I brought as much of my Death Star wall as I could fit in the car with a costume box and made the 2.5 hour drive up to Myrtle Beach Friday morning, arriving around 12:30. I had forgotten about Bike Week, so it took a little longer than usual to get to the convention center. I had our Garrison's honorary member, Nick Dewsnap there to help put up the wall as he was an official photographer for the con. We met at the Pelicans game a couple of weeks ago when Jason presented him with his honorary membership. I didn't know I would be the only one, but we had a table reserved so I set up my Darth Vader ROTJ helmet for display, hoping someone would come with some signage for the 501st. Then I got suited up around 2. Friday was pretty slow, but people were still excited to take pictures with a storm trooper on the Death Star for 3 or 4 hours (real hard to tell when you don't have a handler).
I had friends back out on letting me crash in their hotel room because they had to bring the kids when their babysitter cancelled last minute, so I just drove back to Charleston at the end of the day. I was a little more prepared, but the traffic had gotten worse on Saturday. I arrived around 1pm and set up a little more of a table display and then met Blaine and we got suited up in our Mandalorian costumes. It was quite busy, but from what I recall, not as many people as previous years. I'd say we were in armor from 2:00-5:30 then Blaine helped me take down the wall and I was on my way home. Everyone I spoke with from the con was happy with the wall and our presence. I apologized for the low numbers on our side, but they didn't seem to mind.
Had to do some poses with my favorite Charleston visual artists, Matt Brooks and James Christopher Hill:
