FUTURE 86 Southern East Coast Tour Journal Day 4, December 5th, 2005 -Armand We had a lot of road to tackle between Norfolk, VA and Miami, FL, so wedecided to drive in shifts with me taking on the first shift, whilenon-drivers slept in the van. I had originally planned on driving for only3-4 hours, but went for a solid six hours. I love the road and driving is aform of meditation for me. It gives me some time for personal innerreflection, which I won't bore everyone with in my tour journal. Regardless,I was well equipped for the drive; with a full tank of regular unleaded, agiant Hazelnut coffee (black n' sweet), Red Cloud on my lap, Louis Armstrongin the CD player, and my bandmates fast asleep besides me. Well, theyweren't that fast asleep. I tend to turn up the radio real LOUD when Idrive. It makes for better meditation, but tends to make sleeping a littlemore difficult. I took us to just a little outside of Savannah, Georgia, when I turned the wheel over to Speedy Gonzales Courtney. The van is not the easiest vehicleto handle, especially when it's fully loaded with all our gear. I thought Iwas making good time pushing 80-85mph, Courtney gets behind the wheel andpushes the van to its limits, pinning the speedo in the neighborhood of95mph. Up until this point, I had been the primary driver, and by the looksof it I could tell that Courtney and Larry had been reading The Bad Girl'sGuide to the Open Road, which I keep in the back of the van. It's theultimate road trip handbook, covering everything you need to know aboutlow-budget, high-adventure road tripping and I'd recommend it for anyonetaking a road trip. It covers everything from how to execute burn-outs (inboth automatic & stick shift) and donuts properly, to how to temporarilyrepair a broken fan belt with pantyhose. Check the book out at badgirlswirl.com. Some of my favorite segments include; 14 Ways to Opena Beer Bottle with your Car, Parking Lot Parties, The Truck Stop, How toBeat the Speeding Rat, and Non-gun Weapons You Already Own (one of which isa stiletto heel). Anyways, my point is, all of us had familiarized ourselveswith the book, and it helped us get cope with some of the hazards of roadtripping, like a back to back tire blow-out which Larry handled like a pro. The Double Tire Blow Out Time: 11:50am Mile Marker: 170 on I-95 northern Florida Driver: Larry It was three hours into Larry's driving shift when the left rear tireunexpectantly blew out. Larry was quick with his reflexes and engaged his"What to do in a Tire Bow out Scenario Skills" from the Bad Girls Guide, andsafely maneuvered the handicapped vehicle to the grass on the side of theroad. We got the spare tire on and were back on the road in no time, thistime with me driving. It was not even half an hour later when we heardanother loud BANG from the back of the car, like the spare tire we just puton had blown. I pulled over to inspect the damage, and the spare we had justput on was heavily damaged but still operational. After some deliberation asto what we should do now, we decided to slowly drive to the next exit andfind a tire shop. It was only about a mile and a half to exit 147 where wespotted a Cooper Tire Shop and Artie at the shop had 2 new tires on the vanin less than half an hour. We got back onto I-95 and after dealing with somerush hour traffic and finally made it to the place that would be our home inFt. Lauderdale until Friday. It seems that since we've been dutifully scrimping and saving the last few nights by sleeping on the floors of the rehearsal studio and being crampedup in the van for hours and hours on end, management has set us up with anunbelievable crib in Ft. Lauderdale, complete with all the amenities you'dexpect from a resort. Our room was complete with ocean views, a fullkitchen, giant swimming pool courtyard and tanning deck, shuffleboard, andthe well needed laundry facilities. I'll tell you more about it later 'causeall we had time for was to check in, shower, and head out to Miami for theshow tonight. We had four shows in Florida, all of which werein either Miami or South Beach, which is about an hour drive from our hotelin Ft. Lauderdale. The Shows at SE�OR FROG'S & FELT: Around 10PM we arrived at Senor Frogs and were told that the usual Monday night"Party" had been moved to another club called FELT, just up the street. Iknew we were in the right neighborhood when I spotted the Mercedes SLRMcLaren parked across the street and a yellow Lamborghini Gallardo parkedright outside the club alongside the promoter, Tony. He explained to us thatthey were trying something new for the first time tonight by holding "theparty" at FELT. I liked how he referred to the night at "the party". Wehad plenty of time to kill since we weren't scheduled to go on until 2AM. Ithought 2AM was a little on the late side since it was Monday night and all,so I asked Tony what time the bar was open until. "Mondays, usually we stayopen till around 5:00", he replied. Acting like that was customary, I noddedin agreement and remarked, "And tomorrow, on Tuesday night it'll be opentill around 6:00 right?" Tony smiles, and shrugs one shoulder, "Yeah,sometimes later, it depends." Having some time to kill before our FELT stage time and since we already had the van full of our gear, we wound up banging out a quick set at Senor Frogs to get the most out of our night and time in Miami. By the time we returned to FELT around 1am, the place was completely packed with college kids... with anexcellent female to male ratio. A closer look at the promo flyer may explainwhy. It boasts "Ladies Free & 25 cent beers!" The club was one giant roomwith pool tables scattered about and a stage right by the entrance. I don'tremember any of their names, but I do remember all the bands being reallygood. It was kinda hard to imagine, we had spent all night driving fromVirginia, dealt with 2 flat tires, and now were racing to see who could consumemore 25 cent beers before the show. I'm one of those people who cannot passup a good deal, and 25 cent beers is about as good a deal as you're gonnaget. We finally hit the stage around 2:45am, and the place was showing no signsof slowing down. In fact, people were still coming into the club and goingstraight towards the dance floor (after they bought their 25 cent beers ofcourse). It was our second Miami show in just a couple of hours, and I think we left an impressive mark on everyone who was there, including Tony, who liked what he saw and invitedus to play at one of his lounges the very next night. Playing as a three piecewith no bass player definitely has an appeal to it. We succeed inspontaneously filling in another otherwise empty night in our tour schedulewith what would be another successful Miami show. It was 4AM by the time weleft FELT, and we struggled to keep each other awake for the drive back to our new crib in Ft. Lauderdale. Coming up, day two in Florida!