Certified Fly Fisherman

Flowers all over the course

The floating green - #14

Jerry and Stu at #14

13th Hole - 293 yard par 4

Jerry on #4 Tee

Jackie on # 5

5th Hole

4th Hole

Coeur d'Alene - September 6th

Hi All,
We continue to be blessed with excellent weather and wonderful activities. Jerry and I successfully completed the Orvis fly fishing school yesterday. We spent the last few hours of the class fishing on the Spokane River perfecting our skills but the fish wouldn't cooperate, probably because they didn't realize our level of expertise. The class was really very good and we both learned a bunch!!! We hope to use some of these skills when we head to Gunnison later this month. Jerry and I both spent a little time, and a little money, in the fly shop this morning picking up a few things that we "really need."

This afternoon we drove to the Coeur d'Alene Hotel to pick up the water taxi to the golf course. What an experience this was!!! They took our clubs at the hotel and directed us to the shuttle boat. We boarded the shuttle boat, a $350K Span Craft custom boat with twin 350 HP engines, for the short 12-15 minute ride to the golf course. We were met at the dock by our four caddie for the day who informed us about how things would work from here on out. We walked to the pro shop to get signed in and do a little shopping before heading to the driving range for a little practice. Fortunately there was a masseuse on the driving range to provide a great sports massage. This truly helped me get into my game focus and I was now ready to separate Jerry from some of his money.

The course was really terrific and I will give it a very high rating for my Golf Digest evaluation. We played the tan tees, about 5900 yards, and it was probably a little short for players of the caliber of Jerry and I, ha ha. Some of the par 4's were pretty short, 210 yards, and yet some were up to 436 yards. Regardless, we had a great time and at the end of the game Jerry had to give me $6, life is good.

Tomorrow we head for Flathead Lake and Polson, Montana. We found out tonight that we will play with Harvey Olson and Chuck Whitson on Friday at the Polson C.C. We hope to have a great day and will enjoy the time we spend with these great guys. We will spend three nights at Polson while Jackie and Jerry will head back to Missoula on Saturday to see Bob Vergari and his wife. From Polson we will we will head to Gunnison Colorado where we will meet our friends Jim Magettee, Ray Neisman and several other guys. I just know that Howie will want a team hug to get things started.

We won't have much e-mail access from Ray's home on the river but I will try to find a spot in Gunnisonn that will allow me to connect to the Internet. The next report will come from Polson, MT so stay tuned and be safe.