North to Alaska! (We're goin' north, the rush is on.)

Our apologies to Johnny Horton for paraphrasing the lyrics of his famous song about the gold rush. Well, we went north to Alaska for the Golf rush rather than the gold rush. The midnight golf rush, that is.

We arrived in Anchorage and made our way to our backpacker's inn which was near downtown and the ocean. There we met people from all over, including Brazil, New Zealand, Italy, and even California, as it was a very international group. We spent the first day walking around and exploring. We loved "Wild Rides," which was all about mushing and sled dog racing. Did you know sled dogs respond to voice only, there are no reins. "Gee" is turn right, "Haw" is turn left, and "The other Gee" means they goofed up and didn't turn right when they should have. We also had a pretend salmon fishing experience (we both landed the fish), and finished the day with a very serene and sleep-inducing slide show and music about the aurora borealis. We rented a car the next day, but it rained heavily, so it was off to the movies and some birding just like in Oregon (with umbrellas). We celebrated the summer solstice (longest day) at the Solstice Restaurant (naturally) with Alaskan King Crab Legs, and Dungeness Crabcakes. Delish!

Finally we were ready to take the shuttle van to Fairbanks, past Denali National Park. Fairbanks is a real outpost, a frontier town like no other. Oh sure, it has a Wal Mart and Wendy's, but it also has the only Prospector's Supplies store we have ever seen. The land of the midnight sun is just that -- light for 24 hours. You must experience it once in your life if you haven't. Our lodging was a teepee, a white one, which let in lots of light all night, so sleep was difficult. It was made more difficult by the heavy rainstorm which dripped into our teepee and onto our sleeping bags. But, hey, the price was right, so we experienced life in a teepee just like the eskimos, or something like that. (There weren't any igloos around). Anyway, the second night was dry but colder. This was after our midnight golf experience at North Star Golf Course, the northernmost course in the western hemisphere.

We had an 8 PM tee time, so started out in a cart, thanks to the generous owner who took pity on us as this is the peak mosquito time. We lucked out however, as the rain earlier in the day kept the mozzies away, so we didn't really need our mesh hats. We did Deet up before the round, and wore our Permethrin soaked shirts, so no mozzies came within ten feet of us. The course has lots of "lumps and bumps," as the friendly staff noted, because of the permafrost which changes the topography yearly. We didn't mind, as it was absolutely gorgeous playing until 11:59 PM in broad daylight with the sun shining beautifully on the nearby hills and trees. We finished just before midnight, so figured that we were the LAST PEOPLE ON EARTH TO FINISH A ROUND OF GOLF ON JUNE 24th! (The International Date Line is nearby). When you figure there are over 6 billion of us hominids messing around, that is of some note. After finishing, Bill, the course attendant who is also a 4th grade teacher, snapped our picture just for fun with the goofy netted caps on.

So, we had a super time, and I played as well while wearing hiking boots and using the rental clubs as I did with my golf shoes and regular clubs. Hmm. Maybe that Deet helped my game. Anyway, we're now back in Oregon, reunited with our dog Ben who was staying with our son and daughter-in-law Doug and Liz with their kids Alek and Adelyn on their mini farm with two other Golden Retrievers, about 30 chickens and ducks, a cow and calf, and two cats. We played a Camelot game and Princess Adelyn named me "Papa Knight." I love it. Ben is home and absolutely bored.

We have about six weeks off from the golf trip as we try to loosen up our torsos for the last 25 courses. We aren't sitting still, however, as we head back to Maine on July 15th where we left our RV under a tree at Gloria's Mom's house, then jump on a jet to London and Kampala, Uganda where we will be going birding and watching mountain gorillas. Jamie, our middle son, will accompany us as a reward for finishing his OB/Gyn training. He gets a Business Class seat and we get Coach. There is no justice. Next blog will be in August, as we hit northern New England and on to Cooperstown, New York, where we lived for a year in the 70's.

Southern New England Then Home to Oregon

Somehow the last blog on New England never got posted, so I'll give a quick update before going into our Alaskan adventure.

After Cape May we drove north to a great little beach town on the south Jersey shore called Sea Isle City which was great for cooling our heels (literally) in the hot weather before we challenged the Garden State Freeway. We then made it to Kensington where we hooked up with Gloria's old friend Diana Kauffman in Kensington. We spent a pleasant evening and night, going out to a diner (she said Diners are always owned by Greeks) for breakfast the next day. It was then on to New England!! Yea!!! Except we had to traverse the George Washington Bridge and a bit of Manhattan and the Bronx first. Connecticut was then a pleasant state, pretty, sedate, not too crowded, but with the most expensive gas we had encountered (until Alaska, of course). Our golf course was Elmridge in Pawcatuck, a good driver shot away from the Rhode Island border. We weren't allowed on the course until 5 PM because of league play, but were assured we'd finish in daylight. We almost didn't as the last two holes were by guess by gosh, plus we got an up close view of a very pretty little critter, all black with a white stripe down it's back. We finished in the dark at 8:55.

Next we motored over the border to Rhode Island, a great little state with about a million miles of coastline, which is amazing considering it is about the size of a large county in Texas. Gloria went out scouting the town while I played at Montaup, an old course dating back to 1923 which is semi-private, but very nice, including two great holes on the back nine with super views of the bay. I didn't play very well, but met up with a nice older guy (older than me!), who was an attorney and a magistrate and taught at Roger Williams University. We got along famously, and didn't mind the poor shots. Gloria in the meantime had found this great little takeout place called "Flo's Clam Shack," and you know what that means. We had fried clams, fried scallops, fried oysters, fried onion rings, and we balanced it with cole slaw. It was wonderful, though we think we sort of overindulged a bit. But, hey, we're in New England where seafood is plentiful.

On to Massachusetts the next day, we dropped in at Louisa May Alcott's home but she wasn't home. However, we enjoyed learning about the author of "Little Women," among others, and after passing Emerson's home and Walden Pond of Thoreau fame, we drove to Eliot, Maine to see Gloria's 89 year old mother, Janet Reimer. We were greeted with hugs and kisses, also seeing her older brother Michael and her sister Terry. It was a very nice reunion, punctuated by a Maine lobster dinner which was a bit more expensive than we last remember it.

Finally, we flew home to Oregon, spent the night in a motel, rented a car and drove home for two days to read the mail and then it was back on the road again, or back in the plane again as we flew north to Anchorage, Alaska. Hey, we didn't want to try to golf in November in Alaska, right? So, the land of the midnight sun at the summer solstice seemed about right.

We're in Joisey already!

Wow! Time sure flies when you are driving to new states, playing golf, camping, getting lost and finally asking for directions, cooking and cleaning, writing about the trip, sending emails and calling the kids.

We visited Pearl Buck's birthplace in Hillsboro, West Virginia after leaving Pipestem. She wrote The Good Earth about China which was the best selling book for two years in a row in the 1930's. We proceeded to Virginia and Robert E. Lee's last resting place at Washington and Lee University in Lexington. He was a great general and actually was asked by Abraham Lincol to lead the North, but felt more loyal to Virginia so chose the South. Jefferson's Monticello was next where we had a nice tour of the gardens, then Montpelier and James Madison's house.

Our golf experience in Virginia was great fun at Meadows Farms near the battles of the Wilderness and Chancellorsville. It felt a little strange to be playing golf near such great battles, especially with a house on the property which was used as a hospital (any house near the battle was used as a hospital, though). They have the longest hole in golf, 871 yard par 6, plus a beautiful waterfall hole and one par three shaped like a little league diamond. I would like to say I hit a line drive to centerfield with my tee shot, landing a few feet from the flag, but I really hit a dribbler down the third base line. Now I know why I didn't make it to become a star baseball player.

We went on to Gettysburg where we toured Dwight D. Eisenhower's home. We decided we did like Ike, who played golf at a local club with only 9 holes. He was the first president we remembered and didn't do much during his administration, but that's okay because he sure did a lot during World War II. I played at The Links at Gettysburg, but they wanted to charge us $20 so Gloria could ride in the cart, which I thought was very expensive, though Gloria is worth every bit of $20 -- even more! It was on to Pennsylvania Dutch country which is actually German and Amish and Mennonite - quite a change from the hectic east coast we were used to. We saw a horse and buggy tied up at the local Costco. It felt very calm and serene to see these wonderful people clip-clopping by. The beautiful rolling hills and neat farms with barns and silos reminded us of our childhoods in Wisconsin --very nostalgic. Maybe these weird looking people with funny clothes and straw hats have the right idea after all and we don't. We certainly don't miss TV which we haven't watched for a long time, though the Amish do work a lot harder than we do and don't play golf much as far as we know.

Only 3 states to go! Maryland was very nice -- Berlin was where they filmed Runaway Bride with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, and it was also where the turn signal was invented. Remember the movie Seabiscuit? Well, his opponent War Admiral was raised on a farm just outside of Berlin. His grandfather was Man O War who was Seabiscuit's father, so Seabiscuit actually beat his cousin once removed. It gets rather complicated in horse racing. The weather turned hot, but the course marshal at Eagle's Landing pointed out a Great Horned Owl which helped a lot. In Delaware we explored Milton (our second Milton, after the one in Florida), and played at The Rookery, again emphasizing birds. We finally took the ferry to Cape May, New Jersey today and played at Cape May National which is fantastic for birding. We have gotten so much into it lately that I got to buy a new pair of binoculars which was my birthday present from last year, plus the next six fathers days and birthdays to come. The course today was great with lots of water hazards and birds, though we got lost on the back nine and wandered around for awhile. When we started out we were told it was 105 degrees out, and we certainly felt the heat which is the reason we didn't get a par on every hole, or maybe a few birdies, we are sure. However, we have now cooled off some this evening and are looking forward to Connecticut and Rhode Island and then Maine where we will leave our motor home for a month and a half with Gloria's mother when we fly back to Oregon, then Alaska, Uganda, and finally back to Maine to resume this crazy, fun, wonderful trip. By the way, we still love each other more than ever and feel so very lucky to be together, especially since I stopped giving Gloria advice on every hole of how to play this silly game. She still beats me at Rummy, though.