Day 4

Wow! I feel like a lot happened yesterday, I'll do my best to remember it all.

Since I started the day not far from Jacksonville (somewhere in South Carolina, just north of Savannah, Georgia), I took the opportunity to sleep in. I ate at a Shoney's and figured I'd do the southern thang and ordered eggs and grits.I hopped on the highway and it didn't take too long to drive through Georgia thanks to the 70 mph speed limits. Just into Florida I stopped at a gas station that also sold and shipped fruit. The gas pumps were interesting for two reasons: 1- They asked you to be careful with the gasoline, in order to prevent another BP spill, and 2- Charles Bronson is the Commissioner of Something or Other in the state of Florida, which is pretty badass.
I made it into Jacksonville and just missed a massive sun-shower, which was a nice change of pace. I waited it out in a burrito place that served some pretty killer tacos that was right next to the venue. I knew the venue was in the vicinity, but I wasn't quite sure where it was, so I asked a burrito worker who informed me it was a real "hole in the wall" that was right next to their restaurant.

I drove past the venue, and even walked past it twice before I noticed where it was. I hung out at the burrito place for a couple of hours until the show was about to begin.
When it opened up, the venue turned out to be really cool. Not a huge place, but it's an all ages club with a beer and wine bar. They even served every variety of Woodchuck Cider I've ever heard of, so that made the place A-OK in my book.
I made a local Jacskonvillian named Jimmy. We talked for a while about life down there and the turmoils of being in a band which was pretty cool.

There are two duos that are opening up for the Protomen on a lot of dates on this tour. I thought the first group, the Adventures of Duane and Brando, was going to be kind of lame, but they ended up being really entertaining. They had a video screen that synced up with their performance, which was about the woes of being a hero in a number of NES titles. It was kind of like gangster-rap Nintendo style, but with the video and everything it was hilarious. The other group, Super 8 Bit Brothers, were alright, just a little too avante garde for my liking and not really my style.
The Protomen took and the stage and rocked the house. They opened with "Give Us the Rope," which was interesting but a helluva way to start the show. They worked their way into "How the World Fell Under Darkness" and not long after, suffered a major problem when the Reanimator broke his snare stand. The band did an excellent job filling in for this major gape while they tried to create a workable solution. The audience was very understanding, and in my opinion were still astonished at being able to see the Protomen play live despite this problem. Once a solution was reached, the band rocked on, ending their set with a cover of "Mr. Roboto."

I left the venue at about 1:15 AM and tried to figure out what to do for lodging. I remembered seeing a chain of motels called the King's Inn that looked alright. What I didn't realize at the time was that the chain is actually called the Knight's Inn, but by coincidence, there is a King's Inn in Jacksonville. I drove a few miles to get there, and even though they wanted $50 for the night, I figured it was worth it to just be able to call it quits at that point. When I got to the motel, a few things struck me as odd. The staff person was behind what appeared to be bulletproof glass and they had a policy where you could get a refund within 15 minutes of receiving your key, if you didn't like your room. I knew these were bad things, but at this point I was just so tired I figured I'd give it a chance.

Big mistake.

The room only had one functioning light, which was in the bathroom. When I finally I found it and switched it on, I saw the filthy dump I had just rented. The bed was unmade, the hole-filled sheets were obviously soiled. I hopped on the bike and promptly got a refund.

Somewhat desperate, I stopped at another motel I noticed down the street. But, seeing a large numebr of prostitutes on the street, I figured I'd better check out online reviews before going inside. I'm glad I did, and for your own entertainment you can read those reviews here: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60805-d120158-Reviews-Regency_Inn_Jacksonville-Jacksonville_Florida.html

Finally, I got back on 95 North and stayed at a Country Hearth Motel. They advertised free wifi, which was only a half-truth, but the room was clean and cheaper than staying at the hellhole in Jacksonville.