there's going to be some
25:25
precipitation from that cloud again
25:27
momentarily we'll see in the next video
25:28
the vlog
25:30
is