Season Ending Golf Tournament and Jewish New Year

After the World Junior Girls, I headed to Grand Niagara Golf course for the two day season ending championship golf tournament on the GTA Am tour.  I had contacted the club in advance and they agreed to let me camp out on their grounds.  I headed out from Milton Heights early on Sunday morning.  So early in fact the sun wasn't up yet.  It was the first time I had packed up the trailer and driven in the dark. 

The trip went well and the set up at the golf course couldn't have been better. 

I was invited to park right next to the cart barn.  That meant I had my choice of any of the electrical outlets that would normally be used to charge the electric golf carts to power my trailer.  I got there early enough and was set up with time to spare so I cooked myself a nice brunch and eat it before I had to warm up for the shot gun start.  There was a big rainstorm and a lightning delay, which allowed everyone to view some of the Ryder Cup matches.  The tournament included a banquet dinner and awards presentation.  It was a great wrap up for the season. 

From there I was headed to Hamilton to attend Rosh Hashanah services.  I had arranged to stay at a dairy farm belonging to a member of Hamilton's Jewish community.  I was invited to park rather close to the open sided barn: 

View from dining table window of my curious neighbors.

Camping at the golf course was a bit more pleasant than this spot.  There was a significant odor in the air, so I was sure to keep my windows closed.  The cows were quite talkative, all day and night, so I wore my ear plugs to bed.  A number of "house" and "fruit" flies managed to find their way into the trailer, which took me about a week to exterminate.  I don't think I will boon-dock here again.

I enjoyed the services and my brother and his girl friend provided a nice luncheon, including this lovely challah.  I had never seen one this shape before. 

From Hamilton, I returned to Milton Heights Campground and some non-competitive rounds of golf.   

World Junior Girls Tournament

I returned to Milton Heights Campground to be close to Mississauga Golf course where the 3rd Annual World Junior Girls golf tournament was being played.  I had never been on the property before, so it was a good opportunity to see the course.  Unfortunately the tournament was plagued by cool temperatures, high winds and rain.  The weather conditions made it really tough on the girls.  

On the final day, I found three guys that had worked at Toronto Hydro while I was there.  

Two were walking scorers and one who is from the Philippines was helping to transport the team around.  We had a nice time catching up with each other.

The Canadian teams didn't do well.  The Philippines won it. 

There was plenty of loot to be had:

The closing ceremonies were pretty impressive. 

Back to Huntsville and Lagoon Tent and Trailer Park

I returned to Lagoon Tent and Trailer Park, which I had visited in the spring, in order to be close to the site of the next GTA AM Tour event at Bigwin Island.  

I was supposed to be on a site on the upper portion of the campground with a sewer connection this time, but the people who were supposed to move off the site I was supposed to get decided to stay a bit longer.  This resulted in my having my choice of any site in the lower part of the campground, without a sewer, where I had stayed previously.  I hadn't really loved the site I had the previous time, although I liked the park.  I picked a different site and settled in.  The owner said they would come and drain my trailer if I needed it during the week, but once again, I just made sure I didn't overfill my tanks, by using their shower building on occasion and their recently completed community dish washing building.  

The first night I was there I spoke to a family who were in a rented motor home that were visiting from Germany.  They had 3 kids, a six year old and twins of 3 1/2, two boys and one girl.  From Huntsville they were going to check out Algonquin Park, Ottawa and then Toronto, including a visit to the zoo.  I gave them a few tips.  

The following night I spent some time with a couple around their campfire, talking and toasting marshmallows.  They were returning to their home in Ontario from a trip out to Calgary.  I am not enjoying the shortening of the days, with it getting dark just past 7:00 pm these days.  

In preparation for the event on the island I played North Granite Ridge again and also went to Windermere.  At Windermere, the female associate pro recognized me from playing against her about 7 years ago at Cataraqui's Field Day.  We spent some time catching up with each other's activities.  Windermere, a Stanley Thompson designed course reminded me quite a bit of Ladies'.  It is a good old course with very small greens and tight fairways.  I played with a couple of fellows and had a good time.  

On the way back to the park, I stopped at a farm stand and picked up fresh strawberries. 

On Saturday I visited the Huntsville Fall fair.  I enjoyed seeing the award winning flowers, vegetables and children's artwork.  

There was a western horse show and the usual midway rides and games, which I didn't partake in.  They offered a free shuttle bus from a few shopping mall parking lots.  I selected the one closest to the campground, which happened to have a farm market stand in it.  Afterwards I picked up some mushrooms and a selection of green and waxed string beans.  Apparently, not enough of the attendees took advantage of the shuttle and instead were parking, somewhat illegally on the roads close to the fair grounds, restricting traffic flow for the shuttle buses and other traffic.  On the local news that evening the Mayor spoke about trying to improve that situation next year. 

Sunday, late in the afternoon, I played the front 9 holes at Huntsville Downs.  It wasn't in a good shape as the other two courses in the area, and I wasn't made to feel very welcome, as they were watering the greens just before I was playing them and after about 6 holes the starter seemed to be driving around trying to see where I was and how long it would take me to get off the course.  

I was up early Monday morning in anticipation of my round at Bigwin Island.  I have heard lots of great things about the course.  As its name suggests, it is on an island, so a ferry ride is required to access the course.  

Waiting on the dock for a ride. 

Here comes my ride.

The weather forecast wasn't great, chances were good it was going to be a very rainy day, detracting from the beauty of the course.  I didn't have very high expectations for my scoring as I had never played the course before and would be playing it from over 6,400 yards in wet conditions.  Because of the weather forecast and several players canceling or not showing up in time for their rounds, they had us play in twosomes to speed things up in order to try and beat the rain.  Carts were included in the tournament fee, so I was happy enough to ride given the chance for rain.  

Grand Entrance to the Clubhouse.

Unfortunately the fellow I was paired with had some real difficulty on the third hole, a par 5, on which he took 14 strokes.  I managed to par that hole.  The rain didn't start as early as I had expected, but did arrive when we had 5 holes to play.  Once again I struggled with the yardage managing only 5 pars, 9 bogies, 3 doubles and a triple for 90, placing me 14th out of 17.  My playing partner finished last with 106.  

A pretty view, despite the overcast sky.

The highlight of the day was on the 17th hole, with the closest to the hole competition, my shot held up, and for that I won a dozen TaylorMade balls.  I would like to go back and play again from shorter tees, on a bright sunny day. 

The nights in Huntsville had been cold and I managed to burn through all the propane in both my tanks.  The final night, I used my electric heater.  On the way to Milton I had them refilled at Budget Propane near Gravenhurst.  They gave me good service.