Skip to main content

Say It Ain't So! No more free OJ or Grapefruit Juice at Florida Welcome Centers

Our family travels to Florida pretty much on average once a year.  And it is tradition - though my wife will say otherwise - for us to stop at the Florida Welcome Center on Interstate 95.  For decades, visitors on either Interstate 10, 75, or 95 entering the Sunshine State would be treated to a fee sample of Florida Orange or Grapefruit Juice.

So imagine our surprise when we stopped at the Interstate 95 Welcome Center and saw the sign below.


Budget cuts to both the Department of Citrus and Visit Florida are the reason for the removal.

The decades old tradition first began along US 17 in Yulee when the state opened their first "hospitality house" in 1949.  Since then, millions of visitors, young and old, have enjoyed their complimentary glass of juice.  A fitting welcome to the Sunshine State.

Unfortunately, over the last decade, budget issues have threatened - and at least as of February 2020 - and brought the unique show of Florida hospitality to a stop.   First, in 2015, then Governor Rick Scott vetoed money in the budget to cover the cost of the free juice.  The Florida Department of Citrus stepped in and agreed to take on the approximately $250,000 cost.

Unfortunately, budget cuts to the Department of Citrus over the last decade led to the Department's unfortunate decision to stop funding the free juice in July 2019.  Visit Florida - which operate the Welcome Centers - has also experience drastic cuts to their budget and was not able to support the funding either.

So as a result, the free orange and grapefruit juice is no more - at least until a source of funds can be obtained.

The reaction from travelers is of disappointment as for many it is considered the official start of their Florida vacation.  When I posted about this discovery in various transportation forums, the comments echoed my disappointment.  One comment from Chris Lokken and Scott Onson sums up the reaction quite well.


via GIPHY

Hopefully, a source of funding for this decades old tradition can be found.  I would hate for it to be discontinued for good.

Do you know of any other Florida Orange Juice type free-be's at rest area's/welcome centers?  For years, a rest area along US 301 in Georgia offered free Coca-Cola.  I stopped there in 2004 and Chris Allen wrote about it in 2010.  If you know of any, feel free to comment below.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chowchilla Mountain Road to Yosemite National Park

Chowchilla Mountain Road of Mariposa County is one of the oldest roadways servicing Yosemite National Park.  As presently configured this fourteen-mile highway begins at California State Route 49 near Elliot Corner and terminates at the Wawona Road in Yosemite National Park.  Chowchilla Mountain Road was constructed as a franchise toll road over Battalion Pass circa 1869-1870.  The highway was built at behest of Galen Clark to connect the town of Mariposa to his property near the South Fork Merced River at what is now Wawona.   In late 1874 the highway along with Clark’s Station would be purchased by the Washburn Brothers.  The Washburn Brothers would continue to toll Chowchilla Mountain Road as part of their Yosemite Stage Route lines.  The highway would ultimately become a Mariposa County public highway in 1917.  Mariposa would later be more directly linked with Yosemite Valley in 1926 following the completion of the Yosemite All-Year Highwa...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

Angus L. Macdonald Bridge

At 1.3 kilometers (or about 0.84 miles) in length, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge is one of two bridges crossing over the Halifax Harbour between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with the other bridge being the A. Murray Mackay Bridge . Opened in 1955 and named after former Nova Scotia Premier and Canadian Minister of Defense for Naval Services Angus L. Macdonald, the Macdonald Bridge was the first bridge that crossed Halifax Harbour that was opened to traffic. The Macdonald Bridge was also the subject of the Big Lift, which was only the second time in history that the span of a suspension bridge were replaced while the bridge was open to traffic. Planning began in 2010 for the Big Lift, while construction took place between 2015 and 2017. Similar work occurred on the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia before the project took place on the Macdonald Bridge. At this time, much of the bridge infrastructure is new, leaving only the towers, main cables and...