Old Town – Kissimmee, FL

Click here to see my YouTube channel video on these machines
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Continuing my journey down Highway 192 I came across another interesting little place called Old Town.  It’s a little back from the Highway, but not hard to find.  The side street kind of winds around a bit before you find a parking lot.  This place does get busy on weekends, but I was here pretty early on a Saturday and Old Town seemed to be just getting going for the day.

With my daughter Hanna along for the trip we started at the far end furthest from Highway 192 so we could make sure we didn’t miss anything.

There appear to be old roads running through the middle, but no actual cars can drive here so its open for just the pedestrians.  Buildings line both sides of these walkways and have shops of various types selling anything you can image.

One of the first places we stopped into was the Black Market Minerals which was a place I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

Inside the shop sold all types of rocks, and minerals, jewelry made from these beautiful stones and a lot of very unique gifts.

Just inside the main door was a four design electric penny machine.  I’ve only come across this style of machine in a few places and think the last time I found one like this was in North Carolina at a zoo.

These designs are actually kind of a great set for this type of store.   They include images of different dinosaurs: A Triceratops, Pterodactyl, Brontosaurus, and a T-Rex.

My daughter Hanna was fascinated by the large bins of very colorful stones.  You could sort through them and pick out the ones you liked to fill a bag for a set price.  I convinced Hanna to just pick a few as a souvenir before we headed back out to the street.

You can also find some restaurants, and a few bars here which seem like they would be quite the hang out after dark.

There was even a Haunted House attraction if you dare.  It was closed when we passed by, but Hanna didn’t like the looks of it so we crossed to the other side of the street to be on the safe side.

We kept walking and eventually came across a Leather Shop at the far end of Old Town.

They sold bags, and wallets, belts, and all sorts of products made from genuine leather.  Most could be customized if you had the time to wait or come back.

I will admit I didn’t come her to buy and leather, I’m not particularly fond of it myself but decided to check it out as they had two penny machines inside.

The designs from the first machine seem to be more of the generic rest stop variety.  I’m still new to the area so these are still new to my collection, but get the feeling I’ll be seeing more of these along the way.  The designs included an Alligator, My Lucky Penny, I Love You, and a Florida Sunset over the Water.

On the other side of the door was the second machine which is always nice to have close by.  This was a hand crank model with 4 additional designs.

This set included another design of an Alligator, The Lord’s Prayer, an American Eagle with USA Map and Flag, and finally another cool Florida Beach Scene.  Hanna didn’t seem to impressed with the leather shop (not enough bling she mentioned) so we headed outside and back towards where we parked.

Along the way we did pass by Tiki Jim’s which sounded right up my alley.  I love all that Tiki stuff and would decorate my house like the Polynesian Village Resort if I could just figure out how to convince my wife.  One last stop was for Hanna to get some Strawberry flavored popcorn from the Kissimmee Popcorn Company.  FYI they give out free samples of all their many different flavored popcorn so be sure to try it out, they have some really fun flavors.

This was a really cute little area to just leisurely walk around and so some window shopping.  I can definitely see how it can get busy and crowded as it’s not a very big area.  Plus with the bars around it may get a little rowdy, but when we visited before lunch it was very peaceful, and worth a visit.

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Main Gate Flea Market – Kissimmee, FL

Highway 192 is a pretty touristy main drag running just south of the Disney World property, and straight through the neighboring town of Kissimmee.  There is just something about that name that sticks in your head.  Even as a child I remember numerous vacations staying at a Howard Johnson in Kissimmee as we never stayed on Disney property.  Coming down from Canada, as much as we wanted to spend an entire week at the parks, there was just so much more to do in Florida we had to keep moving.  But Kissimmee was a name I never forgot.  Now that we are down in Florida we have slowly been trying to find our way around and go further and further from our house to see what’s out there.

I will admit up front that I have been checking pennycollector.com to try to collect some new coins around town, but there’s been so much to do with the new house that I don’t have as much time as I want to go on penny collecting trips.  This past weekend I had some errands to run and the stores I needed to head to just happened to be in Kissimmee right along Highway 192.  This is where I knew there were some penny machines I needed to check out.

The Main Gate Flea Market was one of these stops.  It’s right along Highway 192 surrounded by Hotels and over the top souvenir shops.  The flea market consists of two buildings A and B.  Both are very similar just obviously with different vendors in each.  We really weren’t looking for anything specific, and really was just here for the penny machine but I figured we may as well see what’s available.  We headed into Building A to start walking around.

There are a few kiosks with boiled peanuts, and “fresh” made candy, but most of the other stuff is the classic souvenir items.  T-Shirts as far as the eye can see, snow globes, orange tree starter kits and tons of cheap sunglasses and umbrellas as must for Florida visitors.

Down one of the aisles we found the restrooms and for some reason the penny machine was located.  I guess this ensures a lot of traffic past the machine but who knows.

This was an interesting machine.  It was an electric model but in a very dates looking cabinet.  But I don’t mean it was beat up, rather just looked kind of link an antique which was pretty cool.

The designs here are ones I’m sure I’ll get used to seeing throughout Florida.  These seem very similar to ones I used to find along the Jersey Turnpike or other roadside rest stops.  The designs included Orlando FL – World’s Vacation Center, Souvenir of Florida The Sunshine State, My Lucky Penny with Horseshoe & Shamrocks, and A Penny For Your Thoughts.

With the pennies safely stowed away we finished walking around the Flea Market but didn’t buy anything this time.  As much as I say the stuff is pretty standard it’s still hard to resist some of it.  This was a nice little stop and they do have some cheap souvenirs if that’s what you’re looking for.  Plus the pressed pennies are some of the cheapest souvenirs you can get, and will last a lot longer than the knockoff Mickey plush.

Click here to see my YouTube channel video on these new designs.