Onward to golf! But we were hungry by now so we stopped in Onaway at Wood Wind's Restaurant; a cute log cabin building on the main drag. Bob had chili and whitefish sandwich. I had Reuben Soup (excellent) and a turkey sandwich. The soup was unique with a Swiss cheese cream base with thinly sliced pastrami and swirl rye croutons. Finally, one mile past Onaway on M-68, just after 3:00 we teed off on Stoney Links Golf Course. The pro warned us about tricky holes on 3, 11, 13 and 15. (Note to self: when the pro is warning you that the holes are harder than they look, leave your clubs in the car and have a drink in the pro shop instead of playing!)
Bob played the Blue Tees at 6,519 yards and a slope rating of 116. I played the Red Tees at 5,267 yards and a slope rating of 109. I played well on the front and most of the back. On the front nine we saw an otter, or maybe a mink, scurry out of one pond, across the fairway and into another pond. Number thirteen, one of the 'tricky' holes, was a Par 5 with a creek crossing twice at just the wrong distances (from the Red Tees anyway) causing me to lose my composure. But I tried to regroup and ended on an upbeat by parring the Par 3 18th. The course is in great shape and very well laid out except for the aforementioned nightmares. Four groups in a scramble hopped on in front of us on number 10. So the single behind us, Ralph, caught up and joined us on the back (1/2 hour standing around waiting between nines did not help.) My two scabbed places on my feet from our beach walk yesterday started talking to me (of course we couldn't even consider riding in a cart in this glorious weather--high 72 degrees!) We thought we died and went to heaven after this heat wave we've been in.
Anyway, Ralph's wife is playing with the ladies group on the front nine. He teed off just ahead of them to be done before they finished. He and his wife are remodeling a home they just bought in Indian River. He's been retired six years and loves it. We traded phone numbers and told him to call us for a round of golf so we could meet his wife. It was 7:45 by the time we were done. Of course the sun up here looked like it was 4:30. We headed back to Indian River and had our anniversary dinner at Vivio's Italian Restaurant. We waited for a table at the bar and toasted with a beer and a Smirnoff. They had a $6.00 coffee drink on the whiteboard. I asked the bartender what Jagermiester was. He described a licorice liquor that is the current rage of the college crowd. Soon we were seated at our table. Bob had the BBQ Salmon and I had the baked Michigan Whitefish with a side of spaghetti and mostoccioli respectively. Even with salad and breadsticks we still couldn't resist Tiramisu for dessert. I rated it as one of the top three in my rankings. I never have beaten Trattoria's at the old Stouffer's in the Arboretum in Austin.
We waddled out and were back home by 9:45. That is late for us old folks. A cell phone message actually beeped in the RV. I couldn't call out to our voice mail box to retrieve it so I walked down the road a bit and was able to hear Patti's message and actually call her back. But our connection was not strong. It was nice of her to call and think of us on our special day.
It's 11:35 p.m and 62.7 degrees.