So here are the photos of before and after my trip. First, some of the goodbye party.

They’re cute, but for some reason, I think they look better in sepia. You be the judge.

Anyway, I left and about 3 miles before I hit PA, what do I see?

Dead-stopped traffic. Ahh, NJ, I’ll miss thee.

As I said in one of my last posts, our country gets less interesting as you go west. Case in point. Above is some interesting topography in NJ/PA.

PA – fall foliage and hills dot the spectacular landscape

OH – traffic cones and bends in the road dot the rugged landscape

IL – some trees dot the landscape

IN – A tree… and, uh, some power lines, dot the rather drab landscape

IA – some… well, some dots dot the… wholly uninteresting landscape

WHYoming – only these billboards dotted the landscape, constituting the longest 4.5 hours of my life

UT – absolutely nothing dots this barren landscape which can only be described as moon-like and godforaken

Hell, look how bad things are in Nebraska.

NE – so unfun they banned the thumbs-up

Then the states starting lying to me.

I didn’t see one.

But not all was bad. I hit four courses, and though I only took pictures of three, the one in Nebraska (of all places) was amazingly beautiful and photogenic. Here are my pics of all three courses (the first pic is a small course in IN, the second and third are at Kearney in NE, and all the rest are at Lake Hastings in NE)

skipped off the top of the basket on my second shot

Not a bad course. But nothing compared to these

The third pic (hole 9) is one of the best holes I’ve ever played (especially considering the 20+ mph winds) It is 500′ long downhill, with a road (and lake) OB to your left, and schule all the way to your right. There is a 30′ stream that makes the green an island green. It’s possible to pump one down past the stream and give yourself a deuce putt, or you can play it safe for your three (hopefully avoiding the one tree). Great hole. I 4d it because I can’t up to save a monkey from being skinned.

And I’ll leave you with various sunset pictures which shows that my 80mph one-handed photography skills are still goin’ strong. They are in order of how I like them.

Pics of my place and the area coming soon.