Vintage Busch Gardens

Fellow blogger Electrospark's recent blog about Busch Gardens' Hospitality House, reminded me that I found a great vintage brochure from Busch Gardens while rummaging through an antique store in Maine. The Busch Gardens pictured in the brochure is how I remember it looking when I visited as a young child in the sixties. My memories include the long escalator ride up to the top of the brewery (I was scared), the strong smell of beer in the brewery ( I thought it was yucky), the many colorful tropical birds (maybe that's where my love birds came originated), and the funky little miniature village. I've visited since then, my last visit being in the '90s for a concert in the old Bavarian Beer Garden (The Smithereens.)

According to the brochure, Busch Gardens was dedicated in 1959 to past AB presidents (Adolphus Busch, August A. Busch, and Adolphus Busch, II.) At that time the Gardens was open from 9:30 am to 4 pm, every day but Sunday and holidays and there was FREE ADMISSION!

Ken Breslauer in Roadside Paradise states of Busch Gardens "By the mid 1960s it had grown to over 160 acres and featured the Space Frame Geodesic Dome, Bird Show Ampitheater, Dwarf Village, Flamingo Display and and thousands of flowering plants." The Gardens expanded with a zoo, monorail and rides to keep pace with Disney in the '70s and '80s, but according to Breslauer "Busch Gardens must be credited with setting a new standard for Florida tourist attractions, but at the same time it directly contributed to the demise of many smaller roadside attractions."

Here I am at Busch Gardens on my initial visit, oblivious to the fact that my little fingers could easily be mistaken for parrot food.

On a later visit, in the then kitschy dwarf village.

Looking for the old in New Tampa

Okay, so I'm a hypocrite. I love the blue highways for scenery and nostalgia, but for speed and convenience, nothing beats the interstate. So my latest Florida journey started on I-4 west. But at least there are some interesting roadside sights along the way.

First there is Dinosaur World near Plant City. It's off the same exit as one of my favorite restaurants of all time, the Branch Ranch. One of those sprawling eating establishments that started out in someone's home and just kept growing and growing, it featured homestyle country cookin' and massive portions. To my great sadness, it closed a while back after fifty years of fillin' bellies.

Dinosaur World, although a relatively recent roadside attraction, is in the spirit of a good old-fashion Florida tourist trap. It's colorful prehistoric behemoths call the interstate traveler to stop - I've wanted to pull over every time I drove by. So I finally did, but only to take some photos near the parking lot.


The next interesting I-4 roadside site is Florida's version of the Cadillac Ranch made of Airstream trailers. Photo by my wife, I was busy driving.

Our destination was New Tampa. I never knew there was such a place as New Tampa, I guess the Tampa I'd always known is the old Tampa. In New Tampa, everything is well, new of course. It looks liked they carved some roads out of old Florida wilderness and plunked down new stuff everywhere. The wilderness has not been completely tamed as our friends who live there often have issues with wild hogs in their neighborhood. And we saw a 6 foot alligator approach the road on all fours in an attempt to cross, something I've never seen in over forty years of Florida residence. But most of New Tampa is new roads, new stores, new restaurants, new hotels. Brands everywhere. Our hotel was so branded that they had clever little taglines on every single element, including the coffee cups and notepads.

Everything was new except for one very notible exception, the art gallery run by Hong Kong Willie. Nothing there is new, as everything is created from recycled materials. We saw this crazy out-of-place establishment, nestled right by I-75, and had to stop in. There is no signage at this outsider art environment, except the "GOOGLE HONG KONG WILLIE" painted on the back of an art car in the front. The owner of the establishment, an aged hippie named Joe, opened up the gallery for us to look around. The space, a former fishing tackle store, still has fishing tackle and incredible stuffed fish amid the artwork, mostly handpainted signs, burlap tote bags and ashtrays made from old 33 records. (Note: I'd love to have shown pictures of the inside, but I was asked us not to photograph the interior- you'll have to visit his Etsy site to see the art for yourself!) Willie, aka Joe, explained that everything sold there is made of sustainable materials and showed us some of the ingredients, like coffee bags shipped from South America. The environment alone is worth stopping for, from thousands of fishing floats, to an old helicopter, to Willie's own tribute to 911. It's obvious that these folks are working hard to keep up with the rest of New Tampa, making new stuff from old. Way to go brother.