WATCH: 5 Great U.S. Rest Stops
Impacting Travel Rich Thomaselli January 22, 2017

If you have traversed the great road of I-95, as we have many times, you know that one of the most well-known rest stops in all the country is South Of The Border.
We mean, even if you never stop there you KNOW it’s coming because of its ubiquitous and cornball billboards that start about 100 miles before you get there.
“Pedro’s Fireworks. Does yours?”
“You never sausage a place!”
“You’re always a wiener at Pedro’s!”
Just over the North Carolina-South Carolina border in Dillon, S.C., the place is definitely old (almost 70 now), certainly tacky, and arguably racist by today’s PC standards with its cartoon caricature of alleged proprietor Pedro sporting a brown face and mustache underneath a sombrero.
Yet it continues to draw tourists by the thousands, with its decidedly low-key amusement park, food and, of course, a place to go to the bathroom.
Which made us think about some other road trips we’ve taken and other great rest stops we’ve seen and heard about. Here’s five worth a stop if you’re traveling that way.
(In no particular order)
TRAIL’S TRAVEL CENTER, I-35, Albert Lea, Minn. – It’s the food options that draw people here. You can get something from a vending machine, you can get something at a couple of fast-food joints, or you can sit down for some of the best steaks around at Skol’s Tavern. Red meat. Midwest. ‘Merica.
MARS' CHEESE CASTLE, I-94, Exit 340, Kenosha, Wisc. – You think Wisconsin and what comes immediately to mind? The Packers. Cheese. Brats. Well this literal castle has it all, and then some. It is the self-described quintessential place for all things Wisconsin.
IOWA 80 TRUCK STOP, I-80, Exit 284, Walcott, Iowa – This place has it all. Don’t believe us? Well, let’s say you’d like to stop and get a bite to eat and stay a while just to get out of the car. In other places, you’d find yourself twiddling your thumbs after 35 minutes of eating a burger and fries. At the Iowa 80 Truck Stop, can you kill some time at the Truckers’ Museum or take in a movie. That’s right, it has its own movie theater. Let’s say you’re going cross country in a car or RV and you’d love to have some fresh clothes. Yep, it has a laundromat. And shower facilities for you. And you don’t need to drive a truck. Hey, they don’t call this 100,000 square-foot facility the biggest rest stop in the world for nothing.
JUBITZ TRUCK STOP AND TRAVEL CENTER, I-5, Portland, Ore. – The Fox Travel Channel once called this the “classiest” rest stop in the country. See for yourself.
PEDRO’S SOUTH OF THE BORDER, I-95, Dillon, S.C. – OK, OK, sorry, we’re suckers for the place. If anything, it told us that our annual golf trip from New York to Myrtle Beach was getting closer and closer. Oh, and we would be remiss if we didn’t mention it also has a reptile zoo. Yes, truly odd.
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