| Day 29 - Saturday, September 17 - Iowa | << Index |
| Anticipated: Play golf at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge, Iowa |
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| Click on the photos below to enlarge | ||
 Pro shop assistant, Jeffrey Schmidt and Jim |
 Golfers Dee Cummans and Tom Macks (top) Father and son golfers, Kevin and Matt McCormack (bottom) |
 Jim standing next to a cornfield adjacent to the 7th hole |
 Scenes from the golf course (notice the cornfield in the top right picture) |
 Pat and her 83-year old cousin, Velma holding her dog “Buttons” |
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We were up “bright and early” and after a delicious breakfast we left Velma’s home about 7:30 AM. We finally left the “big cities” and their associated “traffic jams” (Cincinnati, Montreal, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Cleveland and Chicago). We are happy to be out in the “wide-open spaces”. Today as we drove through lower Wisconsin, through Dubuque, Iowa and across the state to Ft. Dodge, we passed fields of corn, wheat, and other grains being harvested. Our 29th day of golf was played at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Ft. Dodge, Iowa. We teed off at 3:10 PM with blue skies and temperatures in the mid-70s. As we finished the first nine, dark clouds had moved over much of the sky, and the wind began to blow quite strongly; however, it did not rain, and by the time we finished the eighteen holes, the threat of rain had passed.
I (Jim) have an Iowa connection through my dad (Russell Healey). We crossed the “Mighty Mississippi” at Dubuque. My dad lived on a farm in Glenboro, Manitoba from 1902 to 1910 with his Aunt Emma Healey Leader (age 6 to 14) after he was orphaned in 1902. In 1910 he left the farm in Glenboro for Volga City, Iowa (about 30 miles from Dubuque) to live with his Uncle Jim Healey who was a Presbyterian minister. Russell went to high school in Dubuque (a boarding school associated with Dubuque University), and then received his BA in education from Dubuque University. His college education was interrupted by service in WWI in France in the US Army. While in the army he became a US citizen. After college graduation he took a teaching position in Michigan where he remained the rest of his life (91 years).
We enjoyed playing Lakeside Municipal Golf Course (Jim had played the course two years ago (2004) when he rode his bike in the Iowa RAGBRAI Bike-a-thon, and he wanted to play it again). Route 20 that we took through Iowa follows the route of the 2004 RAGBRAI. The Des Moines Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa is a 500-mile seven-day ride across Iowa with about 15,000 participants – probably the largest bicycle gathering in the world. Jim partook in that with son Stu in 2004, and since this is our day for crossing Iowa, it is worth mentioning. Jim wrote a synopsis of it for our church newsletter and we have included it in this journal. Click RAGBRAI to read the synopsis (this link requires AdobeTM Acrobat Reader get it here).
Lakeside is a very nice course to play. There was an outing ahead of us, so the play was slow, but we met several other golfers in front of us and had a nice conversation with them as we waited to tee off on several of the holes. They are included in the pictures below. We would like to thank the Pro-shop attendant, Jeffrey Schmidt for his hospitality and interest in our trip. He is an avid golfer and plays nearly every day.
We checked into the Comfort Inn in Ft. Dodge. Today is the first day we are staying in a motel (after 15 days of staying with friends and relatives – and 2 nights at home). We will be staying in a motel tomorrow night, but will be staying with Jim’s cousins in Canada for the next 7 nights