On the Road 8 x 30; 24 x 7

07-07-2005 Golf at Champion Hill, Beulah, MI

We left for our 1:20 tee time around 12:30 after Bob re-glued the handle on the coffee pot for the second time. We hit balls at the driving range at Champion Hill and didn't even work up a sweat on this gorgeous 72-degree day. I can't ever remember playing golf on a more perfect day. We opted to take a cart and were glad we did. The steep hills reminded us of the Austin Hill Country courses, specifically Crystal Falls in Leander, TX, for those of you who may have experienced the difficulty of that challenging terrain. Champion Hills may have been cooler today but it was a tough course if you missed the fairway. Bob played the White Tees at 6,250 yards with a slope rating of 118. I played the Red Tees at 5,125 yards and a slope rating of 116. We both felt the slope should have been higher but maybe that was because we hadn't played the course before and the landing areas were difficult to determine and the fairways were tight. On hole number three you could look behind you on the tee box and see Lake Michigan shimmering deep blue on the horizon. The sky was so blue today you could see different shades of blue as you scanned the horizon. This place gets high marks for scenery.

We both played well and were glad we took a cart since it was quite a steep hike between green and tee box on several holes. The lady at the front desk came out when we moved from the front nine to the back nine and told us to play through the two guys she had let start on number ten. She said the course is only five years old. That may account for the spongy greens that were slow as molasses. But they were true if you could make yourself hit it that hard. Deep grass lined the fairways on the entire course and tall native grasses were the second cut of rough. So you could be just off the fairway and be in jail. Does it sound like I'm speaking from experience? We finished by just after 4:00. We went back to the clubhouse so I could buy a new version of a 'no-hurt' visor.

Bob picked out a restaurant just south of Frankfort in Elberta on Betsie Lake; Mayfair Tavern. This place was very busy and we figured out why. Excellent food! Bob had the Whitefish Special and I had Crusted Grouper. My Tomato Basil soup was the best I've ever had. The green beans were fresh out of someone's garden and they were serving Tazo herbal tea and Starbuck's coffee. We left around 6:00 and decided we had time to check out the shoreline. We followed Betsie Lake to its outlet into Lake Michigan where we walked out on the Elberta Pier (On the left in the photo.) The Frankfort Pier Lighthouse juts out directly across from the Elberta Pier (On the right in the photo) on the 1,400-foot-long Frankfort harbor breakwall. We were stunned by the beauty of the high dunes along the shoreline and the deep blue of the water. Lake Michigan is so clear here. You can see to the bottom and we picked out large fish swimming along the rocks where the shoreline drops off. Depending on the season they could have been Chinook, Coho salmon, lake trout or steelhead. All we know is they were fairly large and swimming in schools. There was a young couple and an older man on the end of the pier fishing but we never saw them haul anything in.

There were warnings all along the pier that you should proceed at your own risk. The pier is slippery when wet and the high winds are dangerous. Some local volunteers had built a boardwalk and put up life preservers in memory of a ten year old boy who lost his life there in 2002. Today there was a cool strong breeze blowing. I could close my eyes and imagine how windy it could be in the winter with a blue norther blowing across Lake Michigan. We wont' even talk about how cold it would be. I cannot get over how much it looks like we're on the ocean. The dunes almost look like the White Cliffs of Dover. The beauty of the entire shoreline takes your breath away and I don't think we could have been here on a day with more perfect weather. We couldn't believe we only saw 4 or 5 people on the entire beach.

We took 606 back to Hwy 31 and come out just north of our campground. Back home we read the paper and got cleaned up. Bob browsed the campground directories for our next destination up by Cheboygan, MI. Every evening we're always surprised how late it is still light outside.