Day 35 - Friday, September 23 - North Dakota << Index

Anticipated: Play golf at Crosby Country Club in Crosby, North Dakota.

Travel:   Itinerary: Leave Jean and Maurice for 11:30 tee time at Crosby Country Club. After golf drive back to the Didkowski's to spend the rest of the day and night with them. casino   States/Provinces Played:

Web: Crosby Country Club - Crosby, ND

Actual: (Photos and text)

Click on the photos below to enlarge Crosby Country Club sign and North Dakota sign Jim with the Green Superintendent, Terry Thon The 5th hole tee sign, indicating Ladies Par 6. Pat made par on this hole! Golf course scenes – two left pictures show the suspension bridge. The upper right picture shows the very narrow 7th hole. Maurice and Jean Didkowski in their home (upper picture) and Jim and Maurice at the oil field pump (lower picture)

We had a good night’s sleep, and awoke to a dreary, drizzly day in Estevan. The weather forecast was for scattered showers, so we were hoping that they would be very scattered. Crosby, North Dakota is about 45 minutes south of Estevan. We thought we’d leave early so that if we had to wait out some showers, we’d have plenty of time to finish the round. When we arrived at the club, the only person there was the Grounds Superintendent, Terry Thon. Terry was very helpful in getting us a cart and scorecard, and he told us to take off and play our round. He said that the course usually is very quiet after school starts in the fall, and with a cloudy day, he didn’t think that there would be anyone playing today. He was right because there still wasn’t anyone else out to play while we were there, even though the drizzle had stopped and the day turned out to be very pleasant. We want to thank him for taking care of us when we arrived and seeing that we got out to play our 35th round of golf. Crosby Country Club was rated the best nine-hole golf course in North Dakota by “Golf Digest” in 1989, and we can understand why. There are some very tight holes, and some very long Par 3s. An interesting hole was the 191 yard par 3 seventh hole It is only 20 yards wide all the way from tee to green with trees on both sides (see picture). After hitting the trees using his driver the first time around, Jim used discretion the second time and used his 4-iron. There are two suspension bridges to cross, which gives a very scary ride across the water. We were so unsure of the safety of the bridge that Pat walked across prior to Jim driving the cart. There was no sense in both of us drowning! However, our fears were unfounded because the bridges were well engineered and very safe. We really enjoyed the golf course and highly recommend it. Jim shot his best round so far, a 79 (yardage = 5808) and Pat shot 110 (yardage 5808). The ladies tee off from the same set of tees as the men, which make it a rather long course for women. After golf we headed back to Estevan to spend another night with Jean and Maurice. Maurice is both an inspector and supervisor in the oilfields, and we were very pleased that he came home early today and offered to take us out to see one of the pumps. He explained how the oil is sent to various parts of Canada from Saskatchewan. It was a very interesting tour of the pumping station. Maurice and his crews install the oil field pumps. He and his crews come in after the oil-rig has drilled the hole to the oil strata. His crew installs the pumping rig (the arm that goes up and down—see picture). They also install the pipelines that carry the oil from the pumping rigs to the oil tank farms. The particular rig that we visited pumps about 400 barrels per day (about 16,000 gallons). In this particular oil field the oil comes out of the ground at about 20% crude oil and 80% water with some gas. Before the oil is stored in the tanks it is heated to about 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which causes the oil and water to separate. The oil is skimmed off and sent to the storage tanks. The gas is vented off, and some of it is used to heat the oil-water mix. The gas is either flared or sent to gas storage tanks. From time to time (when the tanks are full) the oil is transferred to the main pipeline for distribution to the refinery. It is estimated that it takes the oil about 6 weeks to get from the ground to the refinery. The water that is taken from the oil-water mix is re-injected into the ground. Maurice has a very interesting job. He averages about 150 miles per day driving from oil field to oil field. It should be noted that southern Saskatchewan supplies some of the energy needs for Canada as well as other places. Not only are large quantities of oil pumped; and coal mining is also prevalent in the area (surface mines). It is estimated that there is enough coal in the ground to last 200 years at the present consumption rate. We enjoyed another wonderful dinner with Jean and Maurice, and we thank them for their gracious hospitality during our visit.