Road Trip, Part 4...

Well, the golf was done and we were off to a cruise on the muddy Muskingum River aboard the Lorena Stern Wheeler. I know that seems like a strange way to arrange the parts of the name, but that was the way someone titled the boat when it got it's license from the Coast Guard and that is the proper way to address the boat.

What a beautiful afternoon for a cruise. I spent a lot of time as a young man on the Muskingum, running a ski boat up and down those waters. I also took my dad's pontoon boat out quite a bit when he and I would go fishing. In fact, Dave B. (when he was the 1SG) and I took a bunch of soldiers in our reserve unit down about 30 miles of the river in canoes one summer weekend, hunting down terrorists wanting to take over southern Ohio via the Muskingum.

When we were about 30 minutes out of port, when the Captain asked us us if we wanted to take a turn at the wheel. Every time I took some one with me when I went flying, I always let them fly the plane once we were off the ground and on our way, so I thought this would be way cool. What a blast.

Right away I thought back to the heyday of stern wheelers and who would be piloting boats up and down this river in the days of Twain and the like. The Lorena had a whole wall of pictures of stern wheelers from long ago. Some of them were destroyed by the ice in the winter -- crushed by ice flows, and some were destroyed by flooding. However, many of them were blown up by explosions of their boilers. Not much worry of that on this boat, but just the same, it was fun being in control of a 60-ton stern wheeler. Not many people can say that happened in their life.

By the way, Dave (blue shirt-right) was really in his element. He was in the Navy before he enlisted in the Army, but I doubt he ever got anywhere close to driving his boat (ship) in the Navy. Notice the ear to ear smile he has on his face.

So, reader, as you can tell, we had a great time on this road trip. I discovered two people on the boat who worked with my dad and they talked very highly of him. That certainly made my day. We got to play golf at two pretty nice courses, ate at a pretty fair eatery, and got to renew friendships on a leisurely cruise on a river boat. All in all, I would say this was a keeper.

“Go often to the house of a friend; for weeds soon choke up the unused path.”

Hooah

Road Trip, Part 3...

Following a good breakfast at Bob Evans, four of us: (Dave - right - fellow victim of the sloped fairways at Longaberger, Dave -- below - my former Command Sergeant Major who has been mentioned many times in these articles [remember L.O.S.T.], and Bob -- right/below -another retired army buddy who used to be our cook and was the HQ Company 1SG for a time) all headed off to Eagle Sticks Golf Course in South Zanesville.

As I said, having been to Longaberger the previous day, and

knowing Eagle Sticks was also in the top 100 golf courses in the USA per Golf Digest magazine, I was looking forward to another challenging, scenic and relaxing day of golf (I don't know how golf can be relaxing and challenging either, but it sounded like a good idea.).

I think this turned out to be a tale of two entities. The clubhouse underwhelmed me. I've certainly seen worse, but my expectations were pretty high for this one. Overall, I would have to say this was just another building. Also, I wasn't all that impressed with the pro shop people -- they were civil, but didn't go out of their way to make us feel welcome. The course, however, was another story. It was very pretty, well laid out and made extremely good use of the terrain features (you knew some Army terms would creep in at some point, didn't you). While the club house rated a C at best, the course was an A-. I think one thing that soured me on the staff was the three groups sitting at the 10th tee when we got there to make our turn. It seems someone decided that since they had leagues that evening and started them in a shotgun start (we're talking 11:00 turn) they would run everyone else from 10:00 on off the back!?! Local rules are fine, but that caused us to literally hit and run on the last hole (that's why I shot a 90 -- bogied the last hole -- really) because we were supposed to be some place at 1400 hrs.

Oh, well, two good courses and I really did shoot better on this one than the first (only 1 lost ball too).

Next year's trip will have to go some to top these two, but we're willing to take that risk!

Since bad shots come in groups of three, a fourth bad shot is actually the beginning of the next group of three.

Hooah

P.S. In case you didn't spot it, I want to point out something. I don't know how I managed to play golf to any level of respectability when I was with these three -- Dave M. and Bob are left-handed, and Dave B. is naturally left-handed but plays golf right-handed because his dad told him no golfer of any repute was ever left-handed. We probably could have used a therapist as a caddie.

Road Trip, Part 2...

After a beautiful day of golf, our next stop was to visit an old friend and Army buddie, my former Command Sergeant-Major, Dave. He is a good guy, and we were able to go out to dinner with him and his wife, Dreama.

We went to a very nice restaurant called Zac's. It is located in an old building that used to be a bank, I think. Anyway, the inside takes on the look of a New York style eatery. The food was very good.

Following this, we went to a microbrewery that just opened in an old factory building where my dad worked and where my brother and I earned summer/college money. The city of Zanesville has been rebuilding and renewing some of these old buildings, putting in things like this brewery, art studios, dance studios, and condos. The area appeals to young people and really adds a different look to these old, potential eye sores. They have been doing a lot to try to modernize the downtown area. The beer was pretty bad, though.

Anyway, I was able to drive around some that afternoon and evening revisiting this old friend I used to call home. In some aspects this town has really changed. It's amazing how easily memories come shooting back. So-and-so lived down this road; this was the spot where the old Northside Beach used to be (the site where my wife and I first met back in high school -- boy did she look good in that two-piece) (it's now a Lowes and no sign of water or sand); here's where I used to live and here's the world-famous "Y Bridge." Old memories, most of them good ones, bits and pieces of an earlier life -- yep, this was a good trip.

“No memory is ever alone; it's at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own associations.” (Louis L'Amour)

Hooah

Waiting for the rain to stop...

I know I have been remiss in doing some writing lately. However, if you are familiar with Ohio summers you know that pop-up storms can really ruin a day of golf or fishing or canoing, so one has to get them in when he can. June saw some pretty nice days here, but of late we've been getting into the pop-up storm cycle.

They're not so bad during the day, but at night they can be troublesome, especially for our dog. If you know anything about labs, you know they go spaz when storms come. Well, the other night, we got a storm and Bailey lit out for the basement door. The storm didn't seem that bad, but she knows it's cooler down there, she doesn't see the lightning and she almost doesn't hear the thunder. Down she went.

We kinda left her down there for a while and forgot about her. I thought I had better check on her between innings of the Reds game, so down I went. Guess where I found her? Under a table in the furnace room. Is this a smart dog or what!! She gave me that "Why aren't you two down here too." look.

She stayed down there, under that old table for a couple of more hours, waiting for the storm to pass, and then she walked upstairs, wagged her tail, and seemed pretty proud of herself. What a dog.

“If dogs could talk, it would take a lot of fun out of owning one.” (Andy Rooney)

Hooah

Road Trip, Part 1...

(Ed. Note: I have been working on these articles for a few weeks, but haven't been smart enough to figure out how to do the pictures correctly. Oh, well, persistence pays off.)

Imagine pulling up to a golf course like this, knowing that ahead of you lay two splendid days of golf and time spent with good friends -- it doesn't get much better than that.

Last Wednesday (June 18th), I violated one of the sacred retiree rules and got up before the sun was anywhere in sight. My old Army buddie, Dave (a.k.a. Poolpatcher) and I took off into the sun and ended up at the Longaberger Golf Club in Nashport, Ohio. What a beautiful place. Even the waaaaaaay overly-zealous county sheriff deputy who pulled me over and gave me a warning for not using my turn signal when I pulled onto an exit ramp from Rt. 16 (no other cars within sight of us) couldn't spoil this morning.

When you pull into Longaberger, you immediately know why it is rated in the top 100 courses in the country by Golf Digest. What a place. The first hole is a tough, dog-leg right, par 4, spread out over the top of a high, windy hill, with a fairway that slopes downhill from left to right, playing to a somewhat elevated, fast green. This is your welcome call!! It also proves the old golf adage: fairways repel, roughs attract. I don't think I learned that in any science class I ever took, but it is obviously a law of nature.

I had a 100 for this course, 6 lost balls (that's 12 strokes - excuses), no broken or thrown clubs, and a pretty good ham sandwich at the club house for lunch. Not too bad for a hack such as me. Dave did pretty well too, but you'll have to talk to him about his score and lost golf balls. Remember, this is only his second year playing golf. I don't think he shot double his age, so that's good.

One other thing that I have to say about this course -- the people in the pro shop, restaurant, starter, bag guys -- they all know how to treat people. They gave even a commoner like myself a taste of how high class this game really is.

Oh, by the way -- did I say the greens were fast? They were so fast, it brought to mind Sam Snead's old saying: “These greens are so fast I have to hold my putter over the ball and hit it with the shadow.”

We made a spit-palm pact that we would do another road trip next year too. This course will be hard to top. Now we're off to Eagle Sticks in Zanesville.

“It is nothing new or original to say that golf is played one stroke at a time. But it took me many years to realize it.” (Bobby Jones)

Hooah

Bailey is doing better...

You may recall that I mentioned on May 2 that our chocolate lab, Bailey, who is almost 12-years old, wasn't doing very well. In the span of a little over a month, she had lost over 10 pounds and was really looking thin. She was also hobbled by her arthritis and had lost some of her appetite. Her eyes were also getting cloudy. She was one sick dog. She was also urinating about every two hours and was having some accidents in the house when she would sleep.

We took her to the Vet who said she probably had some sort of kidney or bladder infection and either had a cancer or diabetes, but he wouldn't know for sure until he could run some tests. Whichever it was though, he said it wouldn't be cheap. He kept her overnight and it wasn't a good night's sleep for us. The next day he called and said Bailey had the bladder infection and diabetes which was common for dogs. We could treat her condition or put her down.

Well, those last words smacked like a hammer. This was the dog who licked my face while I lay on the floor waiting for the paramedics while I was having a heart attack. This was Pam's companion for about two years while I was deployed for military. Bailey is more than a dog to us, she is one of the family. I guess you have to have dogs like this to understand. Anyway, short of mortgaging the house, we were going to take care of this good friend. We committed to taking care of her, giving her her medication and insulin shots, taking her to the vet more frequently, and changing our lifestyle if necessary to ensure she had a good quality of life for her remaining time.

Well, after a week of TLC and insulin shots, I am happy to report that she is doing much better. She has put a couple of pounds back on and is able to get around much easier. Her bladder infection is gone and she is back to more of her old self. I think the key is in her eyes--they are clear and her old sparkle is back. Her walks with Pam are still pretty short, but she's making progress.

I haven't added any of my dog wisdom to this space for a while, so this might be a good place to get back to it. Dave Berry once said "You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'Wow, you're right!! I never would've thought of that!'"

And finally, even though I am repeating myself on this one, "My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog already thinks I am."

Hooah

These Guys are Good !!!

I would bet that when asked, a lot of people would say that maybe Ohio State University or the University of Michigan or maybe the University of Texas is the biggest educational institution in this country. The trouble is, they all would be wrong. And I bet they would be shocked to learn that the educational system in the U.S. Army, which consists of basic training, MOS schools, and no less than five additional levels of advanced schooling for enlisted and four for officers (one of which leads to a Masters Degree) is one of, if not the largest, educational institutions in the world. I only hedge my bet because school numbers fluctuate depending on budgets and conflicts being waged.

But aside from the formal schools, the Army constantly trains and utilizes numerous situational training events called "Rock Drills" (I have no idea how they got that name). These exercises usually consist of several months of classroom instruction, followed by such things as CPXs (Command Post Exercises) and TEWTs (Tactical Exercises without Troops). In my career, I was able to participate in several of these. Two, however, come to mind -- both for different reasons.

The first one was when I was a battalion XO. It seems that we were having an ongoing doctrinal war with the school house experts at the MP school. They wanted us to continue to conduct EPW (Enemy Prisoner of War) operations the way they did in Korea or WWII. We, on the other hand, said future wars would be fought differently and MP EPW OPS would have to adjust to the terrain and be able to function in urban settings. In the picture top/right, we are doing a sand table exercise and I am showing the staff, commanders and compound teams how we would operate in this kind of environment.

The second exercise took place when I was the Brigade G-3. This Rock Drill was the culmination of a year's preparation, and served as the inter-
mediary exercise prior to the actual field exercise. The class-
room prep, the Rock Drill and the Field Exercise were all monitored and evaluated by senior retired General Officers (called Grey Beards). In this case, our Grey Beard was the former commander of the 18th ABN CORPS. There were about six "advisors" (usually senior field grade officers [O-5s & O-6s] and senior level NCOs [E-9s] from other war- affiliated units) per exercised unit. Needless to say, the pucker factor was pretty high and the lessons learned were pretty valuable. The Grey Beards were very serious about these exercises as they had to report back to the Secretary of the Army and the Army Chief of Staff. These exercises involved LOTS of troops from various parts of the country, and substantial amounts of tax-payer funds were spent.

I guess the point of all of this is Soldiers never stop learning their craft.They might be the only people I know who practice so hard to learn their job, hoping to never have to use it. I would also say that judging from the quality of operations I have personally seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of which involved units who took part in several of these exercises, the tax payers got their money's worth. It's kinda like that commercial for PGA golfers -- "These guys are good!!!"

"Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a Soldier." (Samuel Johnson)

HOOAH