20 Percent Chance of Rain

Monday, 20 Nov

We woke up to a cool morning, about 50 degrees.  Access to the internet last night was spotty even with the Weboost cellular booster.  With it off, we had nothing.  In planning the day a couple of days ago, we had found a golf course in nearby New Iberia, and the weather forecast called for rain to start about 4pm.  For the earlier part of the day, rain likelihood ranged from 0% to 20%.

As we left Lake Fausse Pointe State Park, Google routed us the “normal” way to access the park - we turned left coming out of the park and enjoyed 8 miles of paved levee road, before crossing the canal and driving on normal roads.  Well normal in that they were paved, and most had lines on them.  Still pretty rough in that they had been repaired cheaply many times.

When we pulled into Squirrel Run Golf Course parking lot, we figured something was amiss.  Not a car in the parking lot.  We parked anyway, and went looking for the pro shop.  Finding the doors locked, someone rolled up in a golf cart.  Turns out he was the manager who said the course was closed on Mondays.  He went on to say several nearby courses were also closed on Mondays and recommended the Les Vieux Chenes Golf Course in Youngsville, LA, about 30 minutes away.  Since that was also the general direction we are headed in, off we went.

When we arrived, the weather forecast was holding, and we found the parking lot pretty crowded.  After getting Sprinty settled in a nice back-in parking spot, we checked in and were assured we could get on.  After warming up on the range, we got in line.  Only a short wait as only one other two-some was on the tee box.  

Both Darrell & Kris started off with good drives.  Kris was having an off day, and slowly gave up strokes to Darrell.  Darrell was also struggling with a pulled muscle in his upper chest.  After 9 holes, Darrell was ahead.  On the 10th hole, it started to sprinkle.  We decided to press on.  On the 11th hole, it started actually raining.  We donned rain gear, and hoped it would just pass through.  A clue should have been the other golfers packing it in.  The 12th hole, things looked like they might get better, although our golf was pretty awful due to wet club grips and muddy conditions.  We played the 13th hole in a light drizzle, and seriously began questioning how much fun we were having.  We hit our tee shots on 14, and when they just plopped in the grass without the rollout we had enjoyed at the beginning of the day, combined with the rain that was steady now, we started to seriously think about calling it a day.  When our second shots performed very poorly, it was clear all the fun of continuing had disappeared.  Of course, some may question the fun in trying to force a small white ball to travel 5,876 yards (usually more) using implements poorly suited to the task that participants usually pay to do - at least the millions of non-professionals.

Although we stopped after 13+ holes, the time it took for the 13+ holes was as long as a normal course playing behind four-somes.  It was one of the slowest play days we have experienced.  And we noted that once it started to drizzle, golfers that had been playing pretty slowly, all of a sudden played at normal speed.

After packing up our wet clubs and gear, we set out for Lake Charles, LA via back roads.  Along the way, it rained pretty steadily for the next two hours, validating our decision to quit golf mid-round.  And served as a reminder that the weather info on popular phone/tablet apps is of marginal decision quality.  Makes me think of when we were growing up and the weather forecast was obtained in the newspaper.

We picked up groceries at Walmart.  Our destination for the night was Sam Houston Jones State Park located just north of Lake Charles.  Unlike the adventure of last night, we enjoyed nice 4-lane paved roads almost to the park entrance.  Having checked available sites on line, we were pretty confident they still had a site.  We were assigned a fairly level “improved” site.  Once in the site, we decided to use the levelers to tweak the angle for comfort - although we could have made do without them.  Which we might have done if it was still pouring down rain.

Being located closer to populated area meant we had usable internet - at least on Verizon.  AT&T was marginal, and T-Mobile was unusable without the cellular booster.  Off and on throughout the evening, it continued to lightly rain.