Sleepless in Seattle

Hello all,

We've traveled quite a ways since our last posting (9/12). Before leaving Jackson Hole, WY last Friday, we played Teton Pines CC. Beautiful setting, nice course, but very pricey. That pm, we drove to Idaho Falls, Idaho and spent one night before heading to Missoula, Montana. Missoula is a neat western town. We stayed 2 nights, played a great golf course (River Canyon CC), went to Mass at a pretty hundred-year-old church, and found a terrific breakfast spot.

On Monday am, we headed to Idaho (a re-entry state for us). That pm, we played golf at the Highland Course near Coeur d'Alene, and stayed overnight there. Tuesday am we drove to the Moses Lake area of Eastern Washington State and played Moses Pointe CC, home of the 2008 Washington State Amateur Championship. The slope from the back tees (7500 yds) was 150! Jim played the "Copper" tees (6800 yds) and shot 81 (yes, the ball carries farther out here). Ladies tees were 5800 yds. We had a great meal in the restaurant afterwards, and "camped" a few miles away.

Wednesday am we drove across the Cascade Mountains, all the way to western Washington.

That pm we played an unbelievably hard mountain course called Eaglemont. Signs at the first tee indicated its difficulty, in terms of what tee to play (black, blue, gray, white, gold or red). Players with handicaps of 6 or less were invited to play the blue tees. God only know what it must be like to play from the black tees, if you need to be a 6 or better to play the blues. Jim played the gray tees, and struggled mightily. We lost a lot of golf balls, but had a good time.


After playing Eaglemont, we drove up to Anacortes, WA (passed 5000 total miles on the way)and stayed at an Indian RV park on Puget Sound. The next am we took a driving tour of the area, including a trip over Deception Pass Bridge, which separates Anacortes from Whidby Island - very scenic.



Thursday pm we drove up to Bellingham, where we've been for the past 3 days. We're staying at an RV park near Steve and Keri Snodgrass for 4 nights. We got up at 5 am the last 2 days to watch the start of Ryder Cup play (8 am in KY) - hence the title of this posting.

Yesterday we participated in the fifth annual Bellingham area ALS walk with Brett and Steve, who has organized the "Strollin' for Rowland" team for the past 5 years. The venue for the walk changed this year (to another pretty seaside setting). Although the weather was rainy, the turnout was large, and lots of $ was raised for this worthy cause.


Today we watched Ryder Cup singles play and rooted the US team to victory. Tomorrow am we head south to Tacoma, where we have a 3pm tee time at the course rated "the best new course in the USA" in 2007 - Chambers Bay. After that, we're headed to Oregon to play Bandon Dunes Wednesday pm.

More to follow....