Jacksonville
I gotta talk for a minute about the space shuttle launch. This was by far the coolest thing I've ever seen. Adam stumbled upon four passes to this at around 8:00pm the night before from his friend Marciano, who happens to be the vice president of marketing at Converse. An invitation was extended my way. I almost didn't go, under the fear that I wouldn't be able to finish all my work in time for the next show. Sure enough, Adam pressured and heckled me enough to where I thought, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I'd be insane not to get in the car with him.
So after a 3.5 hour car ride to Orlando, we arrived at one of those fantasy hotels you might have been to as a kid on that Disney World vacation. It had an entire indoor park, complete with wild animals, a pirate ship, gift shops, you name it. We hopped aboard some buses with families of the astronauts aboard the mission. I was starting to realize that the group we found ourselves in was pretty exclusive. We were on our way to the closest possible viewing site for the launch. You ever see the movie Apollo 13? There's some benches the astronauts' families chill on while they watch the launch, that's where we went.
Decision time.
Indoor pirate ship? This is like a life-size ship in a bottle. Man, I'm so funny.
Launch time. Camera ready. I really had to struggle between making sure I got a clean shot of the rocket, and just looking at it with my naked eyes. It's much different through the lens. I'll never forget the sound of the launch, it was a rumble that I've never heard before, and likely won't hear again. It's as if everyone there became a toddler again, humbled by the sight of humans going into space. A very nostalgic moment for me. It's like, who didn't want to be an astronaut as a kid? Am I right?
Clay was nice enough to take some pics from my phone while I worked my camera.
Indefinitely my cell phone background.
On the bus ride home we made buddies with the rest of the hotel managers who were aboard the bus, and they even asked us to grab dinner with them after arriving back at the resort. Free food? I think so. We tried to get a table on the pirate ship restaurant, but it was full for the night, naturally. Sushi was the obvious second choice, I can't complain at all. So we found ourselves having a free gourmet meal with the managers of a five-star hotel chain, a NASA employee, and a project manager for Boeing. All were extremely cool people, and we all traded business cards at the end of the night. This day will be hard to top in this life.
Puerto Rico
I wish we could have spent more time in Puerto Rico. I've never been out of the country before, so this was thrilling for me. "But Colin, Puerto Rico is still U.S. property." SHUT. UP. Let me have my wide-eyed moment...
Everything was in Spanish! Now, I took four years in high school, but my Spanish is rustier than my dad's 1990 Honda Civic wagon. Finding the VIP room to talk to some fans was a challenge, but I could muster enough foreign vocabulary for venue employees to point me in the right direction. It's a pretty rewarding feeling to communicate in a different language. The little victories...
Adam and I editing on the plane. Work never stops.
Puerto Rico's fans were crazier than any we've had on this leg of the tour. It makes sense though, these guys don't get to see acts like we do in the States. Big name artists rarely come to Puerto Rico, where we're spoiled here. We can go see an arena show three times each week if we really wanted. Ozzy hasn't been there in 30 years, so his show is long overdue. Fans were super friendly though and played to the camera whenever I pointed it at them.
About an hour before the show.
These guys were rocking out to the music over the PA before anyone came on stage!
Heading home from this leg, I'm absolutely exhausted. I've been in overdrive mode for six weeks, shooting and editing every single day. It'll be nice to have three weeks to recharge my batteries before South America, but I think I'll want to get back to it sooner than that.
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