What this trip looks like, behind the (social media) scenes…
So, “stranded” in Tulsa due to weather, I thought I’d give a little insight into what this trip looks like, day to day (except today, of course). This is a typical day (so typical, in fact that I have already begun to lose track of the day of the week due to them all looking the same to us) on the road…
Video evidence of what happens at *the end* of one of these days:
5:30 (ish): Wake up and start getting ready to head to the course. I’ve had days were I woke up as late as 6:15… we’ve had “other” days as well… where 5:30 would have looked pretty great! This process involves packing up everything we brought in from the car the previous night as, of course, we are only one night everywhere we stay. Typically I have one duffle bag and my laptop; we have a joint bag of toiletries. We have not been eating breakfast (other than light snacking) before the rounds (I know… bad bad us), so at this point it’s off to the car. Dirty clothes go into the “community” laundry bin and we are off to the course.
When we arrive at the course, it’s a “yard-sale” at the back end of the rig to get my clubs out for the round. Because we are packed for 50 days, there is simply a lot of stuff in the back of that car. We have managed to streamline this a bit by putting much of the loosely packed items that were encumbering the removal of the hard sided golf case into a large bin that rests on top of the golf case while we are driving. Now we can lift all of those things out of the way in one fell swoop. With the clubs out, it’s time to check in, hit a few balls and make my way to the practice green for a few putts before the round. How that actually goes, is this: walk into the clubhouse to check in, chat with the lovely and interesting people there until about 3 minutes before my tee time, make a mad dash for the first tee box hoping I can get GolfPad fired up in time to capture my first shot.
By far, the most relaxing part of the trip happens next… playing the round of golf. For roughly three hours (we are averaging about 3:15 a round thus far) I don’t have to think about anything but keeping my head down and keeping my back swing from getting too fast. Well, that and posting a few social media updates to let folks get an idea of the course I’m playing that day. The same cannot be said for Melanie, though. During a typical round, in addition to acting as my part-time caddie (e.g. meeting me on the green with my putter to help speed up play), she is shooting 200-300 pictures of the course and surroundings as well.
After golf it’s yet another yard sale at the back of the car (depending on the day I might or might not take a good offer for my clubs 😉 ) as we pack up for the (on average) ~6 hour drive to the next state. Before we skip town, however, we do try to gather up a little bit of local information (history, landmarks, etc.). We also typically take advantage of the generosity of some of our supporters and grab a bite to eat before going into “road rations” mode for the afternoon’s travel. We get a little “us” time at lunch, but much of it is spent staring at our phones catching up on various things.
Finally (typically around 1:00 or 2:00) we are on the road. This is where you would expect the relaxing to happen… but no. Once on the road it’s time to write… first comes the highlighted charity for the day; next, the golf course review and then the summary of my round. Oh wait, before that comes catching up with social media; responding to DM’s, emails, and just plain regular questions as well. I also usually go through my email at this point, to make sure there is no pressing business to attend to. While I am on “vacation” during this trip, I do keep up with my work email, which typically demands a bit of time two or three times a day. Then there are the thank you notes to each course, confirming tee times for upcoming days, posting a brief intro for the next days course, and shout-outs to our lodging (and other) partners. Lately, this part of the day has also been made up of a few media requests as well (while I’m already busy, there are far worse problems to have than someone being interested in your trip, so I actually enjoy these).
Somewhere along the route we usually stop for a “reset”… which consists of a 15-30 minute cat-nap and stretching of the legs. It is at this point everyday that I say “I really need to stretch or something after these rounds”… that has yet to happen. Along the way we also try to capture some interesting footage from the countryside around us, like this windmill assembly yard…
When all of this is done, I turn over the keyboard and passenger seat to Melanie and do some driving myself. While I chew up a few miles in our trusty steed, she does Airbnb reviews for the places we have stayed, writes postcards to courses, looks up charities for us to spotlight and handles all manner of logistical stuff that flies completely under my radar, but, without which, this trip would crash and burn. Oh, and she is the full time “Mully” photographer and trip chronicler; which is good, because she is much funnier and engaging than I am. People have bonded with Mully, and that’s 100% Melanie’s work.
We’ve had nights when we reached our lodging at about 2:00am and one blessed evening where we checked in in time to go get some dinner in the light of the early evening. On average though, we pull in about 9-10pm. At this point we reverse the morning’s process. Grab the clothes we will need for the next day, our laptops and the strength to pry ourselves from the car seats and into our accommodations. Typically at this point I have more social media work to do (backlog from driving, or whatever), which might take 30-40 minutes before bed.
Roughly once a week we also have a planned laundry day, which takes up a couple hours of an afternoon. There are also random grocery stops and convenience (usually truck stops) store runs for post cards from each state, our cool wooden “Mully map,” new sunglasses for the guy (who shall remain nameless) who broke his, and various other unplanned things… (like two hours to re-construct the dumpster fire that was the back of our rig).
Lather, rinse, repeat for 48 days.