Off to Alaska – A 3 month “odd”essy

DATELINE:   WASHINGTON D.C.

 

 

Uncle Bob & Nephew Danny BLOG

 

July 8, 2008, 10:00 a.m.  OFF TO ALASKA – A 3 MONTH  “ODD”ESSY

  

BOB:  It all began during the summer of 1995.  Nephew Danny invited our family over to his home for a barbeque.  At the time Dan was in the military and had just returned from TDY (temporary duty) in Alaska.  As all good ole boys from Colorado would do, he flew back home with some incredibly huge, fresh and ultimately tasty salmon.  With my wife Sue as my designated driver, I found it convenient to imbibe a few beers with the guys.  By the time the ladies drew the fest to a groggy close, the shaking of hands had committed Uncle and Nephew to a trip to Alaska, to begin immediately upon the retirement of the second one of them, to net their very own fresh salmon for a retirement feast – and to contemplate the next stage of life for both. 

 

So, here we are, after an incredible retirement ceremony for Major Daniel Gilbert, which was attended by 22 friends and relatives and more colonels than I have seen in one room together – ever, we are on an extended two to three month voyage to Alaska in a 35 foot Winnebago motor home (the ship of the highways) with every niche and cranny crammed with golf clubs, fishing gear, writing pads, clothing, and beer, all essential elements for our work on the road. 

 

Our plan is to write various articles about golf, fishing, and travel for submission to different magazines.  So retirement has been left behind already and we are now freelance writers!  We left Washington D.C. on July 8, 2008.  That day we drove through Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, spending the night in Gary, Indiana in a Walmart parking lot.  Gary Indiana is much like a cheap, underfunded retirement home, kind of has a special odor about it and the folks are no longer very industrious and have poor vision.  July 9 we drove through Illinois, and Wisconsin,  hitting Walmart again for the night in St. Cloud, Minnesota.  Not wanting to miss a minute of the king (chinook) salmon run, we continued on through North Dakota, and as luck would have it, found yet another Walmart parking lot and another free night of camping in Winnipeg, Manitoba! (That’s in Canada, where the Canadian dollar is worth more than the American “Bush” dollar for the first time since Adam bought the leaf from Eve.)  We entered July 11 not really knowing what month it was.  Danny had a glazed look and I was beating my head on the side window when we finally parked at a — YES, another Walmart camp sight in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, a simply scenic sity.  On the road again and headed on to Alberta Provence, we entered into a discussion about how nice it would be to have a vacation instead of a driving marathon, so we decided to let the salmon wait while we indulged ourselves in a game of golf.

We found the Fox Run Golf Course in Fort Saskatchewan in the early afternoon of July 12.  We entered the club house with cameras blazing – my digital snap shooter and a great high definition movie camera that Dan purchased for the trip, in case the discovery channel happened upon our incredible story on our blog.  After explaining that we were spontanious freelance writers, and a great on camera interview of the 17 year old college girl at the counter, the owner was notified of our desire to write a glowing report on the small, out of the way golf courses we discover during our oddessy.  We were given a cart and played the back nine holes.  Wow, were we impressed.  It was just the type of course we want to focus on for our golf manuscripts.  In the out of the way rough, we found a gem.  A marshall kept the game at an even flow, and everyone we chatted with loved the course.  It wasn’t the all out shine of a pebble beach, but for the location in Saskatchewan it was really a pleasant surprise.  Of course my game was no surprise, I ended up with what would be a good bowling score.  We are hoping to find similar courses when we end our fishing careers and head back to the lower 48.  But moving forward will be a slow process, as we plan to fish or play golf every day on our way back home.  It will be a really tough job, but we writers have to bite the bullet and do what we have to do to keep it interesting for our readers.