Don’t you love mornings when you have no urgent plans and lots of time to get organized, to get going? This morning was one of of those kinds of mornings for us. I started out with a workout in Newman, cycling on my cycle trainer for 23 minutes and then a full workout on the floor mat with weights etc. It is nice to stay strong despite living in an RV and not having access to a gym to work out.
I started doing a bit more research last night for our trip down south. I started off by looking up Harvest Host locations and cross referencing the Harvest Host locations to Club Corp golf courses to see if there was any correlation between the two. Since we are members of Harvest Host and can camp at golf courses; and I am a member of Club Corp, it would have been nice if we had found Club Corp golf courses to play, which we then could have boondocked at, overnight. Anyway, I didn’t have much luck with that search, but I did get a lot more familiar with what golf is available to us along the trip.
Studying the map of Oregon and looking at the Oregon guidebook to see what towns we should stop in as we head towards California. We don’t want to drive a long time every day, preferring to stop and sightsee along this trip. We’ve decided we would like to try and play golf at Bandon Dunes in Oregon, since we’ve heard so much about Bandon Dunes and don’t know when we will be back through Oregon to give this course a go. The Tom Doak designed ‘Pacific Dunes’ course which opened in 2001 comes very highly rated and of the 7 courses at Brandon Dunes, is the one we hear is the most scenic. The weather in Bandon, Oregon in December will be a ‘game day’ decision I think, and we’ll hope for great weather, booking closer to the date we know we will be there. Its hard to plan when we don’t exactly know how things will go on this upcoming trip without a tow car. We are going to have to ‘wing it’ a bit I think to know where we can park the RV when we are golfing, and hope that the golf course parking lot will accommodate our 40 foot long Newman!
Richard had a bit of organizing to do today to get Kramer the Kona loaded to go golfing today. The Blue Ox tow system was still in the back of Kramer and the box was extremely heavy, so Richard had to empty pieces of the tow system out of Kramer and into Newman’s basement, before he could load up his golf boots, golf clubs and my cart battery today. The Kona has been a great car and we really like it, but with 2 boxes of golf boots, 2 golf bags and an electric push cart in the back, the car is pretty crammed full.
Today was Richard’s first day golfing on the Island. He was a little nervous how his back would be after not playing for over a month.
Richard had to rent a pull cart for $4. Notice he is putting on his Foot Joy golf boots, which we bought here on the Island last winter. They were the best golf investment for playing on wet, sloppy golf courses on the Island. Richard has turned into a ‘trunk slammer’! Playing out of the back of his car. The weather was +12C and sunny today so the parking lot at Qualicum Beach Memorial Golf Club was packed today!
A light jacket and vest to start the round. I had the vest off pretty quickly though, because it was too warm with it on.
Richard warming up on the putting green at Q. Beach. The greens are amazingly fast considering the time of year and the amount of rain that falls continually.
Deer everywhere on the golf course. The deer were grazing between the first fairway and the second green today. The deer don’t even move when you get near the as they are very used to people.
Waiting for the green to clear on the Par 3 - 5th hole. There is always a short wait on this hole because of the long walk along the side of the road to the green, which is on the other side of the creek. The round of golf will always be 2 hours or less though, so even though we have to wait on this hole, its never for very long.
Hole #6. This hole is so long when its wet! A par 4, but it plays like a par 5…or 6!
8th hole - a par 4 dog leg left, another couple of deer grazing in the sunshine.
We golfed with two nice members today who told us their tee time next Friday in case we were able to join them. When we initially joined up with them, I’m not sure they were too thrilled about playing with a woman just from their initial reaction, but after making par on 2 out of the first 3 holes, I think they warmed up to me.
After golf we finally got to visit the pro shop at Q. Beach. All last year and earlier this year, the pro shop was closed to the public, so I had to go in and see if there were any nice golf outfits at the pro shop. Richard needed a new golf glove, since his has a large hole in it, but they didn’t have his size, so we’ll have to find him a glove somewhere else. I was pretty hungry after golf today, so I didn’t spend much time browsing in the pro shop. Another day….
We elected to pay for the $75, ‘9 & dine’ special today which entitled us to 2 rounds of golf, plus $32.50 in food vouchers to use after golf at Thalassa Restaurant at the golf course. The ‘9 & dine’ special is a great deal, since 2 rounds of golf is $50, so by paying to eat at the club, we gained $7.50 towards our lunch after golf.
Lingcod fish and chips special today for Richard.
Jerk chicken tacos and salad for me. I had hoped for halibut and chips, but they had no halibut on the menu.
The food was delicious at Thalassa and the restaurant was pretty packed with people coming in after golf for a beverage or a meal.
View from our table. It never gets old looking out over the ocean and mountains. The patio at Thalassa is being expanded for next year. I can understand how busy this spot much get in the summer time, so expanding the patio sure makes a lot of sense! We teed off at 12:45pm, so we definitely had a late lunch or early dinner as we finished up our meal at 4pm.
As we pulled into Lighthouse RV park in Fanny Bay just before 5pm, the moon was already out, and we were losing most of our daylight.
Beautiful colours in the sky tonight as the sun was setting on Fanny Bay.
We were certainly happy for a reprieve from rain today. We finally had an entire day on the North Island without rain! I guess today’s weather was just to tease us, because tomorrow and the next day look like ’wall to wall‘ rain. I think I may have to get my goretex hiking boots out to wear tomorrow, because my Blundstones are still wet from yesterday’s hiking. Its hard to dry anything out when its 100% humidity all the time! Tomorrow’s adventures should take us to Courtenay. We’ll get moving a bit earlier than today hopefully, but having the time to do the research for this upcoming trip is invaluable.
We’ve been keeping in touch with St. Stephen and Karen along their journey south from Nova Scotia to Florida and we’re pleased to say they made it to their spot in Zephyr Hills, Florida today, safe and sound. Jim from Fernie and his wife Danielle are on their way to California, going much the same route that we will be going in a few weeks. Jim and Dani have done this journey many times, so its nice to be able to get some ideas of what route we should be taking, as well as what places of interest we might enjoy stopping at. Jim just texted Richard and told him we need to fill up our RV with diesel in Oregon, before we cross into California as fuel is $1.00 a gallon more expensive in California, than Oregon. Doing research is one thing, but getting a first hand recommendation is always a lot better!
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