Thursday, June 30 2011
The "next day" of the tour began right after the Charleston show, as we had no hotel for the night, but also because we were eager to get to Jacksonville to hit the beach for our day off. Since the drive between Charleston and Jacksonville was relatively short, we dragged our feet by hanging out at Walmart for a while, gathering $1 kites with which to build our epic, patented 6-tier kite monstrosity.
After Walmart, we hit the road. We all wanted to experience a proper east coast sunrise at the beach, so Thomas planned to pull over to an oceanside stop around 6am for us to have a look. Unfortunately, we ended up outside of Savannah, GA just before sunrise, and we learned a harsh lesson about Georgia beaches:
they suck.
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| I give you... the beach? |
Well, in fairness, we never actually made it to the coast in Georgia, so they may very well have some nice beaches. But just like most things we've encountered in the south, the beaches are hidden and hard to get to. So we all watched the sun rise over some stagnant swamp water and got bit by a bunch of dang ol' skeeters then loaded back into the van in hopes of someday finally arriving at a proper beach.
A few hours later, we were crossing over bridges in Jacksonville, drawing ever closer to our destination on Neptune Beach.
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| Pictured in the distance: URIZEN clouds |
We finally found our hotel, grabbed a primo parking spot for the Macho Van, and set out to finally discover the thing we had been longing for all week long...
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| Gabe. |
Oh wait, not Gabe. I meant this:
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| Da beeech! |
After a brief first contact, we checked into the hotel (like 6 hours before scheduled check-in) and piled into our room. It was basically the same as every other room we've stayed at during this tour: two beds, a table, a chair... a beachside patio.
Into the ocean we went, to battle our old nemesis: Old Man Ocean. The old man was quick to retaliate against our wave-bashing by robbing Julio of his frisbee and James of his sunglasses. You win this round, you salty bastard.
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| You maniac! Damn you! God damn you all to hell! |
After our first round of beach and sunburns, it was off to El Potro for some cheap, delicious Messcan food. Gabe and Julio said it was some of the best flan they'd had, and I think I can now officially confirm once and for all that I hate flan. It's like fat-textured tapioca with a gross bitter aftertaste... you guys can keep that all for yo'selves.
The second part of the lunchtime outing consisted of a trip to the local Dollar General, where James made a most amazing purchase: 35 temporary dinosaur tattoos for $1. I think you know where this is heading...
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| Dino-bro half sleeve |
We hit the ocean again before sundown, where Thomas and Julio had the time of their life.
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| See? |
Thomas and I walked down to a pier that went out into the sea where we saw a fisherman catch a tiny hammerhead shark and I took a few generic sunset pics of the beach to cap off the day.
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| copyright iStockphoto |
But all good things must come to an end, and all good tours must move on to more shows, so we woke up early Friday morning, ate a most delicious complimentary brekkie, and set our compasses westward to Tampa.
RIP Frisbee and Sunglasses. Gone but not forgotten.
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