JONNY'S HIJINX: Orange Park/Melbourne

Hey everyone!

I have so much to catch you all up on.

And before I get to it lemme just warn you that this may be the longest blog entry in the history of blog entries.

Ready?

After our stop in Sarasota we headed to Orange Park. Unfortunately, I don't think I took a single photo there. If I did, I deleted them. I kinda can't remember what we did there either. I vaguely remember a lunch stop at Panera, maybe a show or two, another lunch at Applebee's (where I forgot my damn leftovers), and a fun time at a gym where I got a bit of a burn after I used a tanning booth for too long.....oops. OH! I definitely DO remember lounging by the hotel pool when all of a sudden I looked to my right and saw a big, black snake slithering in the bushes. Not fun.

We decorated the van (M'Dick) for Halloween on our way to Orange Park or Melbourne, I can't quite remember which. Yeah, we're festive like that. Hopefully we can keep the tradition up.

Margo and Carolyn hang up our BOO! garland.....

I put this guy up.

Unabashedly proud of their decorative work.....

Anyway! So I was very excited to get to Melbourne because we were staying at a beachfront Hilton! AND I was lucky enough to land a single room for the whole time.

Here's my room (it's a bit messy because I took this pic on our last day there).....

And yes, that bed was as comfy as it looks.

The day we arrived in Melbourne was absolutely beautiful. The sun was out, it was hot, just perfect! After dropping my bags off in my fabulous room I headed down to the beach and was soon joined by most of the cast and crew. After spending a few hours at the beach getting our asses beat by the waves we all decided to go to a restaurant down the street called Lou's Blues.

This is us on our way to the restaurant. I love a good strut photo. Margo was into it. Carolyn? Well.....hmm.....not so much.....

Kevin and Dave were good sports.....

I thought the menu's were kinda cool. They reminded me of the menu's at VYNL in NYC which are old record sleeves.

Please observe the 3rd shot on this list.....

I mean, come on, who doesn't love a red headed slut?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway.

While waiting for our food I decided to start taking a few glamour shots. I think I caught Kevin off guard.....

Margo gave good face.....

Carolyn was hesitant.....but willing?

As usual, Lindsay was ready for her close up.....

Apparently Rudy was nervous about his close up.....

As the sun set, our food finally arrived. I ordered a delicious fish fillet sandwich which was consumed in about .4 seconds. No joke. I think the cast and crew may have been a little astounded (maybe a little grossed out?) but it's about time they get used to it! More importantly, check out the moon in the sky as the sun set.....

Beautiful, right?

After the meal it was time for another photo shoot, this time involving my ridiculous sun glasses.

Carolyn was into it this time :)

Margo was game.....

Kevin was TOTALLY into it.....

Here's the cast, happy and way too full.

And check out these random things I found on our way out! Yeah Theater!

Barbra????? REALLY???!!!!!

After dinner we all headed back to the hotel for a little dip in the hot tub. Unfortunately, we were welcomed back to the hotel by a HUGE group of kids running and screaming through the pool area. They were there on some soccer tournament. Now, I love kids.....I wouldn't be doing a kids show for 7 months if I didn't. But screaming, rowdy, running, annoying kids? Well.....let's just say I could definitely do without them.

Luckily, we were able to kick them out of the hot tub after awhile. After soaking in the tub for a bit, Carolyn, Eric and I decided to take a walk on the beach. At first, it was a good choice. It was warm and there was enough moonlight to see well.

Before we headed back to the hotel we decided to take a quick night dip in the ocean. It was so warm and nice but I accidentally ruined the occasion when I mentioned that most shark attacks occur in 3 feet of water. Carolyn wasn't so into the night dip after that. It's true, though! It's a known fact!

When we got near the hotel Carolyn realized that she didn't have her phone with her. Oh shit. Since Eric and I are nice boys we decided to go back to where we had gone swimming and look for the phone. So off we went. I kept calling the phone and looking for a flashing light but unfortunately nothing was found. While searching for the phone I accidentally stubbed my toes HARD on a large piece of rock on the beach. Now lemme tell you.....it HURT. It felt like I had knocked one of my toe nails clean off. Fortunately, when we got back to hotel and I was able to take a good look at my toes all nails were still attached. Carolyn, Eric and I then called it a night. We were pretty spent.

That morning, I woke up at around 4am and my toes were absolutely throbbing. I had to get up and get some ice and everything. Not good. I was a little nervous about having to perform with my busted toes but fortunately we had two days off. Plenty of time to heal!

The next day most of the cast and crew went into downtown Melbourne for some lunch and a little exploring. We had some delicious pasta at some random place where we almost drove the bartender out of her damn mind. For some reason we all decided to sit at the bar and have the bartender serve us. She seemed quite exasperated but imagine enjoying a slow afternoon at work when all of a sudden a group of about 10 crazy hungry theater people walk in looking for lunch and plop themselves right in front of you. I might have had a conniption fit. She was damn near close to one. In my opinion, she did a great job. OH! And here's a little side pic for all of you before we move on.....

Yes. These two are definitely wearing matching outfits.

So, after lunch we all headed out for a little walk. Most of the stores were closed but it was at least nice to walk around a bit. I found this in one of the closed shop windows!

GO SOX!!!

We then headed over to a place called Manatee Bay in search of, yes, a manatee or two. Unfortunately, there were no manatee's anywhere. There were mounds and mounds of catfish, though. A little boy was feeding them bits of bread and they were going absolutely bonkers.....

After our adventures in downtown Melbourne we all headed back to the hotel. Once back, I went down to the beach for a little afternoon swim with Eric and Rudy. The sun was slowly being engulfed by some enormous clouds so the swim was very brief. Damn clouds.

Here are the boys being absolutely nuts and laughing in the face of oncoming danger.

If you look closely at this pic you'll notice that they actually are laughing.....

Here's the storm in full force. It was no joke.

That night a few of us went to a restaurant close by and unfortunately got caught in a smaller but equally as wet storm. This is Carolyn before we headed for the restaurant (please note the Eagles shirt, hoodie, and cap. Wow.).....

She definitely wasn't that dry by the time we got to the restaurant but unfortunately I didn't get a shot of that.

The next day I woke up really early for some random reason. Since I was up I decided to take an early morning walk on the beach.

It was an absolutely beautiful morning.

Here I am, sleepy but happy.....

I was accompanied by some birds having breakfast.....

The sun rises a bit more.....

More birds joined the others for breakfast.....

Finally, the sun made it out!

WOO!

As you can see, I was really happy about it.....

On my was back to the hotel I saw a surfer catching some early morning waves. If you look closely you can see him way out there.....

That afternoon, Margo, Carolyn, Kevin and I decided to go to the Kennedy Space Center Astronaut Hall Of Fame since it was getting kinda cloudy.

The start of the tour through the Hall Of Fame took you through a movie theater style screening room. We were all kinda creeped out by it because we were all alone and it was really dark.

I tried to take a picture of the entrance to the screening room because it looked all spacey and cool but the damn door started to automatically close on me! I'm pretty sure that glowing thing in the right of this pic is the door.....

Unfortunately, as the movie started we were joined by a huge group of kids on a field trip. We just can't seem to get away from these kids. When you're doing a show for kids, sometimes you just need a little break from them, you know what I mean? Well, fate seems to want us to be surrounded by kids 24/7. Thanks a bunch.

Here's an austronaut featured in the random video they showed in the screening room.....

And now the real tour begins!

Here's an old space suit. I thought the flash of the camera made it look kinda cool and all sci-fi.....

This, I belive, is a lunar capsule and it is very famous. But, of course, I can't remember what it's called!

I must admit that I'm definitely not the biggest space nut but I really did find a lot of what was on display very interesting. I mean, how amazing would it be to able to go into space???!!!!!!! Someday, maybe.

I'm a little ashamed to admit that one of the main reasons I decided to come along to the Hall Of Fame was because they have a G Force ride!!!

They put you into one of those white pods that you can't quite see in the above pic and you then get spun around really fast while watching a video which makes you feel like you're in a fighter jet. It was pretty fun. I got a little dizzy at the end but I just love crazy rides. I was kinda nervous right before going on.....

Margo and Kevin were totally into it.....

Especially Margo!

Carolyn gets motion sickness so she opted out.

This is Margo after the ride. Kinda cool how she's in focus but the rest of the pic isn't.....just like how she must have been feeling at the time.

The last attraction in the Hall Of Fame was this amazing basketball kinda game that was all computerized. Here's Carolyn and Kevin batling it out.....

See the screen above them? Those two flying objects are pics of them that you control by stretching up, squatting, or moving left or right. This next pic is even better, though.....

Carolyn is in her own production of Evita. Kevin is most definitely in Gypsy.

After the Hall Of Fame we decided to go across the street to some sort of Police Hall Of Fame where they have a firing range. Now, I'm not a big supporter of guns. They kinda freak me out. But I thougt to myself, when the hell else am I gonna get to shoot a gun? Why not?! So, off we went. Unfortunately, the shooting range was closed on that very day. Of course it was. We then asked if we could possibly take a helicopter ride as advertised on the ENORMOUS sign outside. Nope. The helicopter rides had been cancelled awhile ago. Maybe they shoulda taken the sign down?

Side note: The guy working at the Police Hall Of Fame was wearing an Obama pin. Really? At a shooting range equipped Police Hall Of Fame?! I love it!!!

Anyway, we were entertained in the police gift shop anyway. Please take a close look at the shirt Carolyn is holding up.....

WOW.

Here we are expressing our disapproval of this ridiculous sign.....

That night, to cheer ourselves up we decided to go to an all natural organic restaurant near our hotel. It definitely did the trick. We were the only people there so we could be as rowdy as we wanted. Here we are plus Lindsay who decided to come along.....

We even made some friends. Such as this random fish who was mesmerized by my hand whenever I'd bring it by his tank.....

The next friend we made was our great waiter Grayson who was so nice that we invited him to sit with us at the end of our meal to chat a bit. That's him in the back.....

We were espceially entertained by the beer I ordered.

If you look closely you'll see that the beer is from Butte Creek. We couldn't stop saying it. Butte Creek obviously soon evolved into Butt Crack. It then evolved into a mix of Butte Creek and Butt Crack with a little Italian/French/Irish?/Whatever accent thrown on top. As of yet, it's still quite funny to us :)

The next day we had two great shows at the King Center.

They were back to back so we were a bit tired but we had great audiences both times. A great audience makes it all worthwhile.

After the shows some of us decided to get some laundry done. Once at the laundromat I realized that the shirt I was wearing was kinda dirty. The little trashy bit of me then came out, took the shirt off my back, and tossed it into the wash. Hey, why wear a shirt at a public laundromat??! Who does that anymore?!

That's Kevin's suitcase in the back which he unsuccessfully tried to shove into a washer.

After laundry we ventured to Texas Roadhouse which is kinda like Outback except that it has nothing to with Australia. I got this nice pic of the full moon while waiting to be seated.....

The waiters there have to dance around for some reason or other. Here they are in action. The second guy in line was our waiter, John.....

Since Carolyn was the one who suggested Texas Roadhouse Margo decided to let John know that it was Carolyn's birthday. Of course, as it probably happens a lot in these places, it definitely wasn't her birthday. Either way, she still got her chocolate cake.....

Margo was definitely in the Texas spirit on our way out.....

After Roadhouse, some of us were still willing to hit the town. So, Carolyn, Brian, Eric, Rudy and I went to a pool hall nearby. Now, I'm terrible at pool but I might as well use any chance I can to get better! Here's Brian (the only one out of all of us who actually kinda knows what he's doing).....