trip report

Ok, we've been back from Minnesota for a week and a half. Where does the time go?

Let me first say that I will never, ever take another red-eye flight to Minneapolis again. Not only does the flight leave around midnight Pacific time (when my bedtime is at 10 pm), the flight itself is only 3 hours, so while we get into Minneapolis at 5 am (still only 3 am back home). And by the time you taxi, take off, land, you don't really get uninterrupted sleep. And no disrespect to my many mama friends, but it really didn't help having a crying 3-yr old kicking my middle seat for the duration of the flight.

I think adrenalin kept me going when we landed. By the time we got our luggage and golf clubs, we headed for the car rental counter only to find that we had landed in the small terminal and that the Budget rent-a-car counter didn't open there until 6:30 am. And to get to the main terminal, we had to haul all of our luggage through an under-construction parking garage to get to the light rail to take us one stop over to the Lindbergh terminal.

Once there, we had a challenging time locating the area for the rental cars, and when we finally came upon the area, we saw that Budget had a long line of 20+ people while all of the other counters were virtually empty. You'd think I would have skipped out on our reservation and gone to another rental company. Nope, I'd booked a good deal -- $172 for a small SUV for the whole long weekend.

Half an hour later, we finally get up to the counter where the guy tries to convince us to go with a large sedan, a Chrysler 300. Of course our limitation was space since Rick had the hard case for his clubs which was why we'd reserved the SUV in the first place. The guy assured us the case would fit, and when we asked how much, he said $69. Too good to be true? Yep.

We loaded our luggage into the car and then I looked at the receipt. $320?? Uh, no. That dog don't hunt. Exhausted and cranky, I marched back in and demanded that he give us the car we didn't want in the first place and quote us the $172 deal that I'd reserved online. And so our day began.

Rick was the driver since we were on his home turf, and I tried to get some sleep on our way to his uncle's house in Rochester. Rick had a tee time at noon, his relatives were at work, and my plan was to hang out at their house and get some shut eye. And I did. I ended up napping from 11 am to 3 pm, just in time to get up, shower and get dressed before Rick's uncle and his wife got home from work. Rick didn't get home until late and we wanted to head down to his grandma's house that evening. Another hour drive. We didn't get on the road until almost 10 pm, and Rick was wiped out having not slept very much in almost 36 hours. So I got to be chauffeur and drove the windy country roads to grandma's house.

I'd been there a couple of times before so I had an idea of landmarks to look for. But it was white knuckle driving to stay awake and focus on the pitch black pavement.

Fortunately the rest of the weekend was much more relaxing. Friday was free golf at the Country Club and so I joined Rick up at the golf course where he ran into some friends there. I rode shotgun on the golf cart for a round and a half of golf before abandoning the group so I could make sure grandma didn't feel ignored. Not sure what possessed me, but I decided to run the mile or so downhill to her house in the late afternoon heat.

While I was "back at the ranch" chatting it up with grandma, Rick was playing in a best ball tournament, and ended up tying for first place. Go, babe!

Saturday was the big day -- first day of tournament, and Rick was playing in a foursome with a friend from Tucson, his buddies' friend from Minneapolis and another unknown. I again crashed the party and did a ride along in the golf cart, all the while videotaping Rick as he played each hole, stroke by stroke. The group was very amused by my videography skills. In fact, on the tee box for the third hole, I spotted a deer out of the corner of my eye. Rick was oblivious and it was hysterical to catch the intersection of the deer and Rick preparing to tee off on video.

All in all, the course was a little challenging and Rick was not thrilled about his score. We had teed off after 3 pm and didn't get done until 8:30 pm. But the fun began once all of the groups were back at the club house. Auctioning off the players and who people thought would win the tournament flights the next day. Rick has always been a hometown favorite, so I could tell he was a little stressed about making a good showing and living up to "his reputation."

Sunday was no better -- some wind, some rain, narrow fairways and fast greens. Rick was set up in a foursome with a different group of people. Very quiet group, and I continued to videotape Rick's game.

I think I rode in the golf cart for a total of three and half rounds over the course of the whole weekend, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that I started having my own golf dreams. Never mind the fact that I've only played a Par 3 once last year.

So when we got back, I told Rick that I thought I was ready to "graduate" from the driving range, and get out and play 9 holes. And so we did. The Saturday following our return home, Rick and I booked a 6 am tee time, started out on the back nine, so that I didn't get trampled by more serious golfers and proceeded to surprise even myself. After I warmed up, I actually had some good drives, though my putting leaves much to be desired.

It's quite possible that Rick's hometown golf tournament has awakened my inner golfer. We're now going to try and get out to play a round every Saturday morning while it's nice. And if all goes well, I may just try to get in on the hometown golf tourney action and play in the women's tournament.