Awesome trip to Oregon

Yep, it was an absolutely perfect trip to Bandon. The town of Bandon is named after Bandon, Ireland and is a perfect venue for a links golf course. The term "links" refers to a merging of the land and the ocean and the many "links-style" courses popping up in places like Colorado and Arizona are a complete misnomer. The courses include many moguls and short cut fairways that run up and onto a green allowing you to virtually putt the ball from 60 yards off the green. The uniqueness of Bandon is in the fact that there are 3 championship courses located within the resort that can be played. We played all three courses, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

We left for Bandon on Sunday afternoon, finally meeting up with the RV at about 2:30 in the afternoon. One of the guys, a single Dad was running late as he was coming back from another golf trip to Las Vegas and his plane was late. We picked him up at his house about 3:00 PM and were off to Bandon. The motor home was large and spacious with a big kitchen area and living area as well as a large bedroom. We watched football on the way and the reception slowly got worse the farther we got away from Sacramento. With Dallas having lost a winnable game, the reception was just fine for me. We stopped in Yreka for gas and dinner (a bucket of Kentucky fried chicken and beer). We stopped again in Ashland for a driver change and pressed on to Bandon, arriving about midnight. Boyd and I shared a hotel room at the Bandon Inn that night, two of the guys hooked up with friends (caddies) who live in Bandon and the other three stayed the night in the motor home. Boyd had a heck of a time sleeping as I am out as soon as my head hits the pillow and my snoring kept him awake until about 2 AM. He took a book and sat in the bathroom to read and get himself tired enough to sleep and could still hear me even with the fan on.

We awoke about 8 AM and after showering walked into the little fishing village of Bandon, known for their fishing, cranberry farming and now golf. The gang called about 8:40 and wanted to come to the room to shower and we said for $10 a man, we'd have no problem (J/K). We got over to the resort about 10:00 AM for our 11:20 tee time. The resort is absolutey immaculate with Scottish style architecture and a great shuttle system that will take you between the courses, the driving range and the various restaurants on the site. We played Bandon Trails, the newest of the three courses, with a fourth under construction and expected to be completed in 2010. Bandon Trails is probably the hardest of the three courses and the least picturesque. It is located in the hills above the other two ocean courses and is very narrow, hilly and covered in moguls. The caddies would often point out the spot to hit the ball and we'd comply, getting comments like"perfect shot" from the caddies only to find our ball hit the side of a mogul and shot dead right or left into a trap. I shot 88 on Monday and felt like I was just hanging on. Boyd shot 83 and the best score was a 78 by Harry.

Tuesday we played Bandon Dunes, the oldest and most famous of the three courses, It is a little more open and though rated higher than Bandon Trails on slope, plays much more fair. I shot 40+41=81 to beat Harry, who had an 87. Boyd shot 79.

Wednesday we played Pacific Dunes, the prettiest course of the three with about ten holes that are on the water or open to views of the ocean. I struggled a little bit with "lip-outs" on at least 4 holes and had an 84 for the day.

The trip overall was great. The weather each day was in the low 70's with morning coastal fog burning off by about 11 AM. Perfect conditions for golf. Boyd was in bed by 9 PM on Monday night and wanted to fall asleep before me. I ended up going to sleep about 9:30 as well. The food at the resort was inexpensive and very good, but one of our party had a bad experience on Tuesday night. We met at McKee's Tap Room for dinner. Boyd and I had the fish and chips ($15), which were excellent, but John ordered the special of New York steak and fried oysters for $40. The steak was about an inch thick and curling up on both ends. The oysters looked under-cooked with the batter falling off the shellfish. He took two bites and sent it back, asking instead for the meatloaf special. Meanwhile we all ate our dinners. His dinner took over twenty minutes and we filled his head with visions of the kitchen staff rolling his meat on the floor and doing other unmentionables to the sauce and John looked a little green. He finally called the waitress over and canceled his dinner order. When the bill came, he had a $40 charge for the steak and was outraged. He called over the manager who bent over backwards to make him happy, finally sending two orders of potstickers to the Bunker Bar, where we gathered to play bar dice and drink some adult libations. We ended up hooking up with our caddy friends (who used to belong to the Roseville Golf Club) and playing Texas Hold'em. Randy texted me from Toronto as I was playing dice.

We also met the caddies and a few of their brethren and played a ten man game of "stymie" golf on the par three course after our round on Tuesday. The idea is to win the hole outright with a birdie, but the rules are that all balls remain on the green and the furthest from the hole goes first. It is a distinct disadvantage to be closest to the hole as each player will block the hole with his ball. We played ten holes before finally getting a winner who won $90. It was interesting. Boyd won on hole 9, but couldn't validate his win by at least tying on the next hole.

It was a great trip and we got home Wednesday night about 1:45 AM. I had to work the next day, but Darla woke up and was chatty. We ended up talking until I finally told her at 2:30 that I had to get some sleep. Darla had repainted the living room from the yellow that she had painted it several years ago to a chocolate brown on two walls and maroon on two walls. It looks good and I could smell the paint when I walked into the house. I'll be off to the Manager's meeting in Detroit in early November and I suspect the office will probably get a new coat of paint. I picked an Ice Blue color for it several years ago and Darla has never been very thrilled with it. She is definitely a color person.

The office did well in September, beating our budget and we celebrated on Friday with a taco bar from Rubio's Mexican restaurant. It was very well done with chips, rice, guacamole, black beans, refried beans, salsa, lettuce, steak, chicken and soft flour and corn tortillas. The cost was about $10 a person and the food was excellent. We had a huge amount of leftvers and I brought a tupperware of chicken home as Darla was gone on Friday night at a conference in San Francisco with her Silpada jewelry business. We actually had burritos last night that Darla made up using the last of the meat.

I did play golf Saturday at Diamond Oaks and had my best round in while with a 40+38=78, winning $9.00 in skin money from my friends. My game feels really smooth right now and we are off to Yocha-de-he on Saturday with four of the pros from Diamond and 16 golfers. Yocha-de-hee is on an Indian casino in the Capay Valley outside Woodland. The course is a Troon course designed by Brad Bell and should be a challenge. We will stay on afterward and play some games of luck at the casino before driving home.

Well, this was all golf and more golf, but so is my life at the moment. I hope all are well. Ciao.