A player who's been a huge part of our recent success is quarterback Connor Shaw, who was voted the most valuable player of the game after his performance at the Capital One Bowl where he threw 3 touchdowns, rushed for one, and even caught a scoring pass (which was thrown by Bruce Ellington, another guy who's value as a versatile athlete cannot be understated). I wouldn't consider myself an autograph hunter by any stretch of the imagination, but the opportunity to meet Shaw was too good to pass up. So it was that a plan was hatched when I found out he'd be making an appearance at a store specializing in sports memorabilia in Charleston, SC - ROAD TRIP!
The event was being held at The Fan Zone; I knew of the existence of this shop because my wife & I had been by it quite a few times in the past when we'd visited the Tanger Outlets in Charleston. If you've never been to a Tanger complex, they're all more or less the same - they look like a shopping mall, but they're in a mostly "open air" configuration meaning you're outside as you traverse from one store to another although there are sections that are covered. In investigating the details further I noticed that on The Fan Zone's Facebook page the map there pointed to a location that was near the mall but not inside of it. What's more, I remembered from having been there previously that their spot in the outlet mall was under one of the covered sections but the cover photo on their Facebook page looked as if it was getting hit by full sun.
I tried calling The Fan Zone in the days prior to the signing but I never got an answer, just a busy signal. I assumed they were either swamped with customers and questions or that they'd taken the phones offline because they were being swamped by customers and questions. Confusion set in, but I already had it in mind that I was going to go regardless of where the event wound up being.
My wife & I had been able to attend a signing with former Gamecock/current San Francisco 49er running back Marcus Lattimore last year at the Bower Parkway location of Garnet & Black Traditions in Columbia, SC. At that event we'd gotten several items signed, including two footballs - one for me and one that we'd held onto as a Christmas gift for my Uncle who's also a huge Gamecock fan as well as an alumnus of the University of South Carolina. I mention these balls because it has seemed to be the case at every signing I've ever been to that in order to participate you had to purchase an item from the store hosting the event. To my surprise, that wasn't true for Shaw's appearance at The Fan Zone. The event announcement was crystal clear in stating that patrons could buy an item from the store or that for $15 they could bring an item from home to be signed.
Come meet a Gamecock legend and you don't have to drop an arm and a leg on the experience? The only way it could've been more ideal is if there had been complimentary punch and pie!
I've mentioned my wife several times during this entry. Truth is, when one of us does something the other is typically there. That's just how we roll. Be that as it may, she's not a Gamecock fan - truth of the matter is that she's a Clemson fan. I know not everyone in the United States is up on the rivalry that exists between Carolina and Clemson but it's a big deal here in South Carolina, just as big I'd say as other college rivalries like Michigan and Ohio State, Oklahoma and Texas, or Auburn and Alabama. Be that as it may she typically will join me whenever I'm doing something Gamecock-related, be it out of love or the possibility that she's some kind of spy working for the enemy (that being Clemson). She wouldn't be with me this go-round, though. The co-pilot chair for this trek was reserved for my Uncle who, ironically enough, had earlier in the week prior to my learning of Shaw's appearance talked to me about how awesome it would be to get another signature on the ball we'd given him with Lattimore's autograph.
All I can say to that is that things tend to just work out they way they're supposed to.
We set out on the morning of Saturday, January 11, 2014 just after 8:30 AM. The signing was scheduled to run from noon until 3 PM; Charleston is a little over an hour away from where we live in Saint Matthews, SC but we wanted to leave early enough so that we'd have time to adjust as needed should anything out of the ordinary arise. The probability of that seemed to be somewhat high seeing as how I still wasn't exactly certain on where we were going. Be that as it may, I plugged the address for The Fan Zone into the GPS app on my phone and we set off.
The weather in our part of the world has been particularly peculiar here lately as within the course of the past week we've gone from temperatures in the teens at night to days in the mid-seventies. This past Saturday added to that mix of oddities as it was again in the mid-seventies but with lots of clouds, high humidity, and stiff winds as a storm system was making its way across the southeast. We held onto hope that the weather forecasters hadn't lied to us in predicting that the bulk of the rain wouldn't arrive until after the signing, but I came prepared for the worst with a hat and a rain coat.
Traffic was minimal and the ride to Charleston went quickly. Good conversation has a way of passing the time more quickly, and my Uncle & I have never had difficulty in finding plenty to flap our gums over when we're around one another.
I knew more or less where we were going but I followed my GPS app all the way to where it believed we were to be going. I say that like it's to blame for something - truth be told, I hate it when people blame technology for their own misfortunes. It's not the computer's fault; it can only do what it's been designed and instructed to do after all. Regardless, where it took us was the Tanger Outlets. I wasn't convinced that was where we needed to be but we got out to investigate by locating one of the mall directories. The only reference to The Fan Zone on the directory was to a kiosk, not an actual store. There was a woman there in Gamecock regalia who looked just as puzzled as us, and it was at that point I figured I would try one more time to get someone from the store on the phone. Low and behold, I got an answer - sure enough, we were in the wrong spot but we weren't too far from where we needed to be. (Side Note: The guy I talked to on the phone used a Starbucks as a point of reference. Hipster directions, as it were?) The Fan Zone wound up being just around the corner from the Tanger Outlets, in a strip mall not too far from the North Charleston Coliseum.
By the time we got to where we were supposed to be (which was around 10:30 AM) the line of fans queued up outside the store was visible from almost a block away. As we pulled into the parking lot I suggested that my Uncle go ahead and get out so he could secure us a spot in line while I parked the truck. I prepared myself to have to spend an eternity trying to find a parking space as the lot looked to be nearly full. To my amazement, I found a space near the storefronts less than 200 feet away from The Fan Zone. I'm never that lucky when it comes to parking, ever, as in I could go to Walmart 100 days in a row and not get a parking space that convenient. I don't think many other folks who got there after us were as lucky, unfortunately, as the lot appeared to be packed. I have no idea where they all went but they were parking somewhere in the area and hoofing it back. I'm sure it was a point of frustration but the truth of the matter is that not many retail locations are intended to handle that level of traffic; the outlets would've been much more suited to that sort of volume than the strip mall we were at.
It's kind of fun to be in a line like that one, I find. You're amongst a bunch of like-minded people, after all, making it easy to strike up a conversation. We spent a good amount of time chatting with the guys who run a Facebook fan page called Gamecock Born & Bred, which happens to be a huge community with over 74,000 followers. They had some great posters and t-shirts that they'd made themselves - they made for great company while we waited patiently for our chance to meet Connor Shaw, so if you're a Gamecock fan who's on Facebook be sure to give them a "like".
For the purpose of the signing, The Fan Zone had its floor displays set up in such a way that fans were put through a U-shaped path that lead through one door, deep into the store, then back out another door. Vista Art (a company based in Columbia, SC that specializes in custom framing and printing) had a makeshift booth set up along the route to sell prints of Williams Brice Stadium and other framed & unframed memorabilia. Their wares are beautiful and we did see people buying some of the prints they had on hand, but I'll be damned if I'm paying what they were asking for a picture of a stadium. Connor was set up near the exit and he was surrounded by staff from The Fan Zone and people that I assume were his handlers and management.
I'd like to get to a point in my life where I'm so appreciated and valued that I need a handler, just so when people ask "Who's this?" I can say "He's my handler...He handles me." thereby making everyone involved feel THAT level of awkward.
Speaking of awkward, events like this can be weird from the perspective of what goes on within a sudden and forced interaction between two people, one of whom is typically a celebrity and the other who may or may not be mentally stable. I think a lot of fans come to signings and they think the person they're meeting is going to turn out to be their buddy. They're more than likely going to be friendly, sure, but as a fan you have to understand that unless you're very fortunate you're only going to have a few seconds with whoever it is you're meeting. This was very true for Shaw's appearance last weekend as I barely had an opportunity to shake the guy's hand before it was time for me to move on. I'm not bitter about that because I understand the circumstances; be that as it may, it would've been nice to at least get a chance to say thanks for all he's done in the name of Gamecock football.
That said, I feel as though The Fan Zone showed that they aren't quite as adept at hosting an event like this as somewhere like Garnet & Black Traditions. Not that The Fan Zone's staff were pushy or rude, but they weren't exactly cordial in their attitudes or incredibly willing to assist patrons with things like taking photos. Part of this, in my opinion, stems from the fact that they had no cap on the number of people who could get into the signing. This isn't usually an issue for Garnet & Black because they sell a limited number of tickets for a given event which limits the amount of traffic they have to process, thereby making the whole thing more manageable. The Fan Zone, on the other hand, apparently wanted to get as many souls through the door as possible and that's exactly what they did. Don't get me wrong - it was a great opportunity to meet a Gamecock legend and I'd do it again, these just weren't the most ideal arrangements.
I don't remember precisely what time we were finished at the signing but I want to say we were out of there before 12:45 PM, meaning we were in line for a little over 2 hours. Not a bad day's work, which was why we decided to cap off our trip to the Low Country by having lunch at Big Billy's Burger Joint. We'd planned on getting something to eat but we'd not figured out where we would be going until we spotted Big Billy's which just so happened to be in the same strip mall as The Fan Zone. Neither of us had ever been there before - seeing as how neither myself or my Uncle can turn down a good burger, we figured why not give it a try. We're both certainly glad that we did!
For starters, Big Billy's has kind of a beachy, surfer gimmick going on in terms of its presentation. Not to a point of it being goofy, just enough to clue patrons into the fact that the cuisine is inspired by tropical flare. The menu featured an assortment of offerings, everything from wings to seafood, salads to milkshakes, and of course an eclectic variety of burgers. For our meal we started off with the Big Billy's loaded nachos, a huge platter of tortilla chips served with black bean chili, grated cheese, jalapenos, sour cream, lettuce, and fresh pico de gallo. My Uncle chose the "smash" burger which is topped with chili, cheese, slaw, and mustard - somewhat of a throwback to the way hamburgers have been prepared traditionally here in the South for quite some time. I picked the bacon, black & bleu burger for my main course and it did not disappoint! The burger was piled high with strips of bacon and blue cheese, and it was generously dusted with blackening seasoning. I had fries as a side and they were the perfect vehicle for Big Billy's 5-spice ketchup. I make no bones about admitting that ketchup is one of my most favorite things in the whole world, and this 5-spice concoction was an awesome treat for me.
Big Billy's also had an impressive selection of regional beers on hand. Had I not been the driver for this particular trip I'd have permitted myself to try one of them. As it was, all I could do was sit and be thirsty - figuratively speaking, of course. Our waitress (Tamara, I believe her name was) never let our glasses of tea run dry and that, dear reader, is the mark of a professional member of the service industry (or at least it is in my mind). I'm certain that I'll be back to Big Billy's at some point in the future and hopefully in the company of a designated driver.
This was a fantastic experience overall. I can't tell you how much I appreciate a good road trip and one that you can spend with good company while enjoying similar interests makes it all the more memorable.
Of course a nice memento of the occasion never hurts...
