Day 49 16/8 Thursday Greenville to Augusta

 We headed to the Budget car drop-off point at Greenville and negotiated to keep our car for nearly all of the remainder of our holiday (4 weeks). From here we headed to our next stop, Augusta. The boys didn’t really think they would be able to get in to the golf course but at least we’re in the city! Along the way we called into a lovely little nature reserve with a lake, Lickfork Nature Park. The only people there was a Grandfather and his Grandson. They were fishing in the lake. It was a beautiful, quiet spot and we enjoyed having a break here and chatting to the Grandfather. There are few things we are noticing about this part of the USA. Even though Adelaide is known as the “City of Churches”, it had nothing on this area. We have been driving on some of the back-roads, through small towns and we have been astounded at the number of large, well-kept churches. They are everywhere, particularly Baptist churches. Also in a “Pharmacy” here you could purchase, food, alcohol and have your “recipe” (script) made up. Another thing, many of the bank buildings are huge, 2-storey, separate grand buildings, close to shopping centres but out on their own. You can do “drive-through” banking too. Everyone seems to like our accents and so most people are very friendly. They recognise us as Australians but yesterday a couple of people wondered if we were “French”. Another thing that happens is that many people have asked us if we have tried American food and what did we like. Even today at the Budget car place the young man I was talking to wanted to know what foods we’d eaten…..not where we’d been! Today we drove through a small town that had a large gun shop and next-door was an Education Department district office. Directly across the road was a penitentiary and next to it was a very large park with children playing on the basketball court.  Once we’d settled into our new accommodation (which is a small home that we have to ourselves with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms) the boys decided they needed to try to visit the Famous Augusta Golf Course. We had been told by everyone that we wouldn’t get anywhere near the place and they really were correct, although the boys thought they’d found the course when we went to the golf course at the Augusta Country Club. They took photos of themselves lying on the grass etc. only to find out that this was not THE Augusta Golf Course. When we found the course all we could see was the covered fences. There appeared to be a double fence the whole way around the course!