Day 27, Saturday, February 16, p.m.

I decided to see if I could get into the Holiday Inn Riverside. That was the round hotel also stayed in before. However, at that point on Rte. 17N, there is traffic merging from the right and left and the hotel is right there, so I needed to get into the far left which meant crossing two lanes of merging traffic. Not an easy task with vehicles speeding along. I cut someone off and I’m sure I was cursed.

By the time I pulled up at the entrance, the wind was whipping across the parking lot and rain was pelting down, just short of being icy rain. The guy spent a quite a few minutes trying to find a space for me. There was some kind of wildlife event going on in town and all the hotels were booked. Wouldn’t you know it. He did find a room, but it was a handicap. At that point, I’d take whatever. I needed to get to work. Unfortunately, it would be an hour before the room was ready. The price was $199; he could not give me the coupon rate because of the special event in town. He did write on a piece of paper that he’d let me have the room for $139 and after that, I could have the coupon rate. He couldn’t sign me in, yet, but the room was mine.

I parked the truck in the nearest slot I could find. It was miserable walking back to the entrance with the wind and the rain. I was freezing. Maybe I should have put my coat on, too. I took the elevator up the 15^th floor to wait my hour. The bar and restaurant were officially closed for the couple hours until dinner. They did make me a Mai Tai as there were a couple of people also in waiting mode.

One of the waitresses, Megan, brought my drink and remembered me from before. She recalled my being there on a very foggy morning trying to get photos. I said something about the day of the week and she said it was Saturday. I thought it was Friday. Oh, my God, Annette is going to kill me! I hadn’t done any work and deadline is 5:30 p.m. She must be frantic wondering where I am. It couldn’t be Saturday. How did I mess up the days of the week?

I headed to the lobby after my allotted hour. People were trying to get checked in and everyone was being told that check in wasn’t until 4 and it was only 3. There were a lot of unhappy looking folks. The woman behind the desk told me that my room would be ready in a few minutes. She also confirmed that it was Saturday. Oh, no again. It took about 15 minutes before I was officially checked in and had my key for room 716. By then, all the spaces near the door were full of cars. I was going to have to drag my luggage through the wind and rain. I squeezed a trolley out by people unloading at the curb.

At the truck, I just crammed everything I could into the two suitcases hoping nothing would blow away. I packed the trolley and began the limp back through the parking lot. Thankfully the space I had wasn’t that far away, but I was sure glad to get out of that freezing rain. I overheard comments that they were getting snow over towards Columbia.

Remember, this is a round building, so the rooms are pie shaped with the door end the narrowest part. The bed looks to be only a full size. The bathroom is big to accommodate a wheelchair, but there is no vanity. No place to put my back of essentials. The coffeemaker and other supplies are on little shelves. The work table is round small and maybe 24 inches in diameter. I can just barely fit the laptop, a small notebook or pens to one side and the mouse on the other. (Good thing it’s a trackball; I wouldn’t have the room to move a regular mouse.) I am able to put my box of other writing material on the other side. I’m almost considering bringing in the table from the truck although this room really isn’t big enough.

First thing I did was to plug in the laptop and fire it up. Then I got out the cell phone hoping it would work so I could check in with Annette and apologize all over myself. She was gracious as ever. I can do my work this week on Sunday. I am so thankful.

That taken care of, I finished unloading the trolley and took it back to the lobby and coming back to my room, I tried first to get into 714. When the key wouldn’t work, I checked my room number. Whoops, I’m 716. I rearranged some things and got signed on to the computer to let everyone know where I was as I hadn’t been able to get on at the last hotel.

At that point, I needed sustenance and headed back to the restaurant. It was too early still to get food, so I ordered another Mai Tai and took photos of the scenery. It had stopped raining and the sun was coming out. It’s such an amazing view. In the far distance, I could see a red freighter passing under the Ravenel Bridge. It looked like it was between the bridge and the top of the buildings of the city. I was able to track its progress between the taller buildings.

I had a delicious meal; sirloin steak, Caesar salad, and garlic mashed potatoes. When I got back to my room, I checked messages, posted to fb so everyone would know I’m okay and worked an hour on the calendar until my headache worsened. I probably should have taken something earlier. I crawled into bed about 9:30 and slept well until about 3 a.m. when neighbors came slamming into their room. Not a big deal. I went back to sleep.