Rusty and I set out at roughly 1:30 in the afternoon. We would have left earlier, but Rusty had a meeting for one of his workgroups in a scene he was in, and had to attend. But, once the meeting ended, he came to my house and picked me up, atlas in hand, and we were off.
We set out. We got onto the interstate, and made our first decison. “North”. So, off we went. We traveled north on the interstate for a little while… but eventually, it started to feel like we were cheating. Veterans Day decided to steer us from the interstate. Our guide was telling us to do it all blind. So we got off. At a random exit. And off we were. We passed by Macintosh, and some really pretty lakes. We passed by the home of the 1897 festival… or something like that. It was all a blur really.
We went all over the grand state of Florida. I was the Camera Man, Rusty the driver. At first, we just kind of drove and jammed. We listened to much music on this day. The early part was mostly spent just taking it easy and letting the road lead us were it wanted.
We drove around Central Florida. We passed UF, in Gainesville. We laughed. We saw a Steak N Shake. We laughed. We saw ANYONE, we lauged. Everything was nice. Everything was calm. We had no Idea where we were going. At about this time, we decided to go to Jacksonville (on a whim). So, we made this our goal. Of course, we were not allowed to take ANY major Highways or Interstates. So, we snaked our way across Central Florida. The best part was that Jacksonville was just the destination. We were in no rush to get there, and instead, were taking as many side-routes and detours as possible.
At about 5pm, we began to get hungry, so we headed towards the nearest blip on the atlas. This ‘blip’ was a city named Starke. Now, compared to some of the towns we had been through, Starkes’ blip on the atlas was rather large, denoting that it was a slightly larger city than what we had been seeing. We figured it would be the perfect place to eat. Well, we were wrong about it being large. Starke is an intersection. It is where one major road runs into another. This picture -> is literally one fourth of all of Starke. But, because this was The Vet, we couldn’t let this stand in our way. So, we stopped by the most homely dining establishment that this city had to offer. It was a drive-in diner sort of thing. Except you park, get out, give your order to the waitress through a window (ala checkers), and then sit down on a picnic bench.
This meal would turn out to be quite possibly the best part of the whole trip. There was a slight breeze, and the weather was just perfect. And the food was AMAZING. If I do remember correctly, I had a hamburger, and Rusty a hotdog. After this, we moved on. Edging closer and closer to Jacksonville. There were two major stop before we could allow ourselves to reach our goal though. The town of Russel, and The town of Switzerland.
We decided to go to Russell because… well, Rustys’ full name is Russell. Just for the record, Russell is even smaller than Starke. To be precise, I dont believe we found ANY houses in the city limites. Just a church… and a graveyard.
After our near death experience at the Russel “Haven of Rest” Cemetary involving a zombie, we decided it was time to go. Our next stop was Switzerland. To get to Switzerland, you must cross the St. Johns river, up near Jacksonville. This sight is… beautiful. First of all, just by looking at the atlas, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but it’s truly a sight to behold. There is nothing EXCEPTIONALLY special about it… it just kind of personified all that “The Vet” has come to stand for. It’s the underdog. Nobody ever talks about the St. John river. But it’s amazing if you let it be. That is just what “The Vet” is. So, we crossed the bridge, as night fell. Once crossing the river, we were only a short distance from our destination. Jacksonville. But we still had to stop by Switzerland. The road we were on was a direct path straight to Jacksonville, and Switzerland was on the way. Switzerland … isn’t too much. It didn’t even warrant ONE picture by me. Much more impressive was the town of Orangedale. Or should I say… imaginary. If you look on a map, Orangedale exists. If you are driving down the road, there are signs telling you when Orangedale is coming up. But then, when you ‘should arrive” there is no mention of the town, and there are NO roads branching off. Then the signs just keep mentioning new towns. Does Orangedale really exist? Perhaps we’ll never know.
So, now that we had successfully traveled through Switzerland and Russel, we were able to go to our destination. Jackonville! It was definantly quite the change to see large tall buildings, and lights as far as the eye can see. Jacksonville is surrounded by the St. John river, and there are many bridges leading to and from each section that is seperated by the river. Every part of this city made me happy. It has the feel of a BIG city (like Chicago, or New York) and yet was still small and humble enough to feel personal. Like… something magical can actually happen to you there. We crossed a few bridges and drove around for a while, then decided to go to the plaza in the central part of the city.
On the riverfront in the central part of the city is this fountain, and a beautiful plaza. It was my favorite thing to see during the entire trip. I took many many different pictures of the fountain and the different parts of the plaza, and Rusty ran around (at the speed of light mind you) as I did so. At one point, Rusty got a call, and had to ‘take it’, so I took the opportunity to take more pictures. One of the amazing parts of the area was the fact that it is RIGHT on the water. The plaza is right on the riverfront, with only a small ledge in between you and the water.
The river reflects the skyline of the city, and makes it look like a mirror reflecting a thousand flashlights. And it’s so calm. So quiet. Although you are in the middle of the city, you can still hear every breath, every wave crash, every laugh in the distance. Then the fountain shoots another geyser of colored water, and the mist generated washes over your entire being. It’s refreshing. It’s not the sort of place you’d expect to find in the middle of a city. But, I suppose, that is a part of the allure of it all.
After our shinanigans at the plaza, we decided that it was once again time to eat. Because, at the time, we were going through a ‘pizza kick’ (I mean, what college student ISN’T always going through a ‘pizza kick’?) so we decided we’d find a nice “mom and pop” place and get some Jacksonville pizza. Little did we know what we were in store for. Big. Daddy’s. Pizza. This place had the BIGGEST pizza I had ever seen in my life (I think their “party pizza” had to be at least 55 inches across) and was run by Big Daddy himself. The guy took our order, and told us that it’d be a small wait while it cooked.
Once we went outside, we noticed that there was another restaurant in the same shopping center that we hadn’t previously noticed. Rusty’s grill. After what happened at Russell Cemetary, we thought that this was just so cool. I mean, things can have the same name as someone you know? That is so COOL. So, the two of us thought this was the best thing in the entire world. Thus the two pictures.
When our pizza was finished, it was decided that we move on. We had lingered for too long. So, we went to Neptune Beach, about 20 miles east of Central Jacksonville. Neptune beach is a wonderful area, and the beach is MAGNIFICANT. We ate our pizza on bench outside of some club/bars by the ocean, and then decided to walk on the beach and “absorb” the good energy of the night.
With a large hotel to our backs, and nothing but the water and afrida in front of us, this was the climax of the night. Everything was just perfect. The moon was hanging just above the horizon, and the night was completely calm. I believe that we talked about our future. What would, at least for me, become what you are looking at now. Crazyguyvoice.com. How everything that happened was proof that there was something special, like some sort of bond that we shared. And that we needed to use it. To create wonderful things. After this quiet and thoughtful beach event, we dried our feet, and went back to the car. As we were driving, we started talking about how stupid and kinda ‘pointless’ techno is, and yet it’s still so GOOD. We then came up with another idea. So, after a brief stop at a Barnes & Noble, we went to a local WalMart and picked up 3 techno cd’s. One to represent ‘me’. One to represent ‘him’, and a ‘double cd’ that we each got one half of. This became known as “The Vet, volumes 1 and 2”. We listened to all three on the drive home, which was a straight 3 hours and some change on I-90, then I-4. We flew through Orlando, and then finally came to Tampa. We pulled into my driveway, I got out, and Rusty went home. I dont believe I can remember what exactly happened the next day, but I do know that as soon as I walked in the door, I highlighted our entire route, and made a vow to myself that we would follow the same exact route the next year.
and thus, “The Vet”, the legend, the myth, the mystery… was born.