Tampa and "So You Think You Can Dance"

November 17, 2008 - Monday - Tampa

Well this was another "stake in the ground" - like the Albuquerque Balloon Festival: we needed to be in Tampa - at 7:30 PM on Nov 17 - since we had gotten tickets to the National Tour of "So You Think You Can Dance" - way back before we even planned this trip.

So I had been obsessing over getting TO Tampa so that we would know that we could make it to the show - so we loaded Monroe and headed East on I-10 for only about 10 miles before taking "Leila's" lead and heading *South* on US-19. Again, a more rural route, but most of it was 70 MPH, 4-lane road - just punctuated with the small towns of Gulf-coast Florida. Quite charming, actually, the "Old Florida" look before Disney and Interstate Highways.

And we popped in the last CD's of the Gothic Romance we had started - and just cruised down the sunlit roadways of Florida - while hearing about "Carrow" and "Michael" in Victorian England and their mystery and romance. Actually quite engaging and it sure helps the miles fly by.

We arrived at our LaQuinta across the street from Busch Gardens - by 1PM - and got to watch the "She-Kra" ride plunge straight down - over and over - from our hotel. We had a few hours before we needed to head the 8 miles to the "St Petersburg Times Forum" for the show, and I really did intend to spend some serious time Blogging - but a long day before and time changes and self-induced stress (we NEED to get to TAMPA!!!) - wore me out and we just laid down on the bed - and wound up napping the afternoon away. That was all very-good anyway, since it meant that we were awake for the show.

We got dressed up and followed Leila's directions downtown - and Tampa is another city where you *NEED* a GPS to even find your way around downtown: one-way streets, multiple lanes which *all* separate in different directions simultaneously without warning (so you'd BETTER be in the correct lane!) and such, but we got near the Forum - and just pulled into one of the many parking lots nearby, paid our $5 and walked the other 3 blocks.

And it felt really good. Me and my Life-Mate dolled up and walking arm-in-arm to a show. Felt like a million bux.

God Bless Kathy that she isn't fussy and settled for choking down a hotdog in the Forum (for "only" $21 for 2 dogs and 2 drinks!!) before heading up the escalator to our nose-bleed seats. Yeah. That's all that had been available by the time I went to get tickets - 2 days after they went on sale. Wayyyy up in the back - in the top.

Ultimately the place was *not* full and we were pretty-much as far up and back as anybody, but we had brought the binoculars we had bought all the way back in Kansas - at the garage sale - and they proved to be crucial: we really couldn't *SEE* without them, so we handed them back and forth thru the show. That's one thing about *dancing*: you really have to SEE the show - as opposed to music where you *can* miss seeing - as long as you can *hear*.

Kathy was silently very understanding - always handing me the binoculars when Courtney Galiano came onstage - and I handed them back when the guys were doing shirtless numbers (though Kathy didn't *ask* for the binoculars for that).

The show was good. 3 hours long and they did a lot of the favorite dances from the show. And they evoked the same *emotional* response they had on the show. I can't explain why the couples dances are so powerful, but the coreography and dancing just grab me - and they did. The Argentine Tango. The Frankenstein routine. The briefcase dance. And on. All the different styles from Hip-hop to Contemporary to Viennese Waltz to "Baliwood". Great stuff.

There were some disappointments: that we were so far away - and that "Twitch" - one of the favorite male dancers - had hurt himself the nite before so couldn't dance for us, but it was extra-special in that this *was* their *LAST* performance on this tour - probably the last time that this group of young men and women would *ever* be together this way. I was also concerned that after doing this tour for the last 3 months -that they'd be stale, but it was just as energetic and fresh as the first time they had performed these numbers on TV.

A good show. A great evening with my wife.
A short walk back to find "Monroe" and thread our way back thru Tampa to our hotel.

Except that I was hungry so at 11PM, Kathy found a Denny's and she had a hot-fudge brownie sundae while I had *both* an apple-carmel-ice-cream desert AND a piece of pumpkin pie. Mmmmmmmm.

Then to bed.

10,645 Miles and "almost home" - but stretching it out. :)