South of the Border – Overnighting Without the Rig

If you’ve ever driven I-95 through the Carolinas, you have seen signs for South of the Border. This Mexican themed stop that sits on the state lines of North Carolina and South Carolina is a draw for many travelers.

Having been stationed in North Carolina in the early 2000’s, I passed it many times on my travels home to Florida, even stopping a time or two. We have stopped once or twice over the years since, when our travels took us past it. So, on our journey home from Washington, D.C. in March, we decided we didn’t want a long drive day again, and decided to split it up and stop at SOTB for an overnight.

The great thing about SOTB is that they have a Motor Inn (Motel) as well as an RV park, so no matter which method we travel, it will work for us. On this trip, and our first overnight here, we just had the truck, so opted for the Motor Inn.

These accommodations are meant to be simple and affordable for the average traveler, and they are. We loved the convenience, the affordable price, and that they are pet friendly without charging a huge fee. For about $95, we got a 2 double bed room with an AC/heater, a bathroom, a TV, and had a covered parking spot out one door, and the other door had chairs with a shared covered patio overlooking the pool. They have both an outdoor and indoor/heated pool, but we didn’t use them.

There’s lots of activities like mini-golf, a viewing tower, an animal statue menagerie to explore, a HUGE geocache box (lots of travel bugs to exchange on your journey!), and many shops to explore. We walked a bit, but didn’t do much other than find food and sleep. BJ got his daily run in, and loved that he could run across the state border to tag both states!

The room doesn’t include a microwave, only a refrigerator, so we had to venture out to find food. There are several options to choose from, including a truck stop or pantry, a cafe, a burrito shop, and a steakhouse.

That was where we ran into issues–mostly because of my food allergies. The burrito shop had outside seating, decent options and prices, so we could bring our pup. None of the other locations had outside seating, and the pantry and truck stop (shout out to the awesome lady we met that worked there and chatted with us for ages)–both had microwavable food, but not really anything I could eat. The boys got take away tacos from the burrito shop since we had the pup, and there wasn’t anything on their menu I could eat. We walked over to the cafe and, knowing it wasn’t pet friendly, tried to get take out–which wasn’t an option. So, we sent the teenager and the pup back to the room to watch TV and were gonna stay so I could grab a bite. They immediately turned us away since BJ had takeout food from another restaurant, and still wouldn’t let me order take out–or at least were very evasive about it. After several exchanges, trying to get something I could eat, we left with me in tears and on our way to the steakhouse. They were great working with my food allergies and had delicious food and decent portions, but at a much higher price than we budgeted. Needless to say, we didn’t stick around for breakfast and found our way to a truck stop–which has surprisingly accommodating options!

The rooms were comfortable enough, with a handful of channels to entertain us on TV. The shower was basic, but clean and had good water pressure. The beds were full size–and had clearly been slept in the middle more than anything since we found ourselves rolling into the middle through the night. It was pretty quiet, although you could hear the late stoppers/early risers coming and going, but barely–it was enough for Luna to hear, and she’s always restless her first night in a new place.

We didn’t stop at the RV park, Camp Pedro Campground, but looking online, they have decent size sites with full hookups, and get access to the pools, and the rates appear to be reasonable online ($45 a night). It’s easy access, as well, so this will be on our list for stops to overnight, if we need hookups.

All in all, we would stop here again, especially traveling with a pet, but have a better plan for food since I am on a special diet, but my health issues were new at the time we traveled, so we were still learning. Of course, if we bring the RV next time, that will solve it, too!

Have you stopped here? What would you add that we didn’t mention?