The Tackiest Town in America

Perhaps I shouldn't give this award so soon. After all, I'm only half way through my trip, but...

Something tells me that South of the Border, South Carolina simply can't be topped. Driving north from Savannah, Georgia, billboards begin the litany of bad taste: "I Never SAUSAGE a place!"

Like a toothache, I'm irresistibly, painfully drawn to it. The giant sombrero, the offensive statue of a gold-toothed Mexican, the stereotypical totem pole overlooking t-shirt and firework stores. It's as though South Carolina has been hiding under the surface for hundreds of miles, fuming, boiling...ready to burst. And then: POW! It spills out all over the side of the highway, offending every ethnicity on earth in one fell swoop. If the symbolism isn't enough, the message is made explicit on bathroom stalls: White Power.

Well, South of the Border. Thank you. You make me proud to be a "Yank"!