Day 1 Spokane International Airport, Meadow Springs Country Club, C & D and The Dalles

3/8/2020 - Day 1 Spokane International Airport, Meadow Springs Country Club, C & D and The Dalles

     Sunday morning we left the house in (separate cars) about 6:45 and headed to the Spokane airport. Margaret is flying back from Oakland into Spokane Friday night so she needed to leave her car there.

     A morning surprise! The fog layer coming up the grade from Lewiston was not a surprise. It is kind of normal. Then we got into a lot of frost and a little snow on the road just as we were transitioning to HWY 195. When we drove up the hill out of Pullman we ran into some REAL snow (on the ground) and even more of it on the grade down into Colfax. Thankfully there wasn't any on the north side of Colfax and we could resume normal highway speeds.

     We got to the airport, dropped off Mag's car and headed to Richland, WA and Meadow Springs Country Club. Meadow Springs will be the ONLY golf course on this trip that I have played before. It is also the only private club I will play, though several will be semi-private. For those of you who don't know, private clubs don't allow non-members to play except as guests of members OR members of SOME other country clubs. I couldn't get a tee time there, but our Clarkston golf professional (Jordan) arranged our tee time.

     We have played this course once and Margaret didn't remember it very well as we really didn't have a good time. It was WAY too windy the first time, but we were committed. This time the weather was perfect, even if our golf wasn't. It's a really good golf course with a few quirky holes, like most courses have.

     After golf we drove to The Dalles, OR and spent the night. We stopped in Boardman (just SW of Umatilla) to eat at the C & D drive in. It is one block north of Interstate 84 (easy off, easy on access) and Margaret had eaten there before on one of her swim trips. Old style drive-in food, burgers, hot dogs, fries, onion rings & shakes. It was very good, fairly fast (the place was packed!) and inexpensive. I'd recommend it to any non-vegetarian friends.

     Got to our motel room just before 7 and spent the night. It may sound like an easy day EXCEPT we did it on after only five hours of sleep. We went to a Fleetwood Mac tribute band at the Clearwater River Casino Saturday night with some friends, and some friends of theirs. Didn't get home until a little after 10 and after winding down went to bed about 11 o'clock. We are habitual early risers and combined with the time change we were definitely sleep deprived & exhausted.

     By the way, the band was very good except for some feedback problems with the bass amplifier. The "Stevie Nicks" and "Lindsey Buckingham" players were good enough singers and he was spot on with the guitar. The star of the show was the "Christine McVie" character. She was good on the keyboards and nearly perfect with the real Christine's voice. She also looked enough like her to be a sister. SHE WAS AWESOME. There are a couple of tribute bands called "Rumours" and THIS one is worth seeing!

     A great golf hole! #16 at Meadow Springs, #2 handicap hole (it would be #1 if it wasn't on the back nine!). It's a par 5 with tees ranging from 421 to 590 yards. The tee shot is over water (except from the shortest tees) and from my choice of tees (512 yards) it's only about a 180 yard carry. Not that long, but I am a low ball hitter. I carried the water with no problem, BUT I was a little left and I hit it well enough to reach the 2nd pond on that side. The right side has it's own problems, more first pond to carry and trees OR out of bounds if you get too far right. The 2nd shot is a layup (for most of us) to about 120 yards or so as you have to cross a wide creek again before reaching the green. There is a LOT of landing area over the creek in front of the green, but if you've never played the hole or can't remember it (Margaret) it is hard to see from most angles which puts a little stress on your approach shot. I managed a bogey 6 with a ball in the water and it might have been the best hole I played all day. 

And here are a couple of (not) awesome pictures from Meadow Springs.