| OK Peeps. Pull up a chair, this is gonna take a while. Get a cold Dr. Pepper and some Dinosaurs with Meatbawls; here’s the whole real deal from Jovi and Jacki. No bullshit here and no candy coating. Monday night Jacki flew into Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Jovi picked her happy wandering ass up and they stopped at Jovi’s place for a few hours and left for Tampa at midnight. They had a 4 and a half-hour drive ahead of them. Jacki was still recovering from a long weekend away and had NO SLEEP coming into this. Jovi was flying high on dreams of Creed. Jacki was delusional. “What are those dead animals on the side of the road, dude?” Jovi asked Jacki. “Possums? Beavers? Little bears?” Jacki looked at Jovi with amazement. “Uhm, I don’t know dude, where I come from, road kill is usually raccoons.” Jacki started to nod off, until Jovi said, “Dude. Should I get gas?” Jacki opened up one eyeball and looked at the gas gauge that read 1/4 of a tank. “Uhm, sure. Whatever.” Jacki really did not care, she was half-unconscious. After that stop, Jacki was awake until they got into Tampa. She was the navigator, and had to get their Creed loving asses to the Ice Palace. “DUUUUUUUUDE.” “What?” Jovi asked. “It is 4 in the FREAKING morning!!!!!” “I know dude, I am hard-core. We are gonna be the first ones into the damn venue.” Jovi threw her devil hands up as they made their way into downtown Tampa. After wandering through the sleepy streets of Tampa, they finally came upon the Ice Palace. They turned by the load-in area and saw NOTHING. There was nothing going on. No semi’s, no busses. “DUUUUUUUUDE” “What?” “It’s 4 15 in the freaking morning!” Jovi just laughed. They realized they still needed to get cameras, and assorted fun things they forgot. “I wonder if anything is open.” Jovi decided to go wandering and HARK! There was a beacon of light, a WAL-MART was open. “DUUUUUUUUUDE” “What?” “It is 430 in the morning.” Jovi was almost ready to slap Jacki. “Shut up. Let's go.” Jovi and Jacki got their stuff and made their way back to the Ice Palace in time to meet up with UnforgivenOne. They hung out for a while and Jacki dozed off again. The sunrise was beautiful. The sun brought warmer temperatures too. Jovi and Jacki ran to grab the key for the place they would be staying, got back, grabbed breakfast and parked the car for the show. They had ROCK STAR parking, no pun intended, the first spot closest to the ice palace. They chilled for a while and took a nice long nap. Later that afternoon, around 1 or so, they hooked back up with UnforgivenOne and a few other BBers, MotherLove, PhatCreedBaby, Matt Sterbator and Speedylittleme. Jovi and Jacki were up for the duration now. They plopped themselves down in the Sports bar with the other BBers. Stappers was supposed to show up for a radio interview. They hung out for a while and their perseverance paid off. Stapp came out at 5:40. Jacki got her concert ticket from 1998 signed, Jovi got to talk to him. Jacki told Stapp that she has been a fan for 3 years. He smiled at her and said, “Thanks for being here that means a lot.” Jovi booked outside to get some of the other BBers in to see Stapp. While Jovi was outside, Scott motioned for the onlookers to bring up things to be autographed. He was signing for a long time. Jacki and Jovi got a few quality minutes with Stappers and then made their way outside to the line. At 6:10 the security guards opened up the ropes and Jacki got checked, banded and was on her way. Jovi was close behind. They were the FIRST TWO people into the venue on the floor. They ran up and parked themselves right in front of Tremonti’s stand. Their nerves were running high. Jacki had managed to smuggle in the camera. She was a bit worried about getting pics, but as you’ll all see, she did a pretty damn good job of playing the photographer. The security guards were cool about Jacki taking pics. Finger 11 and Sevendust did damn good sets. When the lights went down for the third time, Jacki and Jovi went NUTS. Stappers soon rose to the back of the stage. The first few riffs of ODE began and the adventure continued. Jovi freaked. Jacki freaked. Tremonti was AWESOME!!! Several times during the show Jovi and Jacki screamed out to Mark and he acknowledged them by pointing or smiling. That made their year. They also both caught guitar picks. Tremonti was actually MOVING about the stage. He was showing love to people, especially the two tall biotches right in front of him. The show was awesome. Jacki saw them back in August and this show did not even compare to that. The energy was awesome. The crowd gave love, the band gave love... it was awesome. Jovi believes that this is THE BEST show she has ever been to. Jacki would have to agree. The show was powerful, Jacki cried during WTLF. As some of you know, Jacki believes that WTLF is one reason why she is still on this earth. Jovi teared up during Higher, as this is her song by Creed. These two girls were able to share an experience that means so much to each of them. Their lives came together as a result of this band. They then met up and saw the band together. They will both be ever grateful for this meeting and the band. The misty eyes dried up as the last guitar riff faded, the cymbals were stilled, the bass was unplugged and the lights went down upon the Ice Palace. Jacki looked at Jovi and they both said, "DUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE." They of course, ran out to the busses after they collected some stuff from the other BB members. It was cold, it had been a long day, but they hung around for a while. Jacki was coughing up a lung and Jovi's throat was starting to hurt. Neither of them had lunch or dinner and they were STARVING. They looked at each other and decided it would be best to get on the road to Jovi's friend's place to get some sleep. They had another show to get prepared for the next night!!! They were not upset that the guys hadn't come out, because they had just experienced the best show either of them had seen. They then drove to Jovi's friend's place and both of them basically collapsed. Morning broke too soon. Jacki sat up in bed and felt like crap. She coughed and it hurt. "Damn." She thought to herself, The things I do for Creed, and then laughed. She got up and went to wake up Jovi. "Hey, it's time to get up, we have another Creed show to get to." Jovi just said "Uh-huh." They went to breakfast (well, it was 11:45 so that qualifies at lunch) and were soon back on the road. They were blasting Creed the entire way back. It was daylight so Jacki could see the wonderful swamplands along Alligator Alley. It reminded her of the hundreds of cornfields that surround her town in Illinois. It was getting to be late and the girls still needed to get home and change and make the sojourn up to WPB. They ran into Jovi's house, changed, brushed through their hair. Soon they were back into the Smurf and on the road once again. Brake lights littered the highway. Pre-Thanksgiving traffic was preventing Jovi and Jacki from getting CLOSER to WPB. "What exit is it?" Jovi asked. "Uhm, no exit number, just a road name, Southern Blvd." Jacki responded. With each road sign that passed their eyes flew to find "Southern Blvd." No dice. It seemed like they had been on the road forever. 'Are You Ready' came on the CD player and another green road sign loomed in the distance. A light pole was in the way. Jacki and Jovi were getting butterflies in their stomachs. The sign came into view and SOUTHERN BLVD presented itself!! "OHMIGOD!" they both screamed. "DUUUUUUDE" Jacki stammered. "We're almost there!!!" Jovi screamed. |