| Georgia/Florida April 6-7, 2003 Part 3: Adventures in Carterland |
| On Sunday morning Debi and I woke up and headed south -- we decided to fly in and out of Tampa instead of Atlanta so we could check out all the Nick and Aaron sites, hence the title "Adventures in Carterland". lol I guess we got a later start than we realized because we didn't make it to Tampa until around 4 pm. Note to travelers: driving a convertible in Florida is FUN, but bring sunblock! We both got fried. Another note to travelers: the Embassy Suites in Tampa is 384739874 times better than the New Valdosta Inn. lol We felt like royalty compared to the dump we stayed in the night before. We checked in and then headed out on our adventure. Thanks to Debi's AMAZING research skills, a few "wrong" turns that turned out to be right, and a really good Tampa map, we hit the following spots: Ybor -- mentioned during Kid Nicky and Girls In the USA; not very interesting during the day; we just drove up and down the streetsplaying GITUSA for a while Pop City -- where Nick was arrested; it's closed down now, so it was kinda tricky to find, but we snooped around and eventually found it Tampa General Hospital -- where Aaron was born; Debi was mush lol After our "self-guided" tour, we met up with Monica, who took us on a guided tour of the Carter spots outside of Tampa. Along the way we saw Brandon Ford, a Hooters Nick has been known to frequent, Nick and Aaron's old house and neighborhood, and various other Carter-related locations. It's really funny to look at the pictures of our trip -- you'd never know we were in Florida because all of the pix are of random buildings and signs! lol The three of us had a great visit over dinner sharing all sorts of Carter stories. The next day Debi and I continued our Carter sightseeing before we had to go to the airport. We hit Raymond James Stadium (GO BUCS!) and 93.3 WFLZ (home of Kid Nicky). We also headed back to Nick and Aaron's old neighborhood and found Ruskin Elementary School. Not sure if that's where the Carters went, but it's as good a guess as any! Our adventures in Carterland came to an end after we picked up our pictures from being developed and headed to the airport. Overall it was a great trip. We met Nick again, which was definitely the highlight. We got to see a GREAT concert with two of our favorite acts. We put faces with a couple of familiar online names. And we got to know the area where Nick and Aaron spent most of their childhoods. Lots of fun and craziness. Can't wait til our next Carter adventure! |