VROOM VROOM....... Off again!

July 19th and 20th was no joke,  we got down to business.   Just check out how many pair of shoes we brought for just three of us.  You never know in Iowa what the weather is to know to bring shoes or sandals, so you bring both.     

We headed out on Saturday to Calhoun, Ida and Buena Vista Counties.   This was a long route as we got rained out the last couple times we headed this way and it was a hit and miss, so lots of driving between courses to get the last of this area done.

Calhoun, Manson Golf and Country Club is definitely a community course.   Lots of donated benches, ball washers and drinking stations and very well kept.   This isn't your typical up and down course, lots of mature trees and yes, Jim and Shirley found a few.   Very good and fast greens with lots of challenges and a good variety of pars and doglegs.

Guess where we had lunch?   Shirley's favorite place... PIZZA RANCH!

Golfing at Ida Grove made you think there should be some kind of renaissance festival going on around the corner.   Very mid-evil and had a mysterious feel to it too.  Very nice course and so unusual that it was just a different experience golfing here.

Nice T for the ladies!

Kind of hard to see the weather vane, we thought it was neat

Buena Vista, Newell Golf Course.   Very odd layout of the course, nice but a bit confusing.   Very wide fareways lined with trees which we really liked.   If your ball went into the rough, it was very tough to get out, well if you could find your ball anyhow.

It was a long day with lots of driving, we headed to the Wild Rose in Emmetsburg for a good nights sleep, Sunday was going to be a VERY long day!

Sunday we had fun and checked FOUR off our list:  Kossuth, Hancock, Humboldt and Wright.

Kossuth County, Algona, River Road Golf Club

I started off with a par and ended with a birdie on 9, by far my best course this trip.  Trees continued to be a problem for Shirley here.   This was the courses 40th year and I thought it could have been in better shape for that.  Jim offered some driving tips for Shirley which seemed to help so we have higher expectations next course.

Hancock County, Wesley, Hillside Golf and Dining, but no dining??   Apparently they don't have their kitchen open on Sundays.   The people here could not have been friendlier.   Very welcoming!

Too bad the flags were deteriorated, they really should have put up new ones.

Couldn't finish this hole as the sprinklers were on.    Shirley may have gotten a few on her as she retrieved our balls.  Since we couldn't finish for a score.........WE ALL GOT PAR!!!    Whoo hoo!

 

Lots of little artsy things made out of old clubs at the T Boxes.

Humboldt County

Humboldt Country Club, pickles eggs or turkey gizzards anyone?   YUCK

sitting on the bar in the clubhouse

Don't know if it was because of the heat or that we had just eaten a big lunch but none of us golfed well at all.    It was getting pretty hot and the frog togs came out.   What we liked most about this course is that it was a family course.   People from 8-80 were here today and lots of women.    We planned to get energized by the next course. 

Wright County

Goldfield Iowa, Oak Ridge Golf and Rec.
Really nice course and very plush T boxes and greens.   Lots of mature trees and extremely well maintained.    Was surprised to see their maintenance crews were even out on a Sunday afternoon keeping it nice for us.

So, here is where we are at so far.    69 counties done and 30 to go.

We are having such a good time doing this.    We just want to know if there are any courses out there that have CLEAN CARTS!!!   
My hats off to Legacy for this.   We have seen so much junk left in carts and those that get left out all the time are covered with cobwebs and not hosed off.    

Shirley and I have come up with some GREAT ideas for a beautiful course, now we just need to win the lottery to get it going.       Happy Golfing!

"The only sure rule in golf is he who has the fastest cart never has to play the bad lie" - Mickey Mantle

HEE HAW

HOWDIE!!!

Oh the wild and crazy things we do!

Only those that remember Hee Haw will truly enjoy this.

Where or where are you tonight?

Why did you leave me here all alone?

I searched the field over and 









 thought I found true love,

But you found another and PLTH you were gone!

Y

FOUND HIM!!!

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