Don’t Worry, It Will Play in Peoria

The Pondit left Iowa and drove to Illinois today. It was a cloudy, cool day and the trip was very uneventful. I did cross the Mississippi and I passed through Peoria. Route I-80 was littered with trucks and at one point with Iowa State Troopers. There was more road repair work going on than I deemed necessary. I was detoured away from the I-80 bridge that crossed the Mississippi to one by Rock Island. After crossing the river, I drove along it for a short while. I stopped for a yogurt break in the renowned city of Peoria, Illinois. I walked to the river front only to be accosted by a horde of strange looking flying insects that were about one and one-half inches long. They seemed to be hovering around nearby trees. I found a bench away from the trees and enjoyed my breakfast.

The rest of the morning was spent searching for a golf course to play. The city of Bloomington, IL has four public courses. I wanted to play at one that was designed by Arnold Palmer. When I approached the club, there were cars everywhere and young people out on the course carrying their bags as they played. What was happening was an international junior golfer tournament that was being played on all four local golf courses! I called another local course just out of town but when I got there, it was an executive course (Since I am now retired, I do not qualify to play at an executive course!). I called two other courses in town, but they were private clubs. My Garmin found a course about fourteen miles north of the city in a town of El Paso, IL (http://www.city-data.com/city/El-Paso-Illinois.html). The course is not actually in El Paso but closer to Kappa, IL population 203! The El Paso Golf Course was actually a find.

But, once again truth is stranger than fiction. I was paired with a threesome. I made a conscious decision to make certain I was able to pay attention during our introductions so that I could recall each player's name. Often those names just fade away in minutes after I am introduced. I went up to senior member of the threesome and introduced myself as Charlie Holt. He said names would be easy to remember for the group. His name was Charlie, his adult son was Chuck and grandson was also Chuck. This reminded me of the Bob Newhart show with the brothers Daryl, Daryl and Daryl. The local "Chucks" were members and played very good golf. We played from the blue tees which were 6,111 yards for a par 71 layout. I blew up on a few holes and shot a respectable 92. The senior Chuck had eight one putt greens and not all of the putts were short ones! The "lesser" Chucks lived in a home that overlooked the 14th green. The original nine holes were built in the 1920s and designed by a group of local men. In 1988 a second nine was designed by an architect and are located on the other side of the "highway". The locals did as good a job as the architect!

I did some gift shopping and had a brief dinner stop. Tomorrow I am off to Dublin Ohio to visit relatives.

Here are all of today's pictures:

This is the bridge I took to cross the Mississippi River in Rock Island, Illinois.

This is the Mississippi from the bridge.

My second of three "I" states I will be visiting this week.

Peoria has a skyline?

This is the heart of Peoria as seen from the other side of the Illinois River.

The bridge I took to cross the Illinois River.

The El Paso Golf Club.

Third hole par three on which i did get a three.

Waiting to play the third hole I turned around to take a photograph. Past the shrubs is corn as far as the eye can see.

The course was neither without trees nor without hills.