Fizzled Firecrackers Batman!

4th of July weekend 2014

7/3  We had a great start to what looked like a beautiful weekend ahead in Burlington Iowa.    We headed out Thursday (7/3) early as usual and golfed all the way there.   

 Poweshiek County  -  Montezuma Country Club.  

 

Path to the 9th T

We enjoyed golfing here as it was somewhat challenging, but very hilly.   Never seen so many rolling hills, I felt like I was on a roller coaster at times.

 

Heading out to the next stop Jim met an Iowa State Trooper.   He really did try hard to get out of a ticket but the more he talked the worse it got.   I thought for sure he was going to get socked big time for going 74 in a 55.   The trooper was in a great mood though, and only wrote him up for 60.   Whew!    That could have been very costly.

Lagos Acres Golf & Country Club was our next stop in Keota, which is in Keokuk County.     This was a great stop and we really enjoyed it.

We saved the best for last, Kalona Golf Club, Washington County.   The courses just got better and better as we went along today.  

 

Yep, thats the ladies T box  waaaaaay down there!

This is a BEAUTIFUL course and lots of very nice landscaping.   I would say that the staff could have been a little more friendly when we got there, but that never stops us from having our fun.   

We headed to Burlington to check into hotel and meet up with Lena, and of course we had to check out the casino.    We ate dinner at Gaters which came highly recommended and it didn't disappoint.     We stayed at the Quality Inn in West Burlington and so far they have the best beds and softest towels.   Definitely a place we will go back and stay.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST HUSBAND!   Jim got the pleasure of spending his birthday with the 3 of us lovely women, golfing and chauffeuring us around.   He takes a lot of grief from us, but I don't think he minds too much.

7/4   We headed out to Louisa County but with some road closures due to flooding, we were detoured and found a nice little course in Henry County,  Twin Lakes in Winfield.  

 We didn't know what to expect but we were very pleasantly surprised.   The clubhouse was open for the local coffee gathering but nobody was there to take money so they handed us a couple cart keys and we were on our honor till we got done.   For the size of this town, it was a very nice course and had a lot of character with loads of birdhouses both on the course and around the clubhouse.    I would definitely spend some time there if I were closer.    

Because a bridge was under construction (another road closed),  we had to navigate on some gravel roads.  What would we do without GPS?    We finally made it to Cedar Crest in Columbus Junction, Louisa County.   They had an outing that was just finishing up so we went to the Roadside Diner for lunch.   It was out in the middle of nowhere and it was great food.   Very friendly owners and they had let their staff off for the holiday so just them running it.   How nice of them!    

Headed back to Cedar Crest to golf and got another one checked off our list.   Unfortunately we are not as techy as we thought and lost our pictures from this county.   Darn! 

Last course of the day was Muscatine Municipal in..... yep you guessed it, MUSCATINE.    This course reminded me of Blank in Des Moines in a lot of ways and I wish we had time to do all 18 here.  

On the way home we were re-routed so many times that it seemed we were getting further and further away.   We saw signs to Iowa City so decided that we were not far from yet another casino!   We stopped in Riverside for a short time and it was well worth our stop for a couple of us.

We were glad to get back to Burlington and finally have some dinner and celebrate Jims day.   We went back to Gaters since it was so good.     

Saturday morning was a gloomy day, rain in the forecast and Shirley got some bad news that a family member had passed.   Our sincere condolences to her family! :(   We decided to check out a day early and golf our way home.  We would not get all 12 courses in but the weather was not going to let that happen anyhow.  

 We started off in Burlington at Flint Hills Golf Course.    

IS IT REAL??     You be the judge.  HA

Have you ever seen such tall ball washers?    We noticed it on this trip at a couple courses.   I thought we might run across one taller than Shirley.  






We didn't know at the time that this would be our last course of the weekend, but what a nice course to end on.   Just as we finished our 9, it was sprinkling.   

We tried to navigate to the next course but too many roads were closed and the rain was moving in too fast.   Time to book it to Des Moines.   After we got a ways down the road,  it was raining so hard we decided we should pull over till it stopped.   We had such good luck at Riverside the day before, and since we were 'so close', we decided it was the best place.  :)

Although we didn't get in all the golf we planned, we did get 7 done and we could not complain.    This way, we have to go back to Southeast Iowa and maybe Lena can join us again!

If I'm on the course and lightning starts, I get inside fast.
If God wants to play through, let him.   
                           Bob Hope

Double Nickel

We have completed 55 counties so far.  It feels good to be on the downside now and with a couple trips planned we will really start eliminating them quickly.

 

 

Wayne County was our first stop and we had to be extra prepared for this course.    When I called the number for Corydon Golf Club to arrange a T time, the phone was answered "City Hall", because "the golf course doesn't have its own phone number"  ???    And, they don't rent carts???  What was funny was the City Clerks tone, you know the one,  the 'as if I should have known' tone, because after all "its just a 9 hole club".   Ok, we had golfed at 53 counties before today and most of them have been 9 hole courses, and THEY DO RENT CARTS!!  This is only the 2nd course that we have found that doesn't rent them out, the only difference is that we didn't have an option, it was the only course in Wayne County.........that we knew of at the time.   After visiting with a local, we found out that Humeston has a course with sand greens.   Yes, I probably would have preferred that, just to say we had golf on sand, but the others preferred to stay here since we were ready.   Onward we go!

So I didn't walk all 9, but kudos to Jim and Shirley for hanging in there to the finish.   This course was another 'on your honor' pay system.   $20.00 and drop it in the box, golf all day (or in our case, golf 9 for $20.00)   A little pricey we thought but it was all good.  

Next destination............Lucas County

After Corydon, we headed to Chariton.   Chariton is the home of Hy-Vee Food Stores.    They recently opened up a grill in the lobby of the local hotel and I must say that it was excellent.    Shirley had the BLT and said it was great.    

Now that we are cooled off and fed, we headed to Lakeview Golf & Country Club.   More cart problems here too.   We were going to golf here first but they only had 4 carts to rent and 3 were already reserved for the morning so had to stop here on the way back instead.   No complaints, at least they HAD carts.   Even with a T time and carts reserved there was a hesitation with us getting to golf since it was private and they were not in our PGA Card.  But we finally got going and had a good time.   

Can you say CICADA?    They were loud and everywhere,  you really had to watch where you were going with the cart not to get one in the face.   One did land on Shirley and that was quite funny (for me anyhow!  HA). Lakeview was very nice and reminded me of Sun Valley, brought back a lot of memories for Jim and I.  

 It was the hottest day we have experienced so far and we sure was glad we were done and didn't have another one planned for the day. We were really looking forward to getting home and taking a shower.    

June 28th

Happy Birthday Shirley!          




What an awesome day of golfing for Shirley's birthday today and you just can't beat Legacy!  

"Would the man on the ladies T box kindly back up to the men's T........."

If you have never seen the U-tube video, you may want to check it out.   It is HILARIOUS!    golf joke:  The womens tee.      Sorry Jim!

We had such a great time and Shirley was so shocked at all surprises around every turn.   Thanks to Lena, LaVerne, Lisa and David for helping Jim and I pull off an amazing surprise for Shirley. 

Every even hole, Tim or Jim would put a card on her seat.   She was not always observant though and we would have to point it out to her.   One card she sat on three times before Tim asked her what was on her seat.   She must be getting old!   Here are the pics of her with each of her gifts.   

you gotta love the hair!

Final Card, she finally knows now who all the gifts are from.

Topped it off with lunch at Francies.   Awesome day!   Hope you enjoyed it Shirley!

We are all geared up and ready for the next road trip!   Lena is going to join us and we can't wait to get going.    Its going to be a FIRECRACKER of a time!    

Golf is horrifying, humiliating and humbling, but I can't wait to do it again.   Author unknown

Happy Fathers Day Jim!

6/15/2014 - Botched Plans

Just when I thought the weather was going to cooperate with our quest this season, I was wrong.... AGAIN!   We had planned to do 4 counties in NW Iowa that we missed last year up in that area. We headed out at 5:45 AM and I'm surprised I was even up and ready to go by then.   Such a beautiful morning and the drive up was great.   


We made a pit stop at the gas station and thought these scratch offs were fitting.   Unfortunately none of us won anything.



We arrived at Sac County Country Club and T'd off about 8:30. 

  Loved the T markers and the T-boxes were in great shape.   They told us when we got there that there was trouble everywhere.   They didn't disappoint.   This course was pretty hilly too.   Loved the challenges though and the greens were turtle backed and very tough.   Putting sure hurt us on the scores but we didn't mind at all.   The only thing Jim commented on was that the first 5 holes were par 3 and 4's.  Holes 6-8 were all par 5's and 9 was a par 4.   Shirley struggled with the trees.   Of all the trees on the course she managed to hit this little one not just once but TWICE!   The second time she lost about 20 yards.   Yes, we laughed!

 Got our 9 in and headed out to Ida County and that is when the day took a turn.  

 Heading West to Ida County we encountered a huge storm and we knew the day was toast.    We turned around and thought maybe we might get Calhoun County in but the storm was moving too fast and there was no way we would get any more golf in that area done.   :(

Still not ready to give up golfing for the day we headed towards home checking our PGA Card for deals along the way and ended up in Nevada at the Indian Creek Country Club.    

Story County was already crossed off our list but out of the over 400 courses in Iowa, we got this one done too.

Very nice course and we planned to do 18 but we were kicked off the course at 4:30 since they had a league starting.   

Not a total loss for the day and we will eventually get those we missed done.    We will see where next week takes us, of course, depending on the weather!

"If you're afraid a full shot might reach the green while the foursome ahead of you is still putting out, you have two options:  you can immediately shank a lay-up, or you can wait until the green is clear and top a ball half-way there. "   author unknown

OH SUNNY DAY!

Finally we are starting a good weather pattern for the golf season, best weather day of golfing yet was Friday, June 6th.    We finally put away our winter gloves and broke out the sandals for good this weekend. 

We started at Lakeside Golf Course in Jefferson, Greene County.   This course was pretty flat, smaller greens,  but not so challenging, except maybe the 9th green.   It was a nice course and nicely landscaped, and looked like there were some places that were still a work in progress, so I'm sure by the peek of the season it will be in great shape.

Many mature trees but unfortunately they are 80% ash and with the Emerald Ash Borer Beetle approaching Iowa, this course could be in trouble.   We will keep our fingers crossed.



After golf we had to grab lunch and went to Shirley's favorite go-to place when we don't know where else to chow down.

Onward to Audubon Country Club, Audubon Iowa, Audubon County.   Did I say Audubon??
Humidity was setting in and it was getting hot by the time we were golfing here, and no breeze.   We decided it was time to start packing the Frog Togs for future trips.   This course had some challenging greens, very well landscaped with elevated T boxes.  Very nice course!

Saturday the 7th, we welcomed my brother Jerry from Arizona to the club.   We knew the rain was moving in and had to go somewhere East so headed to Traer Golf Course in Tama County.    Well, can't say much for the golf course, but we always have fun.   We were very annoyed with a helicopter that kept maneuvering from behind a wooded area.   Don't know if we were more annoyed at the noise or the fact that we didn't know what was going on.    Found out later there was a flight school in Traer, really??  In Traer Iowa??   Who would have known. 

The golf course was really bad, I would say in the top 5 worst we have golfed on.   Jerry made it interesting when he couldn't get one of his drives past the womens T box, but he did save his par so wasn't a total loss.   Us girls, well we golfed like girls, beginner girls even.   It was just a sad day of scoring.   BUT IT WAS FUN :)

After golf we went to Maidrite in Toledo and we all thought it was great, none of us had eaten a maidrite in quite some time so was totally different for us.   Heading home we hit rain but I would still say the day was almost perfect.    

We are so looking forward to our next trip covering 12 counties in SE Iowa.  


I play [golf] in the low 80s. If it's any hotter than that, I won't play.
--Joe E. Lewis