South Florida State College

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. The main campus of South Florida State College (#SFSC) is located just a couple of miles away from my new neighborhood. It looks like a very nice campus from the exterior side. They even have an art museum on-campus (which I visited). I will be supporting the college. No – I’m not going back to school at age 56. I will be attending concerts at their 1,460-seat Performing Arts Center.

I usually attend about 5 concerts / live events per year, and I’ll probably stay at that same level into my retirement years. It’s good to have a place to see shows and concerts about 5 minutes away from my front door.

I actually saw 2 concerts on 2 nights when I was up there during Presidents’ Day Weekend to buy my new home. I saw MANIA: The ABBA Tribute and Evil Woman: The American ELO. Both tribute bands were awesome, and they put on great shows. I never saw the original bands in concert, so this was the next best thing. ABBA and ELO are two of my favorite bands from the mid-to-late-1970s. I was 6 rows from the stage for the ABBA show, and 4 rows from the stage for the ELO show. In fact – I’m in the photo below, and I’m in a prominent location. See the guy in the center with the microphone ? He’s the Musical Director – Nigel Holland. My head is right above his head. (My mouth is open.)

After the first show there – I got stuck in an unusually long traffic jam, as hundreds of cars tried to squeeze out of a single exit of the parking lot. I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing at such a small venue. I did my research prior to the second show, and I parked in a parking lot on the rear side of the venue. I was the only car in the parking lot when I arrived, but after the show my car was surrounded by dozens (not hundreds) of other cars. It took less than a minute to exit that parking lot. So – I now know the secret of parking at shows at #SFSC.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll write about another Performing Arts Center that’s located about 100 miles away from my new home, and I’m there tonight ! Let’s keep traveling together.