Then I got to the heart of things … Jacksonville proper. First off, I followed a tip from Ashley at the Old Bridge ice cream shop in Ponte Vedra Beach. She highly recommended the Five Points area, around the bend in the river from downtown Jacksonville. (Old Bridge – new management. No Wi-Fi samples, although I could log on to the Starbucks next door.) Good call on Five Points.

Ok. Straight up. Five Points is the place to take anything you got – if you want it painted or covered with ink. There are pubs decorated with graffiti, tattoo parlors, some cool galleries, resale shops, café’s, biker apparel and even a really cool Starbucks near the water in Riverside Square.

http://www.5pointsjax.com/old&new.html

Ashley said go to Fuel. I complied. But, it caters to more of a night owl demographic and they hadn’t even thought about opening when I blew through. I smashed my nose against the window longingly, staring at the foosball table inside (my other passion). The spraypaint art signage of the place said Fuel Coffee House. Didn’t look like a coffee house, though. It is a venue for music – and hard core I guess by the looks of the place. I wondered if they had Wi-Fi for a passerby. The joint was locked tighter than a drum, but the network was mine for the taking. I opened the ping site on my iPhone via the Safari browser, took a note, and moved on.

Fuel gets a power trio of pings. Small place, big attitude and highly recommended. Ain’t nobody home, but they “left the light on.”

A few doors down, I so wanted Flux Studio to have connectivity, so I could spend more time there. Well, no signal they could call their own, so no score. But I checked out the paint on their walls anyway. Very nice. Shea and Michael gave me a quick tour and recommended some other hotspots north of downtown. More on that later ….

If you are in the Jacksonville area, you may wish to check out the next show on Sept. 20, featuring an “Art and Design Showcase.” See http://www.fluxjacksonville.com/

Around the corner from the weird intersection and stoplight that apparently gives Five Points its name is a café and coffee shop called Scribes. Same thing. They were bolted shut, but the Wi-Fi was ajar.

Scribes was noteworthy for its wireless connectivity, but I need a place to land – 3 pings.

Overall, Five Points gets 5 pings. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole … or something like that. It is certainly the coolest, most bohemian area I have seen in Jacksonville, even though they only come out at night. (Which is good, because it seems the downtown area rolls up the welcome mat after the work day.)

Know what i sayin?