Back to Golf Week

Monday, 21 January 

Today was a back-to-golf day.  After over a week of no golf, primarily because there are no golf courses near Quartzsite, we decided to play the Blythe Municipal Golf Course located about 30 miles away in Blythe, CA.   Available tee times on-line were either really early, or starting at noon.  As we had not played in a week, we opted for the 11:52am start time which was also half the price of tee times before 11:30.

We left early for Darrell to get a haircut and pick up some groceries, and arrived at the golf course two hours before our tee time.  We hit on the range trying to work out the kinks from a week of not playing.  We set low expectations for the round, especially as the wind was blowing 20-25mph.

At about 11am, the tee box was open, and the starter said we were after a group of four ladies who were on the practice putting green.  One of the ladies invited us to go ahead if we were ready.

Darrell hit a beautiful tee shot on the first hole, a par 5, almost in the middle of the fairway.  Kris matched it with a 208 yard drive right down the middle.  Darrell made a birdie to Kris’s par.  Kris tied it up on the second hole with a par on the par three that had the men hitting almost 200 yards away, and 200 feet below.  Kris made par on the third and fourth holes as well.  Kris led the rest of the day to take honors by 4 strokes.  She came very close to making a hole-in-one on three of the par 3s - missing the hole by inches from 148 yards, 125 yards, and 127 area.  We were both pleased with our game given the length of the course (5,505 yards for the ladies, 6,448 yards for the mens) and the high winds.  

We enjoyed the course - and plan to play it again.  The greens were in great condition, and fast.  Nice fairways, and only a couple of quirky holes.  We also enjoyed the afternoon rate of $27 with a cart.  And Darrell enjoyed the Starbucks Kris bought him - another advantage to playing in Blythe is that there are two Starbucks in town.

We did not take any photos today, although we should have taken some photos.  Next time.  So we’ll include a Quartzsite sunset photo someone else took this evening.

Tuesday, 22 January 

A gusty, windy night last night.  Despite the wind, Sprinty interior temperature only fell 5 degrees over 7 hours.  The Alde heat did not come on until 5:30am when it is programmed to raise the heat from the setback temperature to normal day temperature.

Winds today were 25mph, with gusts over 30mph.  It was a good morning to do inside chores until it warmed up a bit.  About 10:30am, we ventured out.  Darrell had a couple of hardware items to get for a couple of small Sprinty projects, and we went back to the Big Tent Show.  

Dan and Lisa of Always on Liberty were going to be at the Battle Born lithium battery booth at noon.  We have been following their adventures on social media for a while, and we met them at Maverick Ranch, outside Big Bend National Park, the night we stayed there.  One of the Battle Born experts was there as well which gave Darrell an opportunity to discuss how Sprinty might be powered by lithium.  Lithium batteries have several advantages over the AGM batteries we have now.  They are a lot lighter for the same energy capacity, charge faster, and can be run down further than the AGMs without damage.  Just replacing the current AGMs with the same capacity lithium’s would result in a Sprinty weight reduction of over 200 pounds.  And as they are smaller, for the same energy capacity, we could double our battery capacity in the space the AGMs currently occupy.  And still have a weight reduction.

Two downsides to a lithium upgrade for Sprinty are that you can’t mix lithium and AGMs.  And the cost.  The Battle Born batteries are about $1,000 each, compared to the cost of AGMs at about $300 each.  On the basis of life of the batteries (number of discharge cycles), they are actually less expensive, which helps to swallow the high upfront cost.  At this time, Darrell is just doing the research as the AGMs will need to be replaced in a few years as they typically only last 4-5 years, and they are at least 3 years old now.

Wednesday, 23 January 

Woke up to 35 degrees.  Sprinty’s Alde heater had to work more last night.  As Kris was doing breakfast, she announced it was 68 degrees in Port Charlotte, FL.  I don’t think that was a random comment.  I nodded like I understood (like guys usually do) while I pondered what she was really trying to say.

Just a cool day in the desert with no plans.  We broke out the bikes and tried to ride to Hi Jolly Road about 3 miles north of here to check on the Roadtrek group.  We made it most of the way, including over 1/2 mile in a gravel wash.  However, trying to ride on the gravel OHV/ATV trail paralleling AZ 95 was futile - the gravel was not packed down well enough to ride, and we did not want to walk the remaining 1/2 mile, or ride on the highway which had no shoulder.  So we rode through Quartzsite a bit.

The movie last night at the clubhouse was “For Love of the Game” with Kevin Costner.

Thursday, 24 January 

Golf today was at the Blythe Municipal Golf Course in Blythe, CA again.  As the closest golf course to Quartzsite, and reasonably priced after 11:30, we thought we would give it another go.  As expected, we were paired up with another two-some, Jim and James.  On the first hole, they both hit their tee shots into the adjacent fairway.  Everything was backed up on the second tee box - three four-somes awaiting to hit.  On the second hole, it became obvious that Jim and James were very slow.  So slow that by the fourth hole, the four-some in front of us was a full hole ahead.  As we felt our presence was also causing them to hit poorly, we decided to split up.

Photo of the golf course from the second tee box.

We still had to wait on the foursome, but even so, Jim and James could not keep up with a four-some pace.  At the turn, Kris was up by two strokes.  Darrell started hitting the ball better and pulled ahead briefly.  Two bad holes, and Kris finished the day one stoke ahead.

The temperatures got into the low 70s, and the wind did not pick up until the last few holes.  We enjoyed playing in shorts today.

Off the Starbucks for Kris to pay up.  She got a break though as Starbucks was running a buy one-get one special.  Darrell still enjoyed his Frappuccino.

As we were headed east on I-10 back to Quartzsite, we could see the clouds in the west were going to make another beautiful sunset.  Unfortunately, seeing the full majesty of a sunset is not possible from the RV park.  So we’ll leave you with a photo someone else took last evening.

 Friday, 25 January 

Golf today was at Emerald Canon Golf Course, a county course located just north of Parker, AZ.  We could see several holes from the highway as we traveled to and from Lake Havasu City when we went to Buses By The Bridge last week.  The course looked very pretty for a desert course - one of the advantages to using treated sewage treatment effluent for water golf courses.  The greens fees were more than we normally encounter for a city or county course, and more than we usually like to play.  However, we did not want to regret not playing it and knew the experience would make a lasting memory.

As we drove by last week, it was obvious that the course was very popular, so we were happy to get a tee time around the time we requested, and to be paired up with another two-some.  We were paired up with Tom and Joe.  Tom is a firefighter on vacation, and worked for Joe who just retired.  Both could hit the ball well, but were challenged to keep it in the narrow fairways most of the day.

Emerald Canyon was built in a number of canyons, some with fairways only 30 yards wide.  Very unforgiving if you were off the fairway and adjacent narrow rough - when we finished, Tom said he only lost 6 balls on the day.  I think Joe lost at least 3.  Neither Kris or Darrell lost any balls.

We both started off well, making par on the first hole.  Darrell played slightly better, making the turn one stroke up.  Kris and Darrell battled it out on the back nine.  When the last ball fell into the cup, Kris had tied it up for the day.

As we made our way back to Quartzsite, we stopped at the Safeway in Parker, AZ to enjoy a Frappuccino at the in-store Starbucks.  Technically, we did not have to stop since we tied.  However, we were both pleased with playing well for the first time on a course with some very interesting challenges.  So we celebrated a nice, sunny day, playing golf in weather much better than at home.  We even got to short sleeves for awhile.