The Great Experiment

Thursday, July 13, 2000: Today I decided to go exploring around the area. Specifically, I wanted to look at some apartments nearby, find out what US Route 192 is all about, and maybe check out that Celebration place.

Route 192 wasn't quite what I had expected. It was an interesting mix of chintzy and clean, of run-down and respectable. The stores which line 192 are the typical seedy fast-food joints and souvenir shops you'd expect, but they're set back from the road a little bit, and the lawns appear to be well-kept. Add to this the fact that there aren't many billboards around (the ones that do exist economize space by rotating among three different advertisements every ten seconds or so), and I'm not entirely sure what to make it it all yet.

The apartment complex also wasn't much to see. It consisted of a few well-kept three-story buildings and a nice central office with a nice rental agent inside. Unfortunately, she didn't have any units available to show me; their complex was full and their demo units were in the process of being moved from one floor to another. "We'll probably have those finished next Wednesday," she offered, "if you want to come back then." Still, $755 for a two-bedroom isn't bad, especially since I'm paying $1165 for a one-bedroom in California right now.

The apartment complex was right on the other side of 192 from Celebration, so I figured I might as well go check it out. Celebration is a small town built on Disney property, and I've heard plenty of unflattering things about it, mostly implying that Disney runs it in a fascist manner, and that the townspeople really aren't all that happy there. I was expecting to find dull little cookie-cutter houses with Mickey Mouse logos stamped on them; I was expecting to take a drive through and be out of there in ten minutes.

I was wrong.

[ Index | Day 11, part 2 ]