Now, with everything that happened in 2017, looking for a hotel room for the 2018 Masters ended up on the back burner until very close to the event. Finally, I got on hotels.com, and the closest remotely affordable hotel room that I could find was in Aiken, South Carolina. The city appeared close - 30 to 40 minutes from Augusta (where the Masters takes place). My friend Jill and my mother both told me that Aiken was very cute and charming. I booked a room at one of the few places left there.
Now, I am going to assume there is a cute and charming part of Aiken, but that is not the part where we stayed. We arrived at our hotel, which was actually a motel, around 1am. We see that there is a tequila bar in a strip mall next to the motel that appears to be closing for the night, or kicking people out. It really wasn't clear. We check in and pull our car around to the back of the motel so that we aren't parked on the tequila bar side (though that is where our room was located). In the back parking lot is a couple having sex on top of their car. I suppose they didn't have time to get into their motel room? Love, so charming. We get into our room and realize that there is no insulation on the motel room door, so we can hear everything happening outside. Everything. I have stayed in some pretty questionable places over the years while traveling, but this is the first time I have "slept" with the television blaring and the chair in front of the door. My husband is by no means a small guy, and he fully supported this decision.
We woke up bright and early to continue our journey to the golf tournament. When we got to my car in the morning, we looked at the car next to us. It was a silver Impala with tinted windows and a ton of bullet holes in the side. Now, I am the first to admit that I do not fix dings and scratches on my car right away, if ever. I figure that given where I live, my car is going to be crammed into parking decks next to Suburbans that have decidedly deemed themselves "compact," and my car will get hit by other car doors on a regular basis. That is DC driving. But if I were to get a real hefty dent, or someone were to hit me, I would do my best to remedy the situation. I couldn't help but wonder how many bullet holes you have to have in your car to make the call to at least cover them up, if not repair the holes. Based on my limited knowledge from inspecting the Impala, the total at the very least must surpass a dozen.We left cute and charming Aiken and headed to Augusta. The weather was gorgeous, and as expected, the course is beautifully manicured with azaleas everywhere. You may be wondering how this all leads to exercise. In total that day I walked 7.75 miles following around amazing golfers.
One of the best things about the tournament is that you can't bring cell phones in; however, you can bring a camera to the practice rounds. I cannot think of another place where no one has electronic access for 8 or 9 hours straight. Even if you opt out of bringing your phone somewhere, usually someone else has a cell phone. The 1980s imposed lifestyle forced people to talk to each other, which was wonderful. Example of a real conversation that happened while watching Fred Couples (below walking with Tiger Woods).
Random person, "How old is Fred Couples?" Stranger next to you, "I think 50s or 60s." Teenagers also listening nearby, "I think like, 80." (F- you, teenagers). Needless to say, without Google, humans interacted again, which was great. There were also phone booths, which I haven't seen in a good decade. One guy was getting tormented for calling his wife from the phone booth. One of his logical friends, who was genuinely looking out for him said, do you think your wife wants to hear from you enjoying 80 degrees in the middle of a workday when she is working surrounded by snow and slush (I'm guessing they were from Boston)? That friend had a very good point.
I think the practice rounds are the way to go. It is easy for me to say that because I have never been able to get tickets to the tournament rounds, but hear me out. You can cover a lot more ground (close to 8 miles), and you get to see a lot more golfers up close. We were up close to some of the best golfers in the world, and it was day one of practice, so the golfers were still perky and congenial to everyone.
I recommend trying the lottery system and wearing comfortable walking shoes. I have a new appreciation for golf, and the walk was a great workout. Even going slowly, walking that far certainly burns off gross pimento cheese sandwiches.
