Diary of a Road Trip: The Plan Was Kissimmee. Then the Road Had Other Ideas.
Episode 1 of Eat It Florida’s Road Trip Diary was supposed to open in Kissimmee — a stretch of Highway 192 host Jesse Blanco has known since childhood road trips from Miami to Disney World, back when the Kissimmee exit off I-4 was practically the middle of nowhere. It’s also home to the largest Puerto Rican community in the country, outside Puerto Rico itself, and that history is exactly why it felt like the right place to start.
But the drive math didn’t work. Getting all the way down to Kissimmee for lunch, with a first night planned in DeLand or Daytona Beach, meant an hour or more each way just to eat. So the trip pivoted — and found something better close to the interstate instead.
That detour led to Lelo’s BBQ in Orange City, less than a hundred yards off I-4. Cafeteria-style, Puerto Rican, and — in Jesse’s words — smelling like his grandmother’s kitchen the second he walked in. A family combination platter of pork, red beans, rice, and roasted chicken ran about $30, with enough left over for the hotel that night.
From there, a roadside sign reading “World Famous Dale’s Ales” was enough to earn a U-turn. What followed was an unplanned stop at a biker bar off Highway 17 near Orange City — built for the Bike Week crowd, full of good people, and good for exactly one beer that turned into a longer visit than expected.
Neither stop was the plan. Both were better than it.
The full episode — with all the detail, the detours, and what came next in DeLand — is embedded above. Eat It Florida is also available wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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