Charlotte to Florence - Nia in Myrtle Beach

 Since today is the first day of Week 4 of this trip, I made note that the trip odometer read 5080 when I got in the car to drive to South Carolina. It's been quite an eventful three weeks and I've covered a lot of territory so far.

States visited since Aug 14

Today was Labor Day and I was headed to a resort beach town. I was expecting lots of traffic to contend with getting into Myrtle Beach, so I padded my drive time with well over two hours extra.

Last year, when I taught Nia at Yoga in Common, I was late due to traffic, so this time, I was determined to be early. I was especially excited about this stop because it was the only time this year I was asked to bring my old classic rock routine, Rockin.

I got on the highway and drove a couple of hours. I was making great progress and didn't see any traffic alerts, so it was looking like I was just going to drive straight through and be two hours early.
So I decided I'd stop and let River get some free time on the grass. When I had the idea, I started keeping an eye peeled for a good spot.
I finally found one here on the campus of Francis Marion University. It was Labor Day, so the whole parking lot was deserted. We stopped and played on the grass for over an hour.

After a while I realized that I was in the town of Florence, where I was booked in a Motel 6 that night. I was going to drive back here after class and check in, but I decided I had plenty of time to drive by and see if they'd let me check in early.
I'm so glad I decided to do that. It was NOT an easy place to find, seeing as how there were No Motel 6 signs anywhere. And I didn't see any building with the address I was looking for.
The first place I thought was it was a scary place with a lot of fire damage. But it turned out not to be the right address, thankfully.
After driving around the block a couple times, I stopped in a place and asked if this was the address I was looking for. She said no. I asked her if she knew where the Motel 6 was and she did. She directed me to "on the access road, between the old Hardee's and the Huddle House."
So I found the Huddle House and saw an abandoned fast food restaurant next to it. In between the two was a very discrete sign that looks like it might have at one time said Motel 6. It was painted the Motel 6 blue. But there was a banner tied over it that said Knights Inn. I drove down a long, hidden driveway to find the property tucked away way off the street, hiding behind two other motels and a Hardee's.
Again, the signs were obviously once Motel 6 but now Knights Inn. I happened to be wearing my Motel 6 t-shirt when I went to check in and he looked at it and was amused enough to mention it to me. I said, "yes. I made my reservation with Motel 6, not Knights Inn, but this is the address, right?" He said it was and he had my reservation and was happy to check me in early.
It was so nice to get this weirdness all taken care of now so that I'm not tired, sweaty and hungry and trying to do this all in the dark.
In stead, after class, I was able to drive to the location which I knew perfectly well. It was smooth.

The traffic was all leaving Myrtle Beach as I was arriving, so I missed it all and glided effortlessly into town. I set up River's crate in the studio and got changed into my costume as the ladies gathered. Many of them remembered me from my trip last year, but no one seemed to remember it when I mentioned that I was late. I do remember, at the time, being assured that the community was on 'beach time' and my being just a few minutes late was only a big deal to me. They didn't even notice.

So this Rockin routine is high intensity and I know that they're not used to such intensity, so it was fun to bring it to them. They all survived and many of them told me afterwards that they appreciated my energy and my style. I did explain beforehand that I was going to be doing an intense version of Nia and that I expected them to all work at their own pace and level, so we were all able to have a Nia Rock & Roll Party.

Once again I had my computer all set up on top of River's cage to record some of the class. And I really wanted to capture some of the Rockin routine and this was my only chance on this trip. But I didn't get it properly set up with the camera open before I started class. And once I was in the midst of class, I couldn't pull myself away from the act of teaching for long enough to open the camera and start shooting, so alas, I have no footage of yet another class.

After class, some of us went to the pub on the next block for dinner. I had a sausage platter with grilled vegetables and cole slaw. It was so nice to have something grilled and not cold or microwaved for a change.

As I said, my evening was a piece of cake as I simply drove to my room after class, took a shower, and went to bed.