Golf

In May I went golfing on a real golf course for the first time.  My husband, Brad, has been golfing for over 35 years.  He used to hit golf balls with a few hand-me-down in the fields behind the house where he grew up.  He was on the golf team in high school.  He has three brothers who also golf, so golfing has always been his territory and something he has enjoyed with his siblings.

We had discussed the idea of me trying out the sport in the past and I always scrunched up my nose at the idea.  To be honest with you, I never really thought of it as much of a sport and I've always been turned off by the costs associated with it.  "I'll stick to my knitting", I'd say.  And his reply was "that's probably best since you probably would not take it very seriously and I'd want to help you get better".

In March, we went to Play-A-Round Golf in celebration of Brad's birthday.  We went with a group of people and had a lot of fun.  My sister-in-law had recently purchased clubs and she was starting to join her husband on the course.  When they invited us to play at a real course that day in May; I went thinking it would be fun.  It was.  Here's an outline of my golfing experiences so far, only time will tell where it leads me.

1.  At Play-A-Round Golf the most memorable line of the evening was "Whacky, whacky"!  One of the women there came up with that line when she'd smack a long drive.  

2.  At Arrowhead (April 25) , my first outing, we golfed 9 holes late in the day.  I had some nice straight shots and had way more fun than I thought I would.  Brad shot better than normal because according to him, "he was thinking less about his shots and more about mine".  My sister-in-law was surprised I did not bring my knitting.

3.  At Blackwood (May 15) we golfed 9 holes and I got to experience a fun, memorable hole. It's so hard to describe the challange of this hole and the feeling when you're teeing off this hole. You're on one side of a small ravine and you have to hit over the creek to the green.

4.  While at Bethany Beach (June 16), Brad and I played nine holes late on a windy day.  It was a nice course, bathrooms at the fourth hole and nice greens and carpet-like fairways.  There were also yardage marker stones along the fairway.  He was so close to an eagle on one shot, it was fun to watch.  He also shot back-to-back birdies.  I regained some confidence, hitting better than my game at Blackwood.  

5.  Today I bought my own clubs on e-bay.

Happy 20th Anniversary!

As soon as I opened the mailbox on May 15 and held the package from my brother, the date sounded familiar.  May 15.  May 15.  Then it came to me from the dark corner of my brain.  My brother had remembered the anniversary of our bicycle trip across the USA.

So many years prior I had sent him cards celebrating the event.  This year, he had remembered and sent not only a card, but also a cd with jpegs he had scanned of his slide collection from the trip.  

It has been wonderful looking through those photos and remembering those days we shared.  Thank you, brother.

A Shore Thing

This past weekend we went to Ocean City.  Fall is one of the best times to visit the Jersey shore. We enjoyed the deserted boardwalk, the view of the rough surf,  dancing with strong winds, playing plenty of cards (Mr. Thurston's Mother's Game), plenty of Mack and Manco pizza and family fun!

Five Spares, Zero Flats

Would you sit in a car four hours out and four hours back in a day to ride your back thirty-two miles?  On Sunday my two brothers, sister, nephew and I rode our bikes from Meyersdale, PA to Cumberland, MD along the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP).  This 32-mile ride completed our ride which we started back in May.  Mom and Dad went along to shuttle our vehicles for us, that was a great help.

It was a beautiful day for a ride, clear and a bit windy, but not too cold.  Most of the ride was downhill.  We rode through three tunnels.  One was about a half mile long - that felt long.  You could not see the light at the end of that tunnel.  That one was well-lit, the others were not lit; we used head lamps.  The one tunnel felt like a wind tunnel.  A steam engine travels between Frostburg and Cumberland for weekend riders.  The bike trail follows along it.  At one tunnel, a sign advises "Do not enter tunnel with oncoming train"  duh!

As we got closer to Cumberland, there was a beautiful vista looking over the countryside.  Cumberland looks like a really neat town.  We had a late lunch there at The Crabby Big - a BBQ place along the C&O canal.

Just to log the drive/log.  We left my place at 7:15 AM, started riding at about 11:45 AM from Meyersdale, got to Frostburg at about 2 PM and rode on, arriving in Cumberland at about 4:00 PM.  We left Cumberland at 5:20 PM and were back at my place at about 9:00 PM.

The Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania

We spent Columbus Day weekend with friends at a cottage in the Wellsboro area.  The weather could not have been nicer.  The cottage was located near Ansonia, just yards from Pine Creek Trail, a rails-to-trails bike path which paralells Pine Creek in the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.  The photo to the left is the view from the front of our cottage. 

Friday night after dinner at the cottage we had enough daylight for a quick bike ride towards Wellsboro. A rode in the bike seat on the back of Hubby's bike and T on the tag-a-long behind my bike. 

Saturday morning we all had breakfast and then headed to Colton Point - lovely vistas (right) and a one-mile loop hike. Later Saturday we all biked to Turkey Falls.  C is an avid cyclist;  he rode on for several hours.  The rest of us headed back to the cottage.  After a quiet dinner we played some games and called it an early night. 

Sunday we cleaned up and packed up for the drive home.  We had a lovely and very relaxing weekend, one of those let's do this again next year weekends!

Big on Bridges

I'm big on bridges.  When I first went to college I studied civil engineering, dreaming of designing bridges.  Pictured above is The Senator William V. Roth Jr. Bridge along Rt. 1 in Delaware.  We crossed over it enroute to Bethany.  It is the most amazing bridge I've ever seen.  Quickly I pulled out my cell phone to take a snapshot.  Not a bad photo for a cell phone huh?

Bethany

We spent the week at Bethany Beach with my parents.  It was very relaxing.  The girls had a great time at the water and it did not take long to get into a daily routine of waking, breakfast, beach, back for lunch, naps, back to the beach, dinner and bed.  We had plenty of time to play cards after the kids were asleep.