A long golf trip and a Happy Birthday for Andy

Our son Andy Sewell will be 40 on Aug 25th and his mother wanted to be there for his birthday. He lives in Petaluma, CA and works in the North Bay area. We decided to make it a driving vacation and visit along the way. Our first stop was Alcova Lake, Wyoming.  Pam's Aunt and Uncle Jackson have a lake cabin for the summer there just west of Casper. We spent two nights there and had a great time touring the area. Headed out to Salt Lake City for the night through the high country of western Wyoming and got ready for a early morning drive through the Great Salt Lake area. Stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats near the Nevada border. It looked like a scene from "Fargo". We pulled into Battle Mountain, NV for my first golf stop.

08/22/2016

Mountain View lies in a valley surrounded by the Battle Mountains. The course was flat and an easy walk with wide fairways and medium sized flat greens with no sand and a single lake on a double dogleg par 4. Nevada has several mountain ranges as we would find out later on our return trip through the southern part of the state.

In the morning we left for Reno and a visit with a former high school classmate before driving to the Bay area. Vicki's sister had a voucher for a night at the Grand Sierra Resort which made for great evening in Reno.

Grand Sierra Resort

We left for the San Francisco area to Novato to find the B&B that Pam had arranged for through her PEO organization. We stayed there for 3 days while visiting Andy for his birthday. The backyard view was amazing

After a pleasant stay in the Bay area, we headed up to Chico to visit a longtime family friend of Pam's.  Finally a chance to play golf in California!  Pam dropped me off at Bidwell Park Golf Course and went for a drive in Chico with our host Pat.

08/27/2016

Bidwell Park Golf Course is one of Northern California's original municipal golf courses. From the natural wilderness of Upper Bidwell Park stems a picturesque 18 hole layout, with the front nine offering a scenic parkland setting, while the back nine is set in the foothills of Bidwell Park. The course is rather flat with generous fairways and small flat greens. The Chico City Championship, the second oldest match play tournament in California. This fair but demanding Par 72 course has been serving Northern California since opening in 1929.

 

After an overnight stay in Chico, we headed out to see South Lake Tahoe.  A beautiful area with many tourists still there. After a steep decent to the desert of Nevada, we drove around in Carson City, but Sunday had everything closed that we wanted to see so we drove a few miles down Hwy 50 to Fallon for the night before embarking on US 50 called the Loneliest Highway in America. The Nevada portion of Hwy 50 has five mountain ranges and desert areas and the Utah portions has only three ranges before arriving at the Provo area. We stopped for the night in Springville and I will play Hobble Creek in the morning.

08/30/2016

 Hobble Creek Golf Course is nestled in beautiful Hobble Creek Canyon with gentle rolling thick treed fairways and  medium sized flat greens.  A creek winds through the course and comes into play on 7 of the holes,  

We left Springville, UT  for Provo and drove trough the BYU campus and well as Park City before getting on I-80 and heading for Cheyenne for another night on the road. Had a great dinner at the Rib & Chop House in Cheyenne for our 46th anniversary. One more day on the road with stops in Kimball, NE to visit golf Bro Don's cousin to let him know that I will be out to Kimball for a Golfing Nebraska trip in a couple weeks and in North Platte to see the Golden Spike Tower at the Union Pacific rail yard before finishing the drive to Lincoln.