Day 13 - Thursday, September 1 - Maine << Index

Anticipated: Play golf at Va Jo Wa Golf Course in Island Falls, Maine

Travel:   Itinerary: Leave motel for 1:30PM tee time at Va Jo Wa Golf Course. After golf drive to Portsmouth, NH motel casino   States/Provinces Played:

Web: www.vajowa.com

Actual: (Photos and text)

Click on the photos below to enlarge Golf shop manager, Shawn Rigby and Pat Sign as we entered Maine Golf course scenes

We arose at 7:00AM at the Comfort Inn in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Both of us were quite tired and went to bed at 9:00PM last night. The previous night we both had only about 5 hours sleep on the Newfoundland-Nova Scotia ferry, and we had a 200 plus mile drive. To top it off, we played golf in a steady rain for 9 of our 18 holes. We had two days of journals to compose because we were unable to do them the previous night because of our all-night ocean ferry voyage! We managed to complete and transmit Monday’s journal last night, but fatigue took over and Tuesday’s journal was left for this morning, both composing and transmitting. That took about an hour and we were on our way to Maine at 10:00AM. The drive was uneventful, and we had freeway for about 75% of the journey. We gained an hour crossing into Maine (USA) and we arrived at Va Jo Wa Golf Club at 11:00AM EDT. We teed off right away and were finished with the 18-holes at 2:00PM. The golf course is owned by the Walker family who has farmed it for well over 100 years. The course is named for Vaughn (dad), John (son), Warren (son). The course is carved out of the mountainside, and the golfer very seldom has a level lie. Most of the holes are well designed and a pleasure to play; however, the opposite goes for holes 1, 2, and 10. There are many spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. Again, I (Jim) thought that I should have shot a better score than my 92 (CR = 70.4, Slope = 125, yardage = 6161), but with the elevation changes, it was very difficult to judge distances. Pat shot 108 (CR = 69.6, Slope = 115, yardage = 4949). We would like to thank the friendly staff at Va Jo Wa Golf Club. They told us that they had had rain for two solid days before we arrived, and they apologized for the wet conditions on some of the holes. After golf we drove about 200 miles down I95 to Augusta, Maine for our night’s lodging at a Super 8 motel. Tomorrow we play in New Hampshire and then we will be spending the next four nights with our long time friends Joan and Arnold Johnson of Charlestown, Rhode Island.