Unusual & Abandoned Stops In Center of Alabama - Final Day of My Road Trip Back To Florida Dec 2021
Center of Alabama Back to Central Florida
Transcript
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welcome everyone adam may the woo here
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as the recording of this about 8 a.m on
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wednesday december 8th 2021
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and i'm in alabama
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starting off with these mailboxes they
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kind of remind me
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of the scene from close encounters
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you might know the one
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i am in the center of alabama looks like
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there's been a little bit of rain
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right here along this dirt road clay
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road
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and i will be venturing back
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to my homestead in celebration florida
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today
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approximately 540 miles if i were to go
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directly from point a
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center of alabama
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to central florida
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celebration 540 miles if i do not detour
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but i will be kind of veering off
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however we'll not be taking the small
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desolate roads the back roads
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because i have to make up some time it
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takes a while to
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go up 540 miles somebody taking the
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interstates but i will veer off to see
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things i have never seen before this is
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one of them i'm inviting you to join me
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on this 540 plus mile
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quest
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to return home
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with a car
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full of items that i've downsized
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from my former place in orange county
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california
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let's go take a look at this join me
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shall you
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the center
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of alabama right here
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this placard
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was erected
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by the montevallo
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chamber of commerce back in 1955
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1955
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very interesting
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standing right here
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the center of alabama
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be crossing a state line at some point
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into the panhandle of florida most
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likely
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and then through the panhandle and then
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down
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it's been carved in with
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names are etched all through here
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including buford's
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randy jays
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pretty neat right
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pretty neat
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i'm gonna head down this dirt road
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and over to the interstate
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through alabama and into florida
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just off this road in calera alabama
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something i have never
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seen duplicated
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an igloo
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prayer igloo
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has the inscription house of prayer
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on the front doorway there
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as you go in
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and reading a little on this before
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walking in
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back in the 70s a retired
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state trooper created this
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and it's not too far off of the
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interstate a few miles
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something you don't see every day unless
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you are
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in the center of alabama
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and people do arrive here
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to pray and to worship
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there's even some notes
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and a little bit of an echo
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but
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people have
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kind of jotted down notes
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and thoughts in that basket there
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and there are
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four different bibles
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candle over there in the corner
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just outside the parking lot of a car
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dealership in clanton
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it's this water tower
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it's made to look like a gigantic peach
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has the words clanton
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the town name down the side of the
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the base
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that's a big peach
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and just down the ways a bit is
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peach park
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with another rather large
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peach
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in peach park
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this is not a water tower
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but it still does have the town's name
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on it
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clanton
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alabama peach park gardens
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so it states it there
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this is about five miles
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from that water tower down the freeway
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peach park gardens
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it's a little trailer down there
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beautiful fountain
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we got christmas trees up since it is
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december
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the coolness in the air a crispness
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and a large
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made it over to the outskirts of
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prattville now
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corner of rice park circle and highway
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86
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lived a man
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who created a lot of signage
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and something called the cross garden
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and he was very vocal
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well as far as his writings went
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on the side of this so maybe a
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refrigerator
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and other items like an air conditioner
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unit
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on what his religious thoughts were
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and what others should believe
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and if they didn't
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but he felt
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his way of converting those
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or at least sending a message
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and it's all still here he passed on
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quite a while ago over a decade ago
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but what he built still remains they
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have left it here
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along the road
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a lot of beer bottles here as well i'm
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not sure the significance of those or if
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this is the opposite
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the opposite end of the thought process
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of those coming by maybe this is the the
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garden of beer bottles
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of those who do not agree with his
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thoughts
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maybe it's that maybe that's their
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their answer
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it's a very interesting place
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my dad was a minister for a very long
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time
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and i would imagine that my dad if he
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was here would probably think this is a
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little
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a little overboard
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and the way i found out about this is
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had a preacher friend
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that lived here in prattville i know
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prattville very well
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and i've been here many times
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and my friend passed away about a year
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ago
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stayed with him a number of times
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and one of my visits here he told me
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told me about this place he goes you
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gotta check this place out on the
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outskirts of town
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and even he thought it was a little
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it wasn't it wasn't the way he would
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present things
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so just because someone
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just because someone is a believer
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doesn't mean they're gonna
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they're gonna go this extreme
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but some do
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i guess you could call it the fire and
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brimstone
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way of thinking
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i just think this is fascinating
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fascinating
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it really is that all this signage is
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here
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i haven't been back to prattville in a
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while
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i have some good memories of my
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my friend and i
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going around and doing some videos
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together
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and him telling me about this place
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as a local minister
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now this is one of the ones that
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everyone remembers
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that goes by here
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this saying here
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you can see it on quite a few air
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conditioner units
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or at least the shell of the air
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conditioner unit
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kind of a subtle nod to how hot hot hot
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hot hot hot hot hot
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it will be
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it's kind of genius in its own way
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really don't know if anyone lives here
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still
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and really surprised that
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those in the neighborhood
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well i don't know what those in the
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neighborhood even would think of this
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there is a house at the top of the hill
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with
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writings and paint on it as well
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there are the three crosses up there
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up and i hear an air conditioner unit on
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okay
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someone is living there
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all right just wanted to stop by here in
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prattville
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always good to go come through
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this is on the outskirts of town of
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prattville but
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nice to pass through
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oh it says no ice water
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continued an hour or so down the road
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and just off of highway 231 halfway
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between
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curry
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and troy
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is a little roadside stop called pioneer
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village
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the meeksville fire department truck
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sits right here
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i noticed this as i was just
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cruising along did a u-turn
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back tracked just a bit pulled over
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and decided to just walk up in here
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the entire
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pioneer village that's the country store
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i just bypassed
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is empty closed
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massive amount of shops
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there's like little storefronts
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not anymore
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not anymore as clouseau would say
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even some items up there on the porch
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each one of these is numbered
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most likely for different vendors
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that would run out the place
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see others have been here too you see
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the path
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trodden path there
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this floor
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feels like it's gonna fall in
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just parallel to the highway
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is this bridge
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that back in 1920 at the cost of 92 000
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was dedicated in 21
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and now sits here
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not being utilized but they have a
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historical marker
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next to it which is pretty neat
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sometimes when you're just going down
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the road
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see stuff like this
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it's good that they have an indication
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of
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what it is
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putting the marker up
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very beautiful bridge
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they didn't tear it down they left it
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here even though there's now a
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two lane highway that runs parallel to
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it
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oh and over there next to the river
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that does not look structurally sound
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like an old tree house
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it's official
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i'm back in florida across the state
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line which is located right there
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and before you think oh he's
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pretty much
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within close proximity
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to his place in central florida still
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354 miles
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from the state line here down to
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celebration florida think of it like
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texas
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massive state or
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even more like california with the
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length of it still got a ways to go you
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know when you're in california from san
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diego or la up to san francisco
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it's a trek and that's kind of how
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florida is
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as well so even though i've crossed the
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state line
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still got a ways to go
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according to what i just looked up gotta
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keep moving on now this brings back some
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memories flat creek road
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just off the inner site
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about a mile off
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these big poles here now
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the power poles and a construction unit
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but this is the big bend high lie
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fronton which has been abandoned for
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15 20 years
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and about a decade ago i snuck inside
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this place
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it was pretty scary walking around in
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there i did not have an appropriate
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flashlight
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i've never really been prepared when it
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comes to exploration
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and back then was even less prepared
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one thing i do recall about this
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is there was a lot of birds inside it
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was so dark
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it's such an incredibly large building
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that the birds
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were very frightening because i didn't
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know what the noises were
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as i rooted around in there
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gosh
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in some ways it only seems like
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yesterday but it also seems like
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forever ago
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ah memories
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i'm making videos a long time
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on 75 southbound now
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it's raining
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starting to rain
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i know i'm getting close
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when i stop off at the paynes prairie
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rest stop
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120 miles precisely
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celebration florida
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stopped writing it for the moment
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beware of venomous snakes
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i've showed this many times
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it's been a while
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right up there
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is a little walkway that you can walk
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out on i don't know if i want to walk
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too close
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because i have to go up and around
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but the rest stop overlook itself
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is the front of a snake
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really a hundred percent
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not sure or i'm not 100 sure
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on what type of snakes would be out here
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besides the one it's not meant as a joke
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because that is a snake head right up
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there
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there are real snakes i would imagine
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that sign is truthful
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you can see the traffic going
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southbound which is the way i'm headed
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yeah it takes a long time to get from
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the florida state line down to central
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florida
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but only 120 miles to go
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this cross excursion is
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current cross-country excursion
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just about over
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i've done quite a few of them over the
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years
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current tenure in
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southern california i live there from
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2015 to 2016 and i got the rv for a year
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and then i moved back so this last
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tenure
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four years i was in southern california
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two in hollywood
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in about two years and three or four
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months
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in orange county
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it's kind of weird
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knowing that i only will have the place
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here in florida which will be great you
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know as i stated
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in recent updates about traveling more
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i could take the money that i was
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utilizing for rent out there and using
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that for traveling after the holidays
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i'm really excited about that but it is
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kind of weird it's sinking in now that
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i'm almost to this home
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thinking i don't have the place out
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there anymore
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which is the first time i felt that
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in four years
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that's a little unusual
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i'm kind of ready to get there this
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i've been on the road for this this trip
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i'm a little tired i'm ready to
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take a couple days and just rest that's
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like once i return there and unpack my
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car got a lot of stuff in the car so i
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got to unpack the car these last few
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weeks to a month have been interesting
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left florida drove this car my car all
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the way out to socal
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packed up my stuff was there for
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10 to 12 days two weeks give or take
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downsize pack stuff up and now drove
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back cross country
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and i have returned
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about an hour and a half two hours
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from home
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that's gonna do it for today i'll see
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you the next video the vlog
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back in florida
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for now
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until the end of the year the vlog
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is over