We had barely crossed the Florida border (about 20 miles south of school) and Courtney was already hitting her bottle of Jim hard...and somehow she had ended up in the front seat of Jennie's car, so she was in the perfect position to be belidgerant and annoy the driver. Granted, Whitney and I had a shot or two each as well, but drunk Courtney got grumpy about sharing her liquor and all the rest was in the boot, so we settled for legal fun instead. We turned the 2 hour drive into the ultimate chick roadtrip by blasting old Nsync albums and dancing along, and finally we reached Jacksonville and had a whole new challenge...finding the campsite. Being spontaneous about this trip, we failed to take the time to print directions...oops. But before we can worry about how to get there, we have to let the drunk girl pee...it's 2 am on a Sunday and although the McDonald's is open to get us a midnight snack, they won't let us inside to use the bathroom...but they recommend the 24 hour Walmart next door. Jennie convinces Courtney that Katie won't eat her doublecheese burger and drag her inside to find the bathroom...they returned 20 minutes later with directions to the site, and another reason we should have been arrested. While in Walmart, Jennie asked a worker if he knew where Hanna Park campsite was, and when he didn't (he was new to the area) Courtney became a little upset and didn't mind letting the man hear as Jennie dragged her away. "Fucking moron, that's why you have a career at Walmart. Dammit, you don't know anything..." Verbal abuse is a crime I believe, along with obvious public drunkenness...Anyway, Courtney buckled back in with her double cheeseburger, we venture off to find the campsite...and after turning around on the same road twice, we actally find it, and a very grumpy looking guard informing us that no one can enter after 10 pm...time for plan B. Problem is, we didn't even have a plan A. Since none of us have any cash for a hotel, we call some friends back in Valdosta and they recommend a place by the beach...although we never found that place, we did find the beach and decided to stay out there for the night. On the beach. In January. Just 5 preppy college girls with alcohol. Oh we were just begging to go to jail now. Well, that or get killed, but we tried to stay positive. But before we got to this stage, we have to go back to the crisis along the way. While searching for the campsite, Courtney managed to lose half her double cheeseburger bun. No one knows how this happened or when, but it was gone and the drunk girl was livid! She wanted to complain, and in the hopes of shutting her up, we encouraged that idea. Out came the cell phone to dial 411. Location? Georgia. No Courtney, we're in Florida now... She clears that up and requests they call the first McDonald's listed on Beach Blvd...no answer. Time to call 411 again to be connected to the second McDonald's on the list. Amazingly this was the one we had been to 30 minutes ago!
Courtney: "I don't want to cause a problem or anything, but I was just there and I got a double cheeseburger, but you only gave me half the bun. I am really upset by this, I just wanted to let you know."
The workers were very nice (and are probably still laughing over it) when they sympathised with her predicament and suggested she return for a complamentary double cheeseburger. A 99 cent value menu double cheese burger. At this point we are nearly to Hanna Park and just telling Courtney to get over it, but she is adament she needs her free cheeseburger with TWO buns and tries to turn the wheel around for Jennie. Needless to say, we got sick of listening to the whining and made a special McDonald's stop before we got to the beach to buy the girl a double cheeseburger with 2 buns. At the beach, she fled the car cradling the burger, a Powerade bottle of Jim Beam and another bottle of chasers, losing her shoes in the process and setting out for a hike on the beach. The rest of us followed, bundled against the cold and cursing our spontaneous action more and more each fridgid step. Finally we gave up and said the only way to bear this cold is with alcohol in our blood, so we locked Courtney in the car with her cell phone in hopes that she would pass out soon, and the 4 of us traveled down the beach with a blanket each and a communal water bottle of vodka. It was after 3 am and since we knew it was illegial to sleep on the beach, we were convinced we'd stay up to see the sunrise. I almost made it too, but sometime after 5 am, I clicked the last digital camera picture and passed out in a huddle with the girls. (Granted, it was a great picture of the first colors of the sunrise...) Two hours later and freezing beyond belief, Jennie and I retreated to the car and left Katie and Whitney in the sand with their sleeping bags. When we all woke up at 9:30, the beach was filling up (well, relative to it being January...) and Courtney had to pee like a racehorse, so we decided to pack up and find breakfast...it was still freezing and grey out, we doubted today would be a beautiful day to lay out and get a tan as we planned. I ran down to the beach for the other 2, still wrapped in my blanket and missing my shoes, but when we came back up, the car was gone! All of us having left our cells in the car (really, what's the point of those things? You never have one when you really need it.), we had no choice but to sit on the stone steps beside the Red Cross Lifeguard station and wait. Picture three exhausted girls, wrapped in blakets and hoodies with no shoes walking up from the beach one freezing morning...it was no wonder 2 lifeguards walked up to ask if we were homeless! But amazingly, one of those was Jimmy, the enternal lifeguard I met back in November...and he remembered me as the kayaking girl! They warned us against the hazards (and illegialness) of sleeping on the beach, and we all assured them it would NEVER happen again, then we headed off to find Panera, because come on, when you are homeless, that's the obvious breakfast choice! Overall, it was a wonderful experience and one I hope to do nothing like ever again. We all came home, took very long hot showers, and then slept for the rest of the day. But this is what college is all about.
