Wednesday May 11, 2011 – Atlanta to Florence, SC. I meet my friend Bill for an early round of golf at my club in Woodstock, GA. After golf we travel most of the way to Myrtle Beach and plan on spending the night in Florence, SC. Bill is one of my favorite attendees. He is an experienced traveler to Myrtle and works the program like William & Kate’s wedding planner. He buys his alcohol in advance in case the stores in Myrtle happen to run out. His clothes and golf clubs are packed days in advance. He even packs extra alcohol in his golf bag in easy pour, unbreakable, plastic bottles. His attention to detail is normally impeccable, except for today. In an effort to lower the cost of the trip he offers to book us a room using hotel points at a Hilton property in Florence, SC. In this case the Hilton Garden Inn. A problem arose during the check-in process. Bill had made a reservation. The reservation was for May 18th. Today was May 11th. The hotel was sold out. Most of the other hotels in Florence were sold out. The girls at the check-in desk do not like us. Being experienced business travelers we try to throw our weight around. I try the old, “I don’t think you know who we are line”. Bill tries, “ I am Bill - a silver, platinum, ruby, elite Hilton Honors program member”. It either worked or they got tired of listening to our lame excuses and gave us a room. We eat dinner at Mellow Mushroom in Florence, SC and watch a bunch of twenty something’s drink beer and then panic when the check comes. See Bill and I below.
Thursday May 12, 2011. Florence, SC to Myrtle Beach. We leave the Hilton Garden Inn at around 7:30 am for a leisurely drive to Myrtle Beach. We have a 9:20 am tee. My GPS calculates the time to the course as being 90 minutes. Panic starts to set in as the morning traffic begins to build as we get closer to Myrtle. It takes us approximately 100 minutes as we have traffic and the need to stop for bloody mary mix. For the record, Walgreen’s in Conway , SC sells spicy V8 juice and is open 24 hours. We arrive at the course just in time for our 9:20 am start. Several in our group have already teed off. We get paired with a couple of guys from New Jersey. After dinner, I realize I need to check in and pay the bill for my share of the condo. The lady behind the desk was the assistant manager. She should not have been in a position of management. It took 25 minutes for her to run my credit card.
Friday May 13, 2011. Early Friday morning as we were preparing for golf Bill made a brilliant observation. It was 7:47am. He was painstakingly mixing a bloody mary when he uttered this simple phrase. “You can’t drink all day unless you start early”. And today he did. I know that it is not polite to count the drinks of a friend and fellow Myrtle traveler. But I did wonder. How much did he drink today?
I had been with him all day. We had played 36 holes of golf and had gone to dinner. I know that he started with a couple of bloody mary’s. During golf he added in some bourbons and diet cokes, and downed a few beers at lunch. Later that evening there was more bourbons and diet cokes. After some thoughtful analysis my count had him at somewhere around 20 to 25 drinks for the day. Bill is now 61. Normal people start to slow down at that age. In sport they call it, “losing a step”. He is unaffected by age and seems to be getting stronger. And not only that he can still drink.
Saturday May 14, 2011. As trips to Myrtle go, the group has decided to play a course that is located on the south side of town. We are staying on the north side, specifically North Myrtle Beach. While most people perceive Myrtle Beach to be a sleepy little town it is actually a spread out populated area. Our course is 40 miles from the condo. Bill mixes an extra bloody mary for the trip this morning. Bill and I are paired with Tom and Walt. Tom is another old friend and normally takes my money on these trips. Tom is a hustler. He is sneaky and knows how to win money. Walt is Tom’s friend from Florida. Walt is the oldest guy in our group and reminds me of Jack Lalane. He is fit and could probably tow an airplane if he got a running start. I played really well for 36 holes and actually won some money from Tom. It was special. So special that Bill and I decided to head to a famous local night club to celebrate. Some in our group had been to the same club the night before and complained about the price of drinks. Bill proposed a plan combat the high cost of mixed drinks. It was simple. The plan went like this. We would stop at the local ABC store and buy mini-bottles of alcohol. The mini-bottles, sometimes known as airplane bottles, could easily be hidden in our pockets and smuggled in to the bar. Soft drinks could be ordered at half of the price of alcohol drinks to complete the process. A thought occurred to me. Exactly how old are we? Really, we were going smuggle alcohol in to a bar? The plan worked flawlessly and we were able to enjoy the night. SBF50YO’s is scheduled for the same week in 2012. We can always accommodate more “breakers”.
