Step inside Cracker Christmas at Fort Christmas, the annual two day pioneer celebration that transforms a quiet corner of eastern Orange County into one of the most distinctive holiday events in Florida. This episode takes you beyond the craft tents and demonstrations and into the story behind the event itself, tracing how a reconstructed Second Seminole War fort became the gathering place for a community that protects and teaches its history one demonstration at a time. We explor...

For most visitors, Nights of Lights in St. Augustine is a holiday spectacle, a glowing postcard brought to life. But the real story began long before electric bulbs lined the rooftops. This episode traces the deeper history of how St. Augustine marked the holidays across four and a half centuries, from Spanish colonial celebrations to the quieter rituals that carried into the American era. Nights of Lights is not the flashiest display, and it was never meant to be. Its power comes from someth...

Winter Park looks quiet on the surface, but beneath the brick streets and lakeside parks is one of Florida’s most influential cultural cities. This episode takes you beyond the café patios of Park Avenue and into the deeper story of how a small, carefully planned community became a powerhouse of art, architecture, and historic preservation. We explore the city’s origins in the 1880s, the citrus empire that vanished overnight, and the reinvention that followed. You’ll hear how Rollins College ...

Pigeon Forge is a place most people think they already understand - a blur of neon, traffic, mini golf, dinner shows, and roadside souvenir shops. But beneath all of that? There’s a different story taking shape, one that’s quieter, older, and easier to miss. In this episode, Chad returns to Pigeon Forge for the first time in a couple of years and takes on a simple question with a complicated answer: What happened to this town? Over the course of one rainy day, he traces the layers that still ...

When the 2025 government shutdown reached Florida’s Space Coast, it quietly reshaped one of the state’s busiest refuges. In this episode, Chad Gallivanter visits Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, home to spoonbills, manatees, and the shadow of Kennedy Space Center, to document what “open but unstaffed” really looks like. The visitor center is locked behind a chain-link fence. The boardwalk is off limits. The restrooms are closed. A single orange portable toilet stands in for federal in...

Florida doesn’t do winter the way the rest of the country does. It invents its own version. From mangrove lagoons lit by kayaks to entire cities wrapped in white light, the Sunshine State turns December into a story of illumination. On this episode, Chad takes you across a number of unforgettable holiday experiences - the real ones, not the overhyped ones - that show how Florida celebrates without ever pretending to be somewhere else. You’ll walk the centuries-old streets of St. Augustine dur...

Dunedin didn’t build itself around a beach; it built around a street. Main Street. That’s the spine - walkable blocks lined with cafés, boutiques, and bookstores, anchored by the Artisan District and the Pinellas Trail that runs straight through town. And every spring, TD Ballpark, home of the Toronto Blue Jays, turns baseball into a community celebration that spills well beyond the outfield. This episode is a guide to what you’ll actually do here: start at the Dunedin History Mus...

If you’ve ever wondered how to experience St. Augustine in just one day - and actually do it well - this episode lays out the strategy. Not the tourist version. The smart one. We’ll start early, before the trolley crowds and tour buses arrive, tracing a path from the Castillo’s first light to the quiet corners of Uptown and West King. Along the way, we’ll talk about timing - when to see the fort, where to park without overpaying, and how to avoid the St. George Street bottleneck w...

Just west of Orlando, there’s a pair of towns that quietly rewrote the script on what small-town Florida could be. Winter Garden and Oakland - two neighboring communities bound by a bike trail and a shared sense of purpose - have managed to preserve their charm while welcoming the future. In this episode, we explore how Winter Garden’s brick-lined downtown became one of the most walkable destinations in Central Florida, and why Oakland chose a slower, more deliberate path, one rooted in natur...

Before Instagram hashtags, before glossy RV commercials, there was a group of ordinary people who packed up their cars, strapped tin cans to the front bumpers, and hit the road in search of sunshine. They called themselves the Tin Can Tourists, and they built a movement that reshaped travel in Florida and across America. In this episode, we trace the unlikely rise of the Tin Can Tourists in the early 20th century, explore how their quirky community grew into one of the first organized RV club...

Every October, the rumble of engines and the smell of leather and chrome transform Daytona Beach into the epicenter of biker culture. Biketoberfest isn’t just another motorcycle rally - it’s one of the largest gatherings of riders in the country, bringing hundreds of thousands of people to Florida’s Atlantic coast. But beyond the roar of Harleys and the rows of custom bikes, there’s a deeper story worth telling. In this episode of the Chad Gallivanter podcast, we go beyond the sur...

Maximize your time in the nation’s capital If you had only one day in Washington, DC, just 24 hours to take in the monuments, museums, and stories that define America’s capital, where would you go? This episode lays out the definitive plan to see the very best of DC without wasting a minute. From sunrise at the Lincoln Memorial to standing under the dome of the Capitol, we’ll show you how to fit a week’s worth of history and culture into one unforgettable day. Along the way, we’ll explore the...

Step into the vineyard and uncover the story of America’s forgotten grape, the muscadine. Native to the Southeast, this tough little fruit has been part of Southern life for centuries, long before European grapes ever took root here. In this episode, we explore Florida’s muscadine heritage, its surprising history, and why this grape matters more than you think. Along the way, you’ll learn how muscadines shaped agriculture, culture, and even survival in the South. From backyard vines to ...

Clermont, Florida may not be the first town that comes to mind when you think of Central Florida travel. But tucked between Orlando’s theme parks and the rolling hills of Lake County, Clermont is a place with a story to tell. This episode takes you from one of Florida’s quirkiest roadside icons, the mid-century Citrus Tower to the unlikely arrival of a White Castle that drew lots of attention when it opened. Along the way, we dive into Clermont’s hidden gems, its historic roots, and the landm...

Step back in time inside one of North Georgia’s most fascinating landmarks, the Old Sautee Store. Opened in 1872 and preserved with its original counter, shelves, and artifacts, this country store is both a museum of mountain life and a modern stop for travelers exploring Helen, Georgia. In this episode, we dig into the history of the Old Sautee Store, its role in the Sautee Nacoochee Valley community, and why it remains one of the most authentic detours near Helen. From the front...

The Magic Beach Motel in Vilano Beach has been approved for demolition, ending decades of neon-lit history along Florida’s coast. Once made famous by the TV series Safe Harbor and later revived after a devastating fire, the motel has been a beloved landmark since 1951. But with state laws overriding local protections, its fate is sealed. In this in-depth video podcast, we dive into the motel’s history, the preservation fight that fell short, and what this loss means for Vilano Bea...

How a fading mountain town reinvented itself as an Alpine village in the Deep South. Nestled in the North Georgia mountains is a place that looks nothing like the South. Half-timbered chalets. Bavarian beer halls. Gingerbread rooftops. It’s called Helen, Georgia, a town that once teetered on the brink of collapse, until a handful of locals decided to gamble on a wild idea: transforming a former logging town into a Bavarian Alpine village. In this episode, we dig into the improbable reinventio...

In the winter of 1896, something massive and unrecognizable washed ashore in St. Augustine, Florida. It was pale, rubbery, and the size of a whale - but no one could say for sure what it was. Local newspapers called it a sea monster. Scientists debated. Speculation spread far beyond Florida’s coast. More than a century later, the St. Augustine Monster remains one of the most puzzling episodes in maritime history. In this debut episode of Chad Gallivanter, we dig into the true story: the eyewi...