in the home stretch...

Hi Ya'll,

Less than a week to go....

When we last left you, we said we were headed to Memphis, TN. Instead, we decided to go to Mississippi first. We stayed in Tunica, MS for two nights, at Sam's Town Casino (yours Sam M?)
We actually won $ there - that's a first for the trip. We played a couple of real nice courses in the area. The second one produced Jim's golf highlight of the trip. Based on crowded conditions, we ended up playing the back nine twice. Each time we played it, Jim had 8 straight pars and a double bogey on the last hole - that's sixteen pars and two double bogeys on the exact same holes (for a 4 over 76). For you non-golfers, that's very hard to do.

Last Wednesday am we left Tunica and went to Memphis (half-hour North). We had lunch on Beale Street and then took a riverboat ride on the Mississippi that afternoon.

The next day it rained, which was OK since we had decided to tour Graceland. Would urge anyone who hasn't been there to make the trip - really nice.

That night we went back to Beale Street and watched the World Series as we listened to "the Blues" at Silky O'Sullivan's. Friday we toured the National Civil Rights Museum. It was very well done -- very interesting and moving.

Then we drove to Huntsville, AL arriving in the late afternoon. We stayed with Beccy's nephew, Rob, and his family for the weekend. Saturday am, Rob took us on a tour of his office, which is located in a genome research center. Can you say hi-tech? That pm we went to the National Space and Rocket Center at Redstone Arsenal (NASA). Lots of moon stuff there. We played The River Course at Hampton Cove (a RT Jones course on Sunday), and then went to Beccy's niece's (Susan) "ranch" for a fabulous cookout that evening.

We left there early Monday am and drove to Atlanta, where we had Chili Dogs at the Varsity Grille before going to the Atlanta Aquarium. It's the largest aquarium in the world and the sea creatures and fish are amazing. Very cool - only disappointment was that we didn't get to see Clark Walters (ex-SHBP lifeguard friend of Jim's) feed the sharks, because he was out of town.

We then headed to NC for a few days with the Poppe family, before heading to VA for the last few days of our journey.

More soon....

J&B

Oklahoma is better than OK

Howdy,

How 'bout 'dem Rays?

In our last blog, we were leaving New Mexico and headed east. We cruised through Texas with a one night stopover in Lubbock. We arrived in Oklahoma on Thursday and stayed overnight in Elk City - home of the National Route 66 Museum, which we toured on Friday morning

We left Elk City early Friday pm and played golf in Sweet River that afternoon, where we paired up with Mark and Debbie (?). Debbie is a high school Phys Ed teacher and former college gymnast, with a gorgeous golf swing. Mark works for the OK Dept. of Agriculture as a forester. Among his duties, he takes care of the "Survivor Tree" at the Oklahoma City Bombing National Memorial - site of the Timothy McVeigh/Terry Nichols domestic terrorist bombing in 1995. We visited there on Saturday morning. Very moving!

Saturday pm we played golf at the Tenkiller State Park Golf Course in Vian, and drove into Arkansas, where we watched the Rays lose game #6 at a Chili's in Fort Smith. We stayed nearby and then headed across AK to the Little Rock area , where we played a beautiful county course called Burn's Park. We then got to our KOA for the night, and watched the Rays beat the Red Sox in game #7 of the ALCS. Now it's the Phillies vs the Rays in the World Series, which starts on Wednesday. How great is that?

Tomorrow am we'll be off to Memphis, TN to look for Elvis. We're planning a visit to Graceland, golf at two great courses in Mississippi (@5 miles from Memphis), an evening on Beale Street and a paddlewheeler cruise down the Mississippi River. Obviously, we'll be there a few days. Should be neat.

Hopefully, we'll have stories to tell and more pictures to post in an upcoming blog. Fifteen days to go....

Later, J&B

Who KNew Mexico (could be this terrific)?

Hi everybody,

When we last left you, we were in Flagstaff, AZ on our way to Albuquerque, NM. On the way, we drove through the "Painted Desert" of Arizona and viewed incredible redrock buttes. We got to Albuquerque late last Thursday evening (10/19). Very early the next morning (@5am), we got up in order to go to the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta's "special shape" liftoff (which included 'regular" balloons as well) . To say that it was spectacular would be an understatement.

While in Albuqurque, we played also golf at the University of New Mexico's spectacular golf course and went to the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center.

We left Albuquerque on Sunday and headed to Santa Fe, where we spent the day in old Santa Fe shopping in the Plaza and doing typical tourist things - going to galleries (Georgia O'Keefe et al).

We attended evening Mass at the oldest continuously open church in the US (The Mission of San Miguel). We also saw the "miraculous" staircase in the Loretta Chapel -- it is a suspended spiral stairway in a beautiful old church.

The next day we decided to get serious about delving into the scientific history of the area and drove to Roswell, NM to get to the bottom of the alien invasion of 1947.

On Tuesday, we drove further south to Carlsbad, NM and took the natural entrance and big room tours of Carlsbad Caverns. The pictures did not turn out great because it is very dark at 800 feet below ground level and the few lights they have do not allow photos to do it justice. The next morning we took a guided tour of additional rooms that are accessible only on ranger-led tours. It was an amazingly incredible place -- hard to explain. Lace in stone.

Now we are in Lubbock, TX hoping that tomorrow is good golfing weather......

20 days until we return to vote....

Jim and Beccy

Viva Las Vegas

Greetings,

When we last left you, we were headed for a visit in the LA area with Sam and Nan Mazzilli. It was great to see them and, as usual, we ate too much of Sam's pasta. We only stayed one night, but were able to catch up on all the latest. Hopefully, they'll come to see us in FL this winter???

We left the Mazzilli's and headed for Las Vegas, stayed overnight in Barstow, and arrived Vegas last Saturday afternoon. We stayed at the Circus Circus RV park located on the north end of "the Strip". From there, we took a one day guided tour of both Mt. Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. Fantastic! We also went to see Love, a Cirque de Soleil show which incorporates Beatles' music. We watched the Tampa Bays Rays wrap up their ALDS against the Chicago White Sox on Monday pm and Jim cashed in his "over-under" bet at the Hilton (the Rays had to win more than 76 regular season games - they won 97). How 'bout dem Rays?

We left Vegas yesterday am and headed for Albuquerque, NM. The route took us to and over Hoover Dam. It is a true testament to what people are capable of envisioning and then creating. Later on we stopped along the way and played a beautiful municipal golf course in Williams AZ named Elephant Rock.

We stayed overnight at the KOA in Flagstaff, AZ. We'll be off to Albuquerque (where we'll be going to the International Hot Air Balloon Festival) in a few minutes. We'll be spending a few days in New Mexico, where we'll also go to Santa Fe, Roswell (alien country) and Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Our weather continues to be picture-perfect as we travel around this beautiful country. Our days are dwindling now - just 25 more to go. We'll write again soon.

Hope all is well with everyone.

California dreamin'

Hello to all,

When we last wrote (last Thursday - 9/25), we were on our way South from Oregon to California. We stopped in the Napa Valley and took a tour of the Artesa Winery. It's located on the border of Napa and Sonoma counties (the only winery so positioned) in a beautiful setting. The wines we sampled were top notch and we bought some for later consumption.

We arrived in Fremont, CA on Friday evening. There we spent the next three nights with my niece Melanie and her husband Mark Reynolds. They were tremendous hosts and we really enjoyed our stay. The four of us played golf at San Juan Oaks CC on Saturday and stopped by the "Taste of Morgan Hill" street festival afterwards. On Sunday we played golf again with Melanie while Mark was busy beating a good friend in the finals of the Summit Pointe CC golf championship. Congrats Mark! We were also able to connect with Mike & Margot and Michael & Noreen Kakalec, as well as Bill & Marcie Ervin and all their kids over the weekend. It was great to see everybody.

We left M&M Monday am and headed over to the Monterrey Peninsula. We stayed at a nice RV park in the town of Moss Landing. It's right on the beach within walking distance of several nice restaurants. Additionally, the area is teeming with wildlife - sea otters, sea lions, killer whales, etc. It was a great spot to spend two days. Monday pm we took the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach. Tuesday we played golf at Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Course - a gorgeous seaside layout that's known as "the poor man's Pebble Beach" ($40 to walk 18 holes). The weather was perfect, and we played good golf (Jim's 76 was the low score on the trip so far).

Today we played golf again with Mark Reynolds and the guy he beat in his club championship (also named Mark). We played Poppy Hills - a spectacular RT Jones layout at Pebble Beach. We both played well (99 for Beccy & 89 for Jim) and Beccy's drives were particularly spectacular.

Tonight we're settled in at the "Wine Country RV Park" in Paso Robles. Tomorrow we'll be headed South to visit with Sam and Nan Mazzilli. After that, we're off to Las Vegas for a couple of days. Please stay tuned....