On the Road 8 x 30; 24 x 7

|Homepage| |Go to Daily Journal List|

07-21-2005 Golf at Black Bear in Vanderbilt

Thursday, July 21, I was up at 8:30. Three centuries ago Sir Thomas Browne said"It is waking that kills us." Somehow I think he was in the over-fifty crowd when he made that proclamation. He might even have been a golfer whose joints did not appreciate the abuse heaped on them by this innocent looking sport. I took the laptop and my coffee to the office to use the modem in the laundry room to pay bills. There was a crowd in there doing laundry already. I had an email from one of "The Chicks," my friend Cathy's Mom passed away. I hate being in a non-cell area. I'll have to call her when we emerge into civilization. I had an email from my sis saying the couples’s bridal shower went well. Once again I wish I could call her and Megan and get the whole scoop. I paid the bills and was back home just before 10:00.

After breakfast Bob searched for our next destination. Sounds like we may try for Rapid River, MI, on the west side of the Upper Peninsula. Around 1:30 we took I-75 south to Black Bear Golf Club "Classic Northern Michigan Golf" in Vanderbilt. This is a high-class course that is running specials ($19 before 8:00 a.m. and after 4:00 p.m.; and $25 after 2:00 p.m., per person with a cart) in order to get people to come back after several ownership changes and upheavals. We took a cart since it was so muggy and capitalized on the after 2:00 rates. They had a Par 3 practice hole they called Number 19. This was the first time we ever encountered one, although we had heard of them. I parred it. That was the last good thing I did all day.

I decided to play the Gold Tees at 5,428 yards (the yardage included the 19th hole, which we thought was weird) at a whopping 132 slope rating. Bob played the Black Tees at 6,663 yards and an even more difficult slope rating of 138. I had a personal war with my driver-it was right of G.W. Bush all day and that's pretty far right (IMHO, as they say on-line!) The fairways were very narrow. We were glad we rode since the course is spread out all over the place. There was an odd arrangement of holes, for the housing development I guess. But not too many houses were in evidence. I got a free shower in the Port-O-Potty from the lawn sprinkler that they had set up in a bad spot. It's just not my day.

Bob chipped in for birdie on the Par 3 seventeenth hole from a long way, down a huge slope on a double-tiered green. The guys on the tee box on 18 were 'Wowed!' It was about 20 miles back to Indian River but Vanderbilt was too small for a restaurant. Barclay's was closed so we waited 15 minutes for a table at Vivio's. Bob had the spaghetti and I had vegetable lasagna. There was a loud league of guys having dinner after their golf round. We couldn't hear ourselves think. Back at the campground they were out of newspapers it was so late.

It's 10:56 p.m. and 70.2 degrees.