When it comes to dream vacations (with kids), Florida is almost synonymous with Disney. Harry Potter World got into the mix with a strong opening, but there’s another kid’s entity that is jumping into the Florida fray- Peppa Pig. The world’s favorite piglet is getting her own theme park.

The news was announced recently as Peppa Pig’s theme park, the first of its kind in the world, will be at the Legoland Florida Resort in Winter Haven. The park aims to open in 2022, and yes, there WILL be muddy puddles.

Exciting news! 🎉 The world’s first Peppa Pig Theme Park is coming to @LEGOLANDFlorida in 2022! 🥳

The new park will include multiple themed rides, interactive attractions and live shows for guests to get fully immersed in the world of Peppa Pig. 🐷 We can’t wait! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/hrUkxJTgAm

— Merlin News (@MerlinEntsNews) February 25, 2021

If Peppa Pig seems like an odd choice for an entire theme park, it shouldn’t be, as it’s one of the most popular children’s shows in the world. That last part is key because they’ll obviously be aiming for international tourists as well.

Peppa Pig’s theme park will have more than just muddy puddles, as there will be rides, interactive attractions, play areas and live shows, according to a statement from Merlin Entertainments. The standalone park will be the only one in the world where your kids can have a Peppa Pig meet and greet.

Theme parks have been big business for entertainment companies (before that thing last year) and Peppa Pig is one of the hottest kid’s shows, as it was the top-streamed kids show in the world last year (thanks to 4-year-olds everywhere) and is translated into dozens of languages in countries around the globe. It’s also the No. 1 licensed franchise for Hasbro, proving parents will spend that Pig $ on their kids.

There’s no word yet on what the park will be named, but there’ll be another spot in Florida your kids (well, your littlest ones) will be begging you to go to.

Traveling with young kids is hard enough, but if you throw a lost toy into the mix it could derail everything. And seeing your kid reunited with his beloved lost toy? One of the wildest rollercoasters of travel. A young boy lost his beloved Buzz Lightyear toy on a last-minute flight the family took to Texas for a funeral, but the airline worker who tracked it down wins the award for taking customer service to infinity and beyond.

“I realized we didn’t have Buzz when we got to the rental car,” his mom wrote. “My son was devastated, he loved his Buzz so much and even had his name written on the bottom of the boot just like the Buzz from the movie has Andy on his.”

His mom chalked it up as a lost cause until they got an email from an airline worker in Arkansas, where Buzz ended up after he was left on the plane. He spotted two-year-old Hagen’s name on the boot of the toy, which gave him a starting point. With a little detective work and help from a colleague, he found out there was only one Hagen on the plane that day. That could’ve been the end of the story and it still would’ve been great customer service.

But instead, Jason, the airline agent, took it up a notch, and a few days later the family got an out-of-this-world surprise. Not only was it Hagen’s beloved Buzz, but it came in a special hand-decorated box and a letter describing his adventure at Southwest Airlines. He also included a picture of Buzz on the runway.

His mom said the thought and care he put into getting Hagen his Buzz was beyond thoughtful and sweet. “It will be a memory he has to cherish forever and an incredibly cool story to tell as he gets older,” she wrote. “There’s definitely not enough good in this world, and for someone to take the time out of their day to do that for strangers means the world to us.”

So not only did the boy get his Buzz back, but he got his own personal Toy Story sequel in the process.

Traveling ANYWHERE after 2020 seems like a lot of fun, but it won’t be long before things shift back to normal and everyone is looking for a new hot vacation spot. And, if you’re the type that likes to plan ahead, maybe set aside some PTO for your vacation IN SPACE. Hey, even chicken nuggets have been to space so this is long overdue.

Construction on mankind’s first space hotel is scheduled to start this decade. And, if space construction can stay on target, it will be operational by 2027. Orbital Assembly is the company planning the first outer space hotel, and they plan to start construction on Voyager Station in 2025.

And it looks just as fancy as you’d hope a planned space hotel would:

Why not @rookisaacman, and as a VIP contractor we’ll be happy to upgrade you to a luxury suit, but only if you can circle the micro gravity area in Voyager Station’s Inner Ring in less than 3 minutes, and drinks will be on us at the bar 😉 pic.twitter.com/Qy7ICoZNgL

— Orbital Assembly Corporation (@OrbitalOps) March 3, 2021

It’s very chic (as far as space living goes) as you’ll be staying in your own individual pod. There will also be themed restaurants (fingers crossed for Margaritaville!), a spa, a movie theater, a gym, a library, a concert venue, and earth viewing lounges. Because once you leave Earth, you’re gonna want to take some time to look back on all the suckers stuck on the same planet they were born on.

And sure, they are planning on having enough space, air, water, and power for all the guests and crew, so a good portion of the new hotel will be dedicated to that. They’ll be able to accommodate up to 400 guests (again, if literally, everything goes to plan).

And, so people’s bodies “don’t fall apart” (important!), the station/hotel will circle the globe every 90 minutes, in order to generate artificial gravity.

It’s going to be very exclusive, so start saving now so you can take one of the most exclusive vacations in humanity’s history, and do it alongside the most loathsome rich people ever!

Residents of an Austrian village near the German border were unfazed by their admittedly unusual name. The familiar word was simply where they lived, but visitors were absolutely tickled – the village became the butt of one too many jokes, and its residents hit their collective limit.

If you’ve ever seen Mel Brooks’s classic movie Robin Hood Men in Tights, there’s a scene where Prince John visits a local witch named Latrine. Prince John inquires about the unusual name before learning that she in fact changed her name to Latrine.

“Yeah. Used to be Shithouse,” she responds.

Well, this is a change reminiscent of the one recently made by the Austrian village. Formerly, the town really and truly went by the name of “Fucking.” The town’s signs, businesses, even day care centers were labeled with the town’s incredible name.

The name wouldn’t have been out of place in a Monty Python sketch, but in the real world, it gained some very unwelcome attention. English-speaking visitors and media were a bit too excited about the small town in the municipality of Tarsdorf.

Recently, Tarsdorf Mayor Andrea Holzner told Reuters about the town’s official name change. “I am confirming that it has in fact been decided by the local council. I will not say any more about it,” she explained, clearly exasperated by just how often this town popped up on her radar for the obvious reason.

As of January 1, an official statement released by the town confirmed that its name was permanently changing to – and truly, we wish them the best of luck with it – Fugging.

Most dads have their weird, endearing obsessions that add to their overall “dadness.” Some are really into beer, while others fill that spot in their hearts with cheesesteaks. One TikTok dad named Steve Simao has a sky-high love of Delta Air Lines, and COVID’s impact on travel left him heartbroken – that is, until he came up with a unique solution.

Most of us miss traveling, but probably not quite as much as Steve. In fact, Steve Simao missed flying so much that he built himself a makeshift flight simulator right in his living room. Steve’s daughter Anissa Simao shared a video of her dad in his happy place on TikTok, a video that quickly went viral for all the right reasons.

Of course, this Delta Dad misses the adventures that come with traveling, but he also missed the routine. While surfing the internet, Steve stumbled upon a for-sale listing that he couldn’t pass up. It was as if the gods of reasonably-priced air travel smiled upon this forlorn dad, and he could hardly believe his good fortune.

Two first-class Delta seats were being sold to the highest bidder, and Steve was first in line (he honestly may have been the only one in line, but we digress). Steve purchased the seats without a second thought and installed them in his home.

@lolnissytiktok and @delta , please give my dad the attention he deserves!! ##fyp ##foryou ##dad ##parentsoftiktok ##funny ##airplane ##deltaairlines♬ Elevator Music – Bohoman

For the full Delta experience, Steve fastens his seatbelt and reads through the Delta information card. He watches safety videos from the airline on his phone as he gets cozy under his Delta blanket, queuing up sounds up turbulence for whenever he decides his flight has begun.

Anissa’s video gained so much traction that it landed in the lap of Delta’s CEO, who was just as delighted as the rest of us. In a follow-up video, the dad and daughter showed off their first class setup and shared Delta CEO Ed Bastian’s video response.

“I understand that your dad really misses travel on Delta during this crazy year we’ve been through,” Bastian replied. “I’m glad he’s enjoying those First Class seats in your home. And we’ve got First Class seats waiting for him when he’s ready to start traveling again.”

The company gifted their biggest fans with three round-trip seats to use as soon as they’re ready to get back in the air. First-class seats, of course. Although the Simao family isn’t quite ready to redeem their gift, they’re most definitely going to keep practicing from the comfort of their own home.

@lolnissysurprising my grandma with my dad’s airplane seats hahaha @delta we’re still waiting for you to notice us!! ##fyp ##foryou ##dad ##parentsoftiktok ##funny♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod

Getting old isn’t for sissies, according to my grandma. Your body doesn’t work quite as well as it used to, kids these days seem to be speaking a completely new language – it’s a lot to handle after a lifetime of effort. For 95-year-old Johnnie Dimas, a WWII veteran, getting older also came with significant loss. He lost his wife of 67 years, and if that wasn’t enough, he lost his full-time caregiver. With his caregiver, Dimas could continue living at home and maintaining a certain level of independence. Without a caregiver, Dimas’s future was unclear.

Losing your independence is one of the most underrated challenges of aging. Dimas and his wife swore they’d never enter a nursing home, but with his wife and caregiver gone, the elderly veteran’s options were limited. Dimas’s grandson, Roger Gilbert, knew his grandpa wouldn’t thrive in an elderly care facility. Gilbert took things into his own hands, moving his grandpa from Illinois to Arizona two years ago to live with him and his wife Jo.

For most, aging means having fewer opportunities to explore and experience all that life has to offer. But for Dimas, thanks to his grandson, his age and circumstances meant that there was no better time than the present. Dimas, or Grandpa Johnnie, had a bucket list of places he hoped to see one day. Last October, Gilbert, Jo, and Grandpa Johnnie, embarked on the RV trip of a lifetime to turn the bucket list into a reality.

 

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A post shared by Sweet Mary Bus (@sweetmarybus)

The trio documented their journey on Instagram, sharing photos of memories that would last a lifetime.

“We know this won’t be easy, but nothing worthwhile is easy. And we know this adventure is worthwhile!” the crew shared in an Instagram post. And with that, they were off.

 

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A post shared by Sweet Mary Bus (@sweetmarybus)

They visited national parks, Mardi Gras festivities, Las Vegas, and several WWII museums along the way. At The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Grandpa Johnnie even met a fellow WWII veteran. Dimas struggled with severe PTSD after enlisting in the U.S, Marines at age 17, and was treated with shock therapy at a V.A. hospital after returning to the United States. Though he went on to live a full life, the trauma of his experience never fully left him.

 

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A post shared by Sweet Mary Bus (@sweetmarybus)

“I think it was deeply cathartic for Grandpa to be able to process everything that had happened at such a young age,” Jo told Good News Network. “It was such an honor to see how people respected his service in WWII, and how fascinated they were by him and his stories. As we walked down the street people would stop Grandpa, shake his hand and thank him for his service. They didn’t often stop long enough to see how Johnnie would always well up with emotion and gratitude for their kind words, it touched him so deeply every time.”

 

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A post shared by Sweet Mary Bus (@sweetmarybus)

On the Sweet Mary Bus named for Grandpa Johnnie’s late wife, the trio explored. They laughed, learned, grew, and filled their days with love. On August 16th of this year, at age 96, Grandpa Johnnie passed away. Rather than spend his final days in a nursing home, Grandpa Johnnie spent them living his life to the fullest. And it was all thanks to Roger, Jo, and his Sweet Mary.

We’ve hit a point in 2020 where nothing is all that surprising anymore. Carole Baskin of Tiger King fame cursed us with a very questionable 50 Cent cover, you can now crack open a cold one with your dog. Oh, and we’re in the middle of a pandemic that somehow seems to leave us with more questions every single day. In any other year, what happened to these pilots as they were approaching LAX last Sunday would have left us flabbergasted. This year, all we can really say is, “yeah, that sounds about right.”

3,000 feet in the air, one baffled American Airlines pilot contacted the control tower with an unusual issue. According to LiveATC.net, the first pilot to make the call was traveling from Philadelphia to L.A.. “Tower, American 1997,” he said, “we just passed a guy in a jetpack.”

The perplexed air traffic controllers tried to collect more details, learning that the airborne airhead was just about 300 yards away from the plane. Before long, a SkyWest pilot called the control tower confirming, “tower, we just saw the guy pass by us.”

While there are jetpacks that can reach altitudes of 3,000 or more, the hefty price tag combined with the technical skills a person would need to operate them leads to the assumption that they’d also learn some of the regulations. Or, at the very least, they’d realize that flying them near one of the world’s busiest airports is at best a bad idea.

The Los Angeles Police Department was contacted, as commercial airline airspace is highly regulated near airports. For safety reasons, it would have been illegal for anyone but the assigned pilots to fly there. After sending out helicopters to try to track down the hovering hooligan, the LAPD returned empty-handed. The identity of the man in the jetpack remains a mystery.

Although this jetpack sighting was a first for these pilots, according to the FAA, unmanned aircraft sighting reports have drastically increased over the past two years, and the agency now receives about 100 such reports per month. More people than ever are operating drones, but many don’t take the time to learn the rules and regulations for doing so. “The agency wants to send out a clear message that operating drones around airplanes, helicopters and airports is dangerous and illegal” the FAA website states.

The investigation into the flying felon is ongoing, but hopefully, in the future, he remembers to stay grounded.

There may be the occasional pop-up shop but there’s only one true Blockbuster remaining on the planet, and it’s about to (temporarily) become the closest thing to a time machine we currently have. The last store standing for the iconic movie rental franchise is in Oregon, and for three nights in September, it’s turning into the coolest Airbnb ever.

The store announced this week that it will be listing the store on Airbnb for three one-night stays in September. The press release described it as a perfect “end-of-summer sleepover.” If you’ve ever wanted to sleep in the 90s, this could be your best shot.

Each stay includes an unlimited movie marathon, as the store’s owner has gone out of her way to recreate the perfect 90s at-home viewing experience (including a giant, clunky TV with a VCR). And the price is a pretty reasonable $4, which is only a penny more than the price of a rental at the store.

The store is turning into a rental as part of a promotion to say thank you to the community that has kept them in business, even as Netflix has eradicated the franchise from the rest of the globe.

“It’s our 20th year as a Blockbuster, we were hoping to celebrate that this year, but with Covid throwing a wrench into everybody’s plans, we were really excited to be able to pull this off,” manager Sandi Harding told CNN.

While the store will become available on the rental site on August 17^th for the September stays, they will be keeping the living room décor up for awhile for customers that want to see what it looked like. And if you aren’t lucky enough to get to book the sleepover in the past, you can avoid the late fees and still grab some nostalgic merch from the store’s website.

A viral TikTok video is truly a tale for the ages, with a much-needed happy ending. Last week, 79-year-old Dennis Milentz decided to make an ambitious journey. After 18 years of being unable to see him in person, this determined dad wanted to visit his son in Fremont, Wisconsin. The only problem? Milentz’s hometown is roughly 1,660 miles away, in Heber-Overgaard, Arizona. Like any dad with a plan though, Milentz was going to see it through.

From the get-go, the trip was harder than anticipated. Milentz didn’t know how to use his GPS, he repeatedly got lost, and ended up adding roughly 200 miles to his already grueling trip. He was stressed, worried, and it was starting to seem like his journey would never end. That is, until Milentz made a fateful stop at a gas station in Woodhull, Illinois on his third day of driving. There he met a friendly couple who wrote him clear directions and left him their phone number in case he needed help.

15 minutes later, Elton Hood and Tracy Eckhardt, the helpful locals, received a call from Milentz.

“Neither one of us could bear the thought of– if we saw a missing persons alert or if something bad happened to him,” Eckhardt told WMTV. “if we had the potential to help turn this around and didn’t do it. That was just not going to work for either of us.”

To ensure the 79-year-old reached his son safety, the couple made the rest of the trip with him. They drove for three hours, with Milentz following closely behind until he reached his final destination. As if that wasn’t enough, the couple stayed in contact with Milentz’s family. They realized that due to unforeseen circumstances, the family wouldn’t be able to help Milentz return to Arizona. So what did this couple, who had no prior connection to the 79-year-old do? Well, they planned on escorting him back to Arizona.

@un_trace_ableI got a good one….his ❤️ amazes me. ##fyp ##foryoupage ##stillgoodintheworld ##elderly ##elderlylove ##armyvet ##dontletthisflop ##bethelight ##marinevet♬ If The World Was Ending – JP Saxe ft. Julia Michaels

Thanks to the power of TikTok, word got out (nearly 4 million views later) – the heartwarming story premiered on NBC15 News, and two viewers connected with Eckhardt and Hood. They offered to pay for Milentz’s flight back to Arizona so the couple wouldn’t have to make the drive. Milentz quickly and gratefully accepted, wrapping up this incredible story in the best way possible – with more good samaritans going out of their way to help a 79-year-old man complete the journey of a lifetime.

You know how people do theme weddings and completely deck out their venue accordingly? Like, if the wedding has a vintage theme, the couple might show up in an old Porsche and all the venue furniture will look like it’s been sitting out in the rain for a while? Now imagine 2020 is your wedding, and of course, you know the theme by now. So what type of place is going to set the mood? That’s right buddy, strap in – we’re going to a haunted clown motel.

India native Hame Anand has loved clowns since he was 14 years old, stating that the permanently-smiling human-ish creatures were the only things that didn’t scare him at a circus he attended (please don’t sign me up for whatever hell-circus that poor kid sat through). Anand started collecting clown figurines, and in 2017, packed up several hundred and moved to Las Vegas to help his family run the two motels they owned. He had such a knack for the hospitality business that his brother decided to buy him his own hotel. Coincidentally, this was the exact time that Bob Perchetti, owner of Tonopah’s infamous Clown Motel, decided to retire.

 

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A post shared by 94.5 The Buzz (@945thebuzz) on Jul 22, 2020 at 12:57pm PDT

The motel had been in business for over two decades when Anand added his own clowns to the motel collection and took over as owner and CEO. The motel’s creepy exterior along with its chilling 800 clown-related artifacts made it a tourist destination along an otherwise barren highway (you know, aside from the cemetery directly next door).

 

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#clownhotel #clowngraveyard

A post shared by Dave (@liftingmachine) on Jul 10, 2015 at 6:17pm PDT

Guests at the motel have reported hearing voices, odd noises, footsteps, and once, a ghost who offered to fix a broken toilet.

Maybe it was Etta L. Hager?

 

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On the way to Vegas, passed by a creepy ass graveyard next to the clown motel. Think life is short? Many of the graves didn’t make it past 30. #clownhotel #clowngraveyard #graveyard

A post shared by Dave (@liftingmachine) on Jul 10, 2015 at 6:16pm PDT

The motel is now home to over 2,000 clown artifacts, and the collection is constantly growing. Anand explained to Thrillist, “if you have clowns, you can donate because it’s the right place and right home for them.” I, for one, promise to send any and all clowns I encounter directly to Anand, even if they aren’t mine.

 

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A post shared by David Whitten (@alanandallenvisuals) on Apr 26, 2020 at 8:44am PDT

Although Anand has embraced the chilling aspects of his Clown Motel by creating theme rooms from hit movies like Halloween, The Exorcist, and It (obviously), he doesn’t think his clowns are very scary at all. “In my eyes, I don’t see why people say ‘creepy,’. My grandmother used to say, ‘whenever you’re down, look at the clown.’ I grew up with this line. That’s how I felt collecting the clowns. The clown is the laughing character. It makes you laugh.”

We’ll take your word for it, Anand. I truly cannot think of a better mascot for the garbage fire that is 2020 than a haunted clown, so there’s really no better time to book a room. Enjoy your stay and good luck.