| Part 1: The Nick Encounter Our adventure started around 8 pm on Friday night. Debi picked me up and we headed to the San Jose airport. After a red eye flight and a stop in Atlanta, we landed in Tampa 9 hours later. (it was 8 am EST but it was 5 am for us) We upgraded our rental car to a convertible so we could enjoy the Florida sunshine, and of course we ended up getting totally fried. lol Oh well, I'll have a nice tan in about a week. Around noon we arrived in Valdosta, a place we would have bet money that we'd never see again after going there in September for an Aaron concert. The things we do for the Carters! For those who aren't familiar with the area, Valdosta has about 3 exits off the highway, or 3 exits that we know of at least. Coming from Florida, the first exit is for Wild Adventures, the amusement park where the concert was. The third exit is where Aaron's dancers stayed in September and where we were PLANNING on staying this weekend. However, as we were driving past the second exit, we saw a tour bus parked at a hotel in plain view. DUUUHHH, who would be dumb enough to park a tour bus right off the highway like that? We got off the highway at the third exit, drove around looking for anything "suspicious" there (but there wasn't anything), and headed back to where we saw the bus. For some reason we guessed that it was an O-Town bus. I suppose that's because it was parked at a hotel chain that I know O-Town has stayed at when they're here. We tried to check into the hotel but it was full, so we sat in the parking lot for a little while figuring out what to do next. Eventually we saw Andy and Akil walking from the hotel, through the parking lot, and across the street probably to get something to eat. That was the sign that this was in fact NICK'S bus, not O-Town's, although Debi still wasn't convinced. I don't know why we didn't recognize the bus as Nick's in the first place because it was one of the buses on the NON tour last month, but it wasn't "Nick's bus" -- the white one -- so I guess that's why we didn't make the connection. Still needing a place to stay, we went to the dive hotel across the street from Nick's looking for a room for the night. They had ONE left so we took it. After unloading our car, Debi and I decided to check out the third exit again -- I have no idea why, curiosity and lack of anything interesting happening where we were I suppose. As we were getting on the highway to go to the next exit, I spotted some familiar-looking people at the hotel where the bus was parked. It was a guy with blonde hair wearing a red shirt and black shorts and a guy with dark hair wearing a bright yellow shirt. I told Debi that it *looked* like it could have been Nick and Rob but that it also could have been my imagination cuz I WANTED to see Nick. "Don't hate me if I'm wrong!" lol Debi drove one exit down the highway and immediately turned back to see if we could find "Nick" and "Rob" again. When we got back to hotel, the two guys naturally weren't standing where I had seen them a few minutes earlier. We stopped in the hotel parking lot to see if we could spot them and determine if it really was Nick and Rob or not. From a distance we saw the red shirt and the yellow shirt get into a silver car and head towards the highway. Debi insisted that it WAS Nick in the car but I still couldn't tell. A white car filled with girls was following the silver car really closely, so we figured it was a good guess that Nick was inside. Hanging back a little, we watched the white car (which was tailing the silver car) and followed it on to the highway. Both cars got off at the third exit, so we did too and watched where they went. The cars ended up, in all places, at HOOTERS! lmao We couldn't see the silver car when it parked because we were back a bit, but sure enough, in a few seconds out walk Nick, Rob, Tony, Andre, and another guy I don't know. The girls in the white car got out and talked to Nick for a few seconds, then the group of guys all headed into Hooters. For some reason I find it TOTALLY HYSTERICAL that I saw Nick at Hooters, just funny stuff going back to Kid Nicky I guess. The girls in the white car left, but then they came back a little while later and went inside the restaurant. Debi and I just sat in the parking lot trying to figure out what to do. We did NOT want to disturb Nick while he was eating so there was NO WAY we were going inside. I had tossed some blank note cards in my backpack thinking that, given the opportunity, I could write something and give it to Nick. Well, here was the opportunity. Debi and I both wrote him cards and planned to approach him when he came back out to the car. During our hour+ wait, it was raining on and off. We figured that if it was raining when Nick came outside, he wouldn't stop for us, so we prayed that the rain would let up long enough for him to walk to the car and for us to talk to him. Luckily that's exactly what happened. After waiting about an hour and 15 minutes, Nick and his entourage walked out of Hooters, followed by the girls from the white car. Debi and I got out of our car and walked towards the silver car from one side as Nick walked towards it from the other. He had his arm around Rob and they were talking about lord knows what, so we kind of stood back. Then Nick noticed me, let go of Rob, smiled, and here's roughly what was said: Then one of the girls in the white car asked Nick for a picture and he told her to just follow him back to the hotel -- which strikes me as ODD but whatever! We thanked Nick, wished him luck for the concert, and said goodbye. He climbed into the back seat behind Tony, who was driving. The way Nick got into the car looked kinda funny -- instead of putting the lower part of his body in first and just sitting, he bent over and put his head and arms in the car first and then stepped in. Nice ass shot there for a second or two. lol As Debi and I walked back to our car, Nick's car drove away followed by the girls in the white car. After having a very brief freak out moment in our car, Debi said that she wanted to get the pictures developed IMMEDIATELY, so we headed down the street where we had gotten our pix developed in September. (It scares me that we're kind of learning our way around Valdosta!) Then we had an hour to wait, so we went back in the direction of our hotel to get cleaned up for the concert. We took a swing past Nick's hotel on the way (since it was right across the street from ours) and saw Nick, Rob, Tony, and others still hanging around outside. Eventually Nick got into his bus and we left to get ready. To be continued... |
| NICK: Hey... how ya doing? ME: Hi Nick, we just wanted to give you these cards. NICK: (taking the cards) Aw thanks. ME: (pointing to Debi on the other side of the car) This is my friend Debi. We came all the way from California. NICK: (extending his hand and smiling) Hi Debi. [I don't think he heard the part about CA] DEBI: (shaking Nick's hand) Hi, I'm the one who gave you back your bracelet in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. NICK: Oh yeah, I remember! (turning to me and extending his hand) ME: (shaking Nick's hand) Oh, hi I'm Angela. NICK: So did you want a picture or something? ME: Yeah if you don't mind, if you have time. NICK: Well I saw you had a camera, unless you just want to show me what version it is. (laughing) ME: Well it IS a pretty good one! (handing Debi the camera) Let's do individual ones ok? [Debi takes the picture of me with Nick and for ONCE I actually remember his hand on my back. I was squeezing him pretty good too. lol] ME: (to Debi) Did you want one too? DEBI: Of course! NICK: (holding his arms open to Debi) Come on in! [I take the picture of Debi with Nick, and according to her I told them to smile, but I don't remember, I was just trying not to shake.] |
| Georgia/Florida April 4th-5th 2003 |
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