Day 62 - Home! << Index
Click on the photos below to enlarge

Sunset from motel in Honolulu—this is indicative of the final day of the CanAmAthon

Rachael and her crew interviewing Pat and Jim at the Grand Rapids airport

Holly’s welcome home sign

Jim and Pat being interviewed at the airport

Pat at the keyboard assembling this final journal


NOTE: We will be putting a hardcover book together about our CanAmAthon. A copy of this book will be sent to all of the golf courses we played in our 61-day journey as well as to those who opened their homes to us along the way. Anyone else who is interested can obtain a copy (for a slight fee to cover printing, binding and mailing costs) by emailing us at jfpjhealey@gmail.com We expect this book to be available by early 2006.

After we’ve had a few weeks to gather our thoughts, we’ll also be putting a final recap of the CanAmAthon on this website.



We had ridden all night from Honolulu to Cincinnati which had brought us to the final leg of our journey on Thursday, October 20, 2005 from Cincinnati to Grand Rapids. We arrived at the Gerald R. Ford Airport shortly before 2:00PM. The local TV reporter, Rachael Calderon of FOX News-channel 5 was in the lobby to interview us. Rachael had done a feature story when we were in Grand Rapids to play our Michigan round of golf (round 26), so this was a “follow-up” that we had actually completed our 61 days. Today she had Leandra Postema, an intern, with her and the cameraman was Pete Burd. After about half an hour we were on our way home.

As we approached our driveway we saw a large banner spread across the top of our garage. It read: “Welcome Home Grandma and Grandpa” and on the bottom on the left was the US flag with the words “CanAmAthon” in the middle, and on the right was the Canadian flag. Our 10-year old granddaughter Holly Postma made the sign (see picture) .

We did it!!! We still can’t believe that we were able to actually complete the 61-day golfing odyssey (CanAmAthon)! We played one 18-hole round of golf (on regulation courses) in all 50 US States, all 10 Canadian Provinces, and Washington DC. (Total 61 consecutive days – 61 courses – 61 eighteen-hole rounds of golf)

This feat would not have been possible without the support of family and friends who gave us encouragement along the way. We want to especially thank those who opened their homes for us to stay overnight as well as providing us with delicious meals.

We also extend our appreciation to the many golf course personnel who granted us complementary green and cart fees. In addition we will treasure the souvenirs we received from them.

When we started this “impossible dream”, even we were a little skeptical that we could actually “pull it off”. We had to have a lot of luck with the weather. We had to hope the van would make it for 13,500 miles (22,500 km). We had to stay healthy!! After all, we are not exactly “spring chickens”! Jim is a heart attack survivor (2 years), and Pat is a Breast Cancer survivor (8 years), so maybe we wanted to prove to ourselves that we could do it. We have documentation from each of the 61 golf courses that we played, so we will gather all of this information and send it to Guinness World Records. There is not a category for something like this, so it will have to go through a committee and be approved. This will take a while to complete, but if it makes it, we’ll let you know.

We have been asked on several occasions “what is the most amazing thing that has happened to us on our trip?” Two things: The tremendous amount of good-will and hospitality from everyone with whom we came in contact, and we were surprised at all the interest from the media. We had several radio interviews, at least 11 newspaper interviews and 5 Television interviews.

Our golf statistics as well as our expense-spread sheets are shown below. If anyone has questions, please feel free to email us. We will be acknowledging all of the emails that we have received throughout the trip.

CANAMATHON EXPENSES

AMERICAN DOLLARS

CANADIAN DOLLARS

COMMENTS

TOTAL EXPENSES FOR ALL 61 DAYS

$7,743.09

$9,442.79

AVERAGE EXPENSE PER DAY (61 DAYS)

$126.94

$154.80

TOTAL LODGING EXPENSE

$2,373.29

$2,894.26

AVERAGE LODGING EXPENSE PER DAY (61 DAYS)

$38.91

$47.45

AVERAGE LODGING EXPENSE PER DAY (34 DAYS)

$69.80

$85.12

WE STAYED IN MOTELS 34 NIGHTS--THE OTHER NIGHTS WE STAYED WITH FRIENDS, RELATIVES, OR RODE ALL NIGHT "REDEYES".

TOTAL MEAL EXPENSE

$793.83

$968.09

AVERAGE MEAL EXPENSE PER DAY (61 DAYS)

$13.01

$15.87

TOTAL GASOLINE EXPENSE

$1,879.28

$2,291.80

AVERAGE GASOLINE EXPENSE PER DAY (61 DAYS)

$30.74

$37.49

TOTAL AIR EXPENSE

$0.00

$0.00

OUR SON KEN HEALEY IS A DELTA AIRLINE CAPTAIN--WE FLY FREE ON A STANDBY BASIS

TOTAL GREEN/CART FEES

$2,136.26

$2,605.20

AVERAGE GREEN/CART FEES PER DAY (61 DAYS)

$35.20

$42.93

FERRY BOAT EXPENSE

$236.82

$288.80

FERRY-NOVA SCOTIA TO NEWFOUNDLAND

MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSE

$211.94

$258.46

CANAMATHON AUTOMOBILE STATISTICS

AMERICAN DOLLARS GALLONS

CANADIAN DOLLARS LITRES

COMMENTS

TOTAL AUTOMOBILE MILES OR KM (PRIVATE CAR)

13607 MILES

22678 KM

TOTAL AUTOMOBILE MILES OR KM (INCLUDE RENTAL CAR)

13767 MILES

22945 KM

160 MILES RENTAL CAR -SLC, UTAH TO WYOMING

AVERAGE DRIVING DISTANCE PER DAY (61 DAYS)

226 MILES

376 KM

TOTAL AUTOMOBILE MILES OR KILOMETRES

13607 MILES

22678 KM

TOTAL GALLONS OR LITRES--GASOLINE

631.11

2,387.85

MILES PER GALLON OR KM PER LTR --TOTAL TRIP

21.56

9.49

AVERAGE PRICE PER GALLON 0R LITRE

$2.98

$0.96

AVERAGE PRICE PER MILE OR KILOMETRE

$0.138

$0.10

HIGHEST PRICE FOR GAS--CANADA (NOVA SCOTIA)

$3.783

$1.23

8-31-2005 RIGHT AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA

LOWEST PRICE FOR GAS--CANADA (ALBERTA)

$2.926

$0.951

9/25/2005

HIGHEST PRICE FOR GAS--USA (NEW HAMPSHIRE)

$3.659

$1.189

9/02/2005 RIGHT AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA

LOWEST PRICE FOR GAS--USA (OHIO)

$2.559

$0.832

8/23/2005

CANAMATHON GOLF STATISTICS

JIM

PAT

COMMENTS

ROUNDS PLAYED IN 61 DAYS

61

61

TOTAL HOLED PLAYED--ALL 61 ROUNDS

1098

1098

TOTAL STROKES--ALL 61 ROUNDS

5402

6708

STROKE AVERAGE-ALL 61 ROUNDS

88.557

109.967

FINAL USGA HANDICAP INDEX

14.5

31.9

TOTAL YARDS--ALL 61 COURSES

370771

322904

AVERAGE YARDS--ALL 61 COURSES

6078

5294

TOTAL MILES--ALL 61 COURSES

211

183

TOTAL KILOMETRES--ALL 61 COURSES

352

306

LONGEST COURSE--JIM

6601

BENT BROOK GC--BIRMINGHAM, AL

SHORTEST COURSE--JIM

4715

ROCK CREEK GC--WASHINGTON, DC

LONGEST COURSE--PAT

5977

POCONO MANOR GC--POCONO MANOR, PA

SHORTEST COURSE--PAT

4495

ROCK CREEK GC--WASHINGTON, DC

BEST SCORE--JIM

79

CROSBY CC--CROSBY, ND

WORST SCORE--JIM

97

ANCHORAGE GC--ANCHORAGE, AK

BEST SCORE--PAT

94

ROCK CREEK GC--WASHINGTON, DC

WORST SCORE--PAT

123

RENWOOD GC--ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL

AVERAGE COURSE RATING--ALL 61 COURSES

68.8

70.2

HIGHEST COURSE RATING--JIM

71.8

SUNNINGDALE GC--SOMERSWORTH, NH SUNNYBROOK CC--GRANDVILLE, MI

LOWEST COURSE RATING--JIM

62.5

ROCK CREEK GC--WASHINGTON, DC

HIGHEST COURSE RATING--PAT

76.3

CROSBY CC--CROSBY, ND

LOWEST COURSE RATING--PAT

64.8

ALPINE GC-LONGVIEW, TX

AVERAGE SLOPE--ALL 61 COURSES

118.2

117.8

HIGHEST SLOPE--JIM

131

FOXWOODS G&CC-RICHMOND, RI FOXWOOD CC--CRESTVIEW, FL PEARL CC--HONOLULU, HI

LOWEST SLOPE--JIM

105

CROSBY CC--CROSBY, ND

HIGHEST SLOPE--PAT

130

ST.ANDREW NA CREIGE--CODROY VALLEY, NL

LOWEST SLOPE--PAT

102

ROCK CREEK GC--WASHINGTON, DC