I came back up and the guys were still knocked out. So I went ahead and showered up and started packing up. Eventually the guys gained consciousness and they got cleaned up as well. The bathtub in our hotel room had whirlpool capabilities, but we didn't take advantage of it. Maybe next time I'll try that out.
After checking out, we hit up a local Waffle House for breakfast. I'm a fan of Waffle House, because their food is pretty good and pretty cheap. Minh got some grits with his meal, and he complained about how they were pretty bland. For me, that was typical of most restaurant grits, but I'm spoiled because my mom and grandma make the best tasting grits EVER, so I can't enjoy anyone else's grits except theirs. I told Minh how you have to doctor most grits up with butter, eggs if you ordered them, and whatever else you've got that will add taste. Minh added butter and bacon to his grits and, according to him, improved a bit. There ya go!
After breakfast, we hit the road for Jacksonville! We were only a little over an hour away from there, so we had lots of time to spare before seeing Danielle. However, my little scheming brain hatched a plan...I wanted to buy her a bouquet of flowers and surprise her at her job, and I wanted to print out a picture of my glamor shot from the movie date a bunch of us did awhile ago(I had promised her I'd give her one, but at our movie premiere, everybody took all the ones of me). So we used our trusty GPS to find a FedEx Kinkos and I got the picture. We then tried to use the GPS to find a florist. We found out quickly that the florist industry in Jacksonville is not a booming business...we must have gone to four or five different florists listed by the GPS and all of them were shut down! We called the phone numbers of a few more, but they were shut down too. I was definitely getting frustrated at this, but figured there had to be at least one florist SOMEWHERE in this city. Finally, we found one in what looked to be in a pretty rough side of town. Despite the neighborhood, the florist hooked me up with a really nice bouquet of red carnations. We then proceeded to Danielle's job to complete the surprise.
Apparently, Danielle had told the receptionist plenty about me, because when she saw me walk in, she smiled at me, waved and called Danielle to inform her that she had a visitor, in this very giggly voice. That must have tipped Danielle off slightly, but nonetheless, she was still very happy to see me. She gave me a huge hug and I told her I had something for her. I showed her the flowers and the smile on her face got a little bigger. :)
She came outside with me to say hi to the guys, and we spoke briefly. We agreed that we would all come over to her place when she got off work and she would cook for us. She then went back inside and we headed off to find some thrift stores. Nick was still determined to find more board games, so we accommodated him. We must have hit up about three or four stores, but in one of those stores we hit the jackpot...Nick found about three or four games, one of which was worth about $40-$50 brand new. It was listed for only a few dollars though, so he was ecstatic. I also found some treasures of my own: I have been in desperate need of more ties for a while, and this store had several that were pretty nice...and they only cost $1-$2 per tie! I picked up six of them. When we headed to the check-out counter, we got the best surprise of all...the store was having a "Buy one, get one free" sale on pretty much everything, so both Nick and I payed only half of what we were expecting to pay! Woohoo!!!
We hit up one more thrift store after that, and I think Nick got a couple more games, but nothing compared to that one store we found. As we were leaving this final store, we saw an old man in the parking lot, trying to maneuver this large pickup truck around certain objects. He was doing a terrible job, even with the help of someone directing him where to go; he knocked over a large statue of a knight in full armor, and even backed up into someone else's car! The owner of the car saw this and was not too happy. We figured that this was the best time to get out of there...
We camped out at a Panera for the last few hours before Danielle got off of work. We ate a little something, read out Bibles and played on our computers until it was time to go. Danielle's apartment/condo complex was very new, so GPS couldn't find it. So we pulled up directions via mapquest. Mapquest, however, was apparently not updated with the info either, because it's directions were not that accurate. After getting lost for a bit, we eventually found her place. I had seen pictures of her condo before, but they did not do her place justice; it was gorgeous!
Danielle has a cat and she knows I'm allergic to cats, so she spent a good amount of time vacuuming and dusting so I wouldn't be choking to death while hanging out. She did a good job, because I was able to hang out over there with minimal side effects. We spent the evening relaxing, listening to music and eating. Sissy, Whitney and Bright all eventually came over, and we had a great time talking and just hanging out in general.
Eventually we all had to leave. We were spending the night at Bright's place, so I rode with him and the guys followed us. I had actually met Bright in 2003 when myself, Pat and Dave took our first road trip and we stopped in Jacksonville. We had actually stayed at his place then too! Bright was living in a new place now...an apartment right on the beach. The view from their balcony was INCREDIBLE...an amazing scenic view of the ocean, and the sound of the ocean was so peaceful. Even though it was night time, the scenery was still beautiful.
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