Kansas Golf Trip - Day 3

Lawrence, KS --->Omaha, NE (211 miles)

YES, another promising day for golf. We got to sleep into 7:30 this morning. Outside the sun was shining brightly as expected. The continental breakfast included a donut, toast and about three bowls of fruit loops. The day's schedule included 18 holes of golf at Eagle Bend once again, and after that we would eat and travel back to Omaha for the night. The first tee time of the day was at 9;38 so we got to the course and started chipping at about 9:20 or so. The weather was noticeably colder than the day before. It wasn't anything too significant, but it was definitely chillier. It was probably from the 20 M.P.H. North wind that we were in. Still, the high was in the mid-60's for the day.

For this round I played with Andrew and my father again minus a Brian. My front nine smelled similar to the farms we passed going through Iowa. I couldn't get into any rhythm whatsoever. Through that though, I got my first birdie of the year! It came on one of the toughest holes for the wind we were in. It was on hole #9. I was very happy about it.

The second nine was a little better than the first, and I ended up having the best back nine of the group. The highlight of the back nine was definitely hole #18. My father, Andrew, and I might have been playing a gambling game(if we would have been it would've gone something like the following). IF we were gambling, a few events could have doubled the bets... 3 times. So on this hole we were playing for two dollars a point in a 5 point per hole game(5 being the maximum amount of points). Andrew and I were on the same team and we ended up playing the hole almost flawlessly (Andrew with a par and a birdie for myself. My father on the other team played the hole flawfully. It turned out that both Andrew and I won 5 points each of dearest daddio. It was kinda funny because that's ten dollars for the both of us from him. Whoops. :) OK, I'll stop bragging now...sorry.

Score : 88

Putts: 36

Greens in Regulation: 6/18

Fairways: 3/14... yikes again

After the round we piled into the cars and headed off to find something to eat. As it was Good Friday, we were looking for something for lunch without red meat in it as directed by Grandma Ripley. It turned out to be a challenge, but we ended up finding a McDonalds that provided us with some delicious fish sandwiches. Unfortunately, every trip must have its end and it was time for us to depart from Lawrence. As we left we saw a landmark... well if it would be a landmark if I was into watching cars driving in circles. We passed the purple colored Kansas motor speedway which I noticed was HUGE! But thats about all it had going for it. After that my trip from Lawrence to Omaha was pretty uneventful other than the Jesus Christ Superstar Soundtrack that I was listening to at a fitting time of year.

Once we got to Omaha we sort of relaxed and ended up going to Applebees for supper. The shrimp alfredo was pretty good. And those events bring me to the present time in which I am blogging because our game of 31 got cancelled due to lack of interest. Tomorrow's plans are still up in the air because there might be some nasty weather moving in. Golfing in the 30's isn't my favorite. So I might end up in Pelican a bit early. That way I can say that I got sunburnt and frost bit in the same weekend :).

Kansas Golf Trip - Day 2

Omaha, NE ---> Lawrence, KS

Thanks Mitch, you are the reason we don't need an alarm clock. Oh well an early awakening gets the worm or something like that. I took the first shower and got out of the room to go to get some breakfast. As with the custom of Southern hotels, this hotel had some delicious biscuits and gravy served for breakfast. This is one of my favorite parts of the trip. What made the morning even better was a sunrise rivaling the sunset from the night before shining through the windows of the lobby. It was very impressive (see picture). I got the internet to work that morning and promptly finished my NCAA bracket on facebook before we left (UCLA beating Kansas for the Championship by the way).

We got on our way at about eight o'clock towards the forecasted high of 68 degrees. The three hour drive seemed to go by very quickly as I was writing the previous post during it. Something noticeable from Omaha onwards was that there was absolutely no snow on the ground.

We arrived at the second McDonalds of our trip at a little before noon. This one was unique in a different way than the previous one. This one was in the middle of the interstate. That's right, right in between the North-Bound and South-Bound traffic there was a McDonalds!

FINALLY, we arrived at the golf course, Eagle Bend. It was everything that I remember it being from 3 years ago. It was excellent to be able to chip and putt on GRASS!!! My foursome was comprised of me, my father, Andrew, and Brian. My first hole of the year was a bogey sadly, but I came back with a par on the second.

My Stats:

Score: 90 (Not bad, but definitely could've been better)

Putts: 39 (Bad, needs to get better)

Greens in Regulation: 7 (So-So)

Fairways: 3/14..... YIKES

But the day was all in all a success because I got to golf. It was awesome and great to finally get out golfing. Once we got back to the hotel we decided to go to eat. My golf group walked to a steak house and I had a delicious ribeye.

That's what brings us to the present time!

Oh yeah, the high for today was 69 degrees!!!

Kansas Golf Trip - Day 1

Pelican Rapids ---> Omaha, NE (435 miles)

Ahhh, finally the day has arrived. This day was more than a little hectic as I still needed to pack for the trip as I had gotten home very late the night before because of the Section Championship for Basketball. Fortunately, Mrs. Evenson who was my sixth and seventh hour teacher excused me to leave during seventh hour to pack and to get things ready.

The group was saddened to the loss of our oldest golf team member LaurelLee. She had been looking forward to this trip since Fall of '07. It was too bad that she got sick this week. Nevertheless, we departed on the longest leg of the journey, from Pelican Rapids to Omaha. We left a warmer than usual Pelican Rapids at about 4:30. The first 150 miles or so were quite uneventful to say the least. I mean, there isn't too much to see around Eastern North Dakota. Things got a little interesting when we saw a weather system moving in. Being as how flat everything was, it we could see the weather moving in from miles away. The rain came hard and it turned a downpour before long. Things were not looking good for a golf outing the next day. One of the coolest things of the night happened next though. In the distance to the West I could see the sun breaking through the clouds. The complete sun was on the horizon and if I wouldn't have been in one of the flattest states in the Union, I wouldn't have been able to see it. It was one of the coolest sunsets I've ever seen as it was a bright red and purple light through the fog. Interestingly enough though, as fast as the rain started, it suddenly stopped right before we got to Sioux Falls, SD. We would be picking up Andrew at Larry's Truck Plaza just south of Sioux Falls. Truck Plaza is a generous name. It was more like a gas station and an outhouse for a convenience store. Next, we looked for a “safer place than Larry's” to park Andrew's car. We found a K-Mart (easily better than the shady looking Larry's... I'm serious). Nearby we at our din din at the fine establishment of McDonalds. There was something odd about this McDonalds... something very odd indeed. In Andrew's words, “Is this the gender confused McDonalds?”. There were not one, not two, but three ladies with shorter hair than Andrew. I had some double cheeseburgers and a Shamrock Shake. :)

Back on the road there was nothing that was too exciting. Andrew joined my father and I in our truck and we caught up and talked about Kansas trips in the past. I enjoyed having another being in the car and my father enjoyed having someone in car to talk politics with. We stopped a real “Truck Plaza” for gas in Sioux City. I bought some Twizzlers there, and it was the best choice I made all trip. They were as soft as Twizzlers could be. Almost the consistency of pudding.

After a total of seven hours driving, we arrived in Omaha, home of the Quest Center(which will be hosting NCAA tournament games on Thursday and Saturday), Rosenblatt Stadium (home of the college world series), the Comfort Inn, and King Kong's Burgers and Fries. Checking into our rooms we were all exhausted as it was already 11:30 PM. After being disappointed by the wireless internet not working, I went to bed and found that even the littlest kid like Mitch Egge can still make a snore that rivals grown men.

Kansas Golf Trip - Overview

The next few blog posts I have will be a summary of the golf team's trip to Kansas. This is partially out of finding new things to write about and secondly out of sheer boredom. :) In any case here are some of the facts concerning the trip.

• The group includes the following: Me, Conner Paul, Casey Bruggeman, Mitch Egge, Abby Feist, Michaela Gray, Nicole Hanson, Allen Ripley, Doug Bruggeman, Al Corrigan, Brian, Connie and Andrew Evenson. LaurelLee Loftsgard was planning on coming but unfortunately was sick the day we left.

• We plan to play three 18 hole rounds of golf. Two in Lawrence, Kansas and the other in Omaha Nebraska.

• Round trip we will have played 3 rounds of golf, traveled 1292 miles, and swore at our golf balls countless times.

What World Are You Living In?

Sometimes it takes a friend to say something to make it click.

The whole premise of the book "Rumors" (which I can now say that I am finished with after a good 4 months or so) is dealing with the "worlds" we live in. The obvious world we live in is of course Earth. This world includes society, mother nature, friends, family... this is your everyday life, what you wake up and jump into. The other world the author focuses on is our spiritual (unseen) world. This world includes you and your spiritual life. The unseen elements. The things that aren't tangible, and you need faith to know they exist. Your relationship with God is a huge part of this world as is your afterlife beliefs.

The idea that Philip Yancey promotes in his book is a need for us to mix the two worlds. We need to look for ways in which we can overlap our spiritual world into to the physical world that we experience everyday. There isn't a need to separate our spiritual life from our physical world.

Here's where the friend comes in. She was leading our weekly Bible study and was talking about incorporating God into our college decisions. Towards the end of her talk she talked about the importance of involving God into everything we do. This means asking God for guidance on even the littlest of things, praising God for the most mundane of things, and thanking God for everything. This is when I made the connection to "Rumors". Both my friend and the author are right.
We need to make God the center of everything we do. After all, He is the One who we need to aim to please. Whether we are choosing which college to attend or what to do on a Saturday night, we should ask for His guidance. The more we can incorporate God into the mundane of our life, the more the stresses of life will be relieved. We can trust that God will lead us on the right paths.

"In all your ways acknowledege Him, and He will make straight your paths."
-Proverbs 3:6