Motel Lobby
Welcome to the Mermaid Star Motel. Will you be checking in? This important room features the most story clues and word play of any space at FloridaRAMA. Don’t miss the footpedal, restorative water and Local Distractions brochures. 2 artists have created TV networks to watch.
🔍 FloridaRAMA Clues & Games
- Don’t miss the foot pedal. Step on it!
- Three of the coffee table dioramas are fullsize rooms inside FloridaRAMA.
- This room is an example of an installation that features multiple artists.
- Be sure to check out the ephemera on the walls and in the binder.
- Pearl & Ray Current are the motel owners. Pearl is a retired performing mermaid with impressive Merfolk heritage. Rae is an astrophysicist and inventor who grew up in Fort Myers, Florida where he apprenticed Thomas Edison. He loves lightbulbs and has a lab inside one of the motel rooms.
- Nerida is Pearly Great Great Great Great Grandmother. Look for her trophy and Florida Compass articles about her.
- The motel is very proud of the fact that it offers restorative water and has a spring fed swimming pool full of it.
🌴 Florida & FloridaRAMA Facts
- The word motel comes from combining the words motor and hotel. It was created in the United States in the early 1920s as car travel became widespread.
- Florida’s roadside motels emerged in the 1920s-30s as car travel expanded and tourists began driving long distances into the state. Many were family owned businesses built along major routes. By the 1940s and 1950s the classic motel format took hold with single story layouts, parking at the door, neon signs, and small swimming pools.
- Florida is the only state where 'mermaid' has appeared as an official job title on the state payroll because of the underwater shows at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park. The mermaid shows at Weeki Wachee started in 1947.
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🎨 Artist / Art Info
FloridaRAMA has collaborated with 85+ artists to create our immersive world.
Open Shop
🛒 Shop
FloridaRAMA is the perfect place to start your art collection or buy a unique souvenir or gift. Here you’ll learn the items in each area that are for sale in our gift shop (The Tourist Trap) and online shop. FloridaRAMA also offers gift cards, gift boxes & gift memberships so you can share the FloridaRAMA experience with your friends and family.
