Dateline August 20-24, 2024, New England
It has been a while since our last real trip, our adventures in the Middle East, but we are back on the road, off to see family and, of course, to play some golf. Janice is going to play in the Canadian Women's Senior Golf Tournament in a town just outside Toronto, and we are looking forward to the two weeks and whatever turns up along the way.
First stop, Cape Cod and Uncle Bill. We headed out from Pinehurst right after Janice finished her club championship. It was not one of her finest, but she played the last four holes on Pinehurst No. 2 at even par, which is no small thing. We drove partway the first day and stayed at a Village Inn in Harrisonburg, Virginia; Janice could not remember why she had booked it, but to our surprise the room had just been redone and was excellent. We were up early for our second stop, New London, Connecticut, and counted ourselves lucky to have missed the flooding that had come through the day before. The next day we drove on to Yarmouth, Massachusetts, to see Uncle Bill.
Bill is ninety-six now, which is amazing, still driving, which scares us a little, and living in an assisted-living place. We took him to lunch at a nearby seafood spot; the food was marginal but the company and the conversation were wonderful. He is a character. A woman who had met him for all of five seconds turned up at his door to take him to lunch, though we are not at all sure he is in the market for a girlfriend. Inside his building there is a walking path with markers set in the wall so he can measure how far he has gone, and he walks it every day; there is a pool, too, where he is convinced he ought to be able to swim fifteen hundred yards without effort, and he does his chair yoga and balance classes besides. He is the patriarch of Janice's family, the last man standing, and we already look forward to seeing him next summer.
Connie and Lee. We arrived at Janice's sister Connie's after that lunch, and in true Connie fashion she had a pot of homemade chicken soup waiting for dinner. We sat around talking until about half past eight, when we gave out and went to bed.
The next day we played golf with Brian, Janice's brother and Connie's twin, at a terrific course right on the New Hampshire and Massachusetts line called Atkinson Resort and Country Club. It was magnificent, tough and in beautiful condition, with a stream that meanders through so that you have to know where it is on a good many approach shots. You would need three to five rounds under your belt to learn where to aim, but what a track. We will be back next summer.
We headed back to Connie and Lee's, where they put together fresh corn on the cob, fresh beans, and burgers from beef out of Mr. Steer in Londonderry, New Hampshire; everyone should have a butcher like that one. Brian took off with his buddies for their annual tournament up at Mt. Washington, and we hung around shooting the breeze. It is always good to see Connie and Lee, and we hope to see them again soon, maybe at Christmas. Then it was off to the Canadian Women's Senior.
If you find yourself near the New Hampshire line, Atkinson Resort and Country Club is well worth the round.
