Atlantic City, New York and Bethpage

I threw out my last post on Friday, about 2 weeks after the US Open ended and I'm putting this one only like a week and a half after getting home from Atlantic City.  I'm on a roll, and I might have to start charging a subscription fee to recover my gambling losses from this trip.  So I got home on Monday afternoon, June 20th, from Virginia, D.C. and Maryland from the US Open.  The next trip was a bachelor party for one of my best friends, Ryan Kelley.  On board for the trip- Ryan, myself, Bub Hunter, and Josh Yoakum... or better known to me as Yoakum.

From left to Right- Yoakum, me, Ryan, and Bub

Plans for the trip

• An 18 hole golf excursion at Bethpage Black in Long Island, New York- One of the best (and hardest) public golf courses in the U.S. and site of the 2002 and 2009 US Open
• A trip into New York City
• A three day concert series headlined by the Dave Matthews Band in Atlantic City, New Jersey
• Three nights at the Borgata Hotel with a massive casino on the bottom floor.

The plan was to leave Wednesday morning about 7 am, less than 40 hours after getting home from the US Open.  In order to secure a tee time at Bethpage Black for Thursday morning, we had to do it in an unusual fashion.  Bethpage is a famous public course and they don't accept tee times more than two days in advance, so we had to call an automated system on Tuesday night.  (And supposedly the phone lines are a madhouse when they open up.)  Ryan, Yoakum and I met to call- the phone lines opened at 7 pm, but we started calling at 6:58, and the system was fairly complicated, you had to push like 7 different numbers.  After mass confusion and a few obscenities towards each other while trying to call, Ryan ended up getting the tee time for 10 am on Thursday morning.  (Somehow all 3 of us made it through to the automated system, which caused chaos.)  The conversation went something like this.

Ryan:  "I GOT IT!"

Me:  "I'm through, should I stay on the...."

Ryan:  "Shut up, I can't hear"

Yoakum:  "Hey! I got through, what time did we want again."

Ryan:  "Be Quiet! I can't hear what the voice is saying"

Me:  "So..... I can hang up now?"

Yoakum:  "Guys, I made it through, do I keep going."

Ryan:  "What the hell, I can't hear, quit talking"

Me:  "So..... It's cool if I hang up?"

Yoakum: "I hung up, you better get it Ryan"

Ryan:  "If you would quit screaming I would be able to hear"

Me:  "Uhhh guys, can I hang up the phone yet?"

So needless to say, we made it through.  The plan was to stay at my house on Tuesday night before we left on Wednesday morning.  Ryan and Yoakum arrived at my house about 11 pm, shortly after Bub.  Yoakum claims he has a proposal for me.... I said, "Man, I don't even care what it is, I'm in."  So the U.S. men's soccer team was playing in the Gold Cup semi-finals on Wednesday night and we wanted to get to New York City to watch it.  How do we accomplish that?  Well, by leaving at 2 am on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.  I packed my bag that hadn't been touched yet 10 minutes, we collectively packed the car, and we were on the way.  We had a 2 night reservation in Long Island, New York and then a 3 night stay in Atlantic City.  13 hour drives really aren't that fun after hour 2 to be honest but with 4 capable drivers, it shouldn't be too bad switching off drivers the whole way.  I drove the first 3 hour shift from 2 am to 5 am.  Yoakum drove the next shift from 5 am to 2:55 pm and Ryan finished us off.... by driving from 2:55 pm to 3 pm, and Bub slept for about 7 hours.  Yoakum just didn't have it in him to finish the trip off.  Just kidding Yoakum.  Somehow the GPS took us through New York City to get to Long Island and Yoakum claimed it was the worst hour and a half of his life.  (And he almost nailed a lady on a bike driving through the city.)  After 3 or 4 stops and a hellacious of a drive, we arrived in Long Island.

After checking into our somewhat sketchy motel (Yes, a motel) we decided to ride the train from Long Island to New York City on Wednesday night to see a few things and watch the soccer game. (Anytime you see people paying for a room with cash, you might be staying in a sketchy place.)  We walked around the city for a little while and checked out the people walking around.  I haven't been to NYC in 5 plus years but I sure didn't remember all the different groups of people living there.  (NYC is less than 50% white and over 150 different languages are spoken, at least according to Wikipedia.)  Ryan then lost a bet to Yoakum (A hot dog) over which building was the Empire State Building, which provided some good trash talking for the next 30 minutes.  After this we found the soccer bar where we wanted to watch the game, realized we had an hour to kill, and then took a cab down to ground Zero.  To think that two planes were hijacked, ran into two of the tallest buildings in the U.S. is pretty mind-blowing, but I don't need to say anymore, we all know the story.  The area was all blocked off while the Freedom Tower is being constructed, along with a 9/11 memorial.  It was hard to fathom that multiple 80 plus story buildings were once there.  The area didn't have a crazy feeling to it, but with the huge cranes everywhere and hundreds of people around, what can you expect.  The Freedom Tower was about half constructed and there was a picture of what it's supposed to look like in the area- pretty awesome.

Freedom Tower on the left

What it's supposed to look like

After that, we went over to Wall Street and saw the legal gambling area..... oh I mean the New York Stock Exchange.  Even if our bank accounts were rocked and the economy tanked in part because of some irresponsible people here, the street was pretty cool.  No cars were allowed on the street and the area had a certain feeling to it, like the feeling that shit goes down here.  We were there after 5 pm when the Stock Market closes, so who knows what it is like in the daytime.  It was here where George Washington took the oath to become the first president of the United States and this is where the financial capital of the United States is.  You better believe some powerful people walk around here in the daytime.

New York Stock Exchange

Site of G.W. Oath

The soccer game was too much fun and the U.S. won 1-0.  The place went absolutely nuts when we scored.  One of the cool things about U.S. soccer is it is one of the only sporting events in the country where everyone is pretty much rooting for the same team.  This is one of most famous soccer bars in the United States and had a great atmosphere.

Nevada Smith's Soccer Bar

We awoke Thursday bright and early to play Bethpage Black.  Our tee time was for 10 am, but we arrived about 8:45.  The last thing we wanted to do was miss our tee time or have something mixed up.  Bub and I caught a bad-ass breakfast before we played and we wandered around the Pro-Shop and the clubhouse for a few minutes before teeing off.  There aren't golf carts allowed on the course, so we decided to carry the bags ourselves.  The golf course itself measures over 7,000 yards and this doesn't include walking from the green of one hole to the tee box on the next hole.  (A mile is 1,760 yards so we walked about 5 miles with golf bags on a hilly course, not the easiest thing in the world.)  Ryan decided to try the championship tees, while Bub, Yoakum and I played from the white tees.

Bub and the warning off the first tee.  He looks startled

The course was nice- really hard, with bunkers everywhere and impossible rough to hit out of, but we had a blast playing.  In the words of Ryan, "Every hole was memorable."  We both went to the US Open the week before and agreed that Bethpage Black trumped Congressional Country Clubhouse hands down.  But hey, for a million bucks you can play Congressional.... oh, if you're invited.  Bub ended up hitting about half his shots from bunkers and Yoakum might have assaulted someone on the golf course after hitting out the rough.  I ended up shooting 103 and can claim that it didn't take me more than one shot to get out of any bunker.  Plus, I didn't hit a single fairway bunker, which seemed like a miracle given the course.  Ryan took the cake though, he shot a solid 85 and has about 35 years before he is eligible to play on the Senior PGA Tour, his golfing goal.  (To put things in perspective, Ryan shoots about even par on normal golf course.  Here he shot 14 over par.)  It was supposed to rain in the afternoon, but it ended up just being cloudy and in the low 70s the whole round.  We didn't feel a drop of rain and ended up with amazing golf weather.  Hey, it was just meant to be.

After the round, we recovered at the hotel and then went to a sports bar to watch the NBA draft, where Kyrie Irving from Duke was drafted first.  (I am a die hard Duke basketball fan, but no one from NC State should judge me for it.)  Sitting around a few minutes, we spotted a New York Mets game on tv only in the 1st inning.  Yoakum and Ryan checked the surrounding area before we left Marion to see if there were any baseball games during our trip but found nothing.  We all thought they made a mistake so we debated whether to go or not.  Our thoughts, "Hey the Mets play in Queens, we can make it in 30 minutes and catch 6 or 7 innings.  So we hop and the car and speed off to the game.  I pull up the score on my Blackberry in route to the game to find out how the game is going and if we were missing anything exciting.  The score comes up and..... the game is over?  Heeeyyyyy, wait a minute, were we watching a replay of the game?  Yep, we sure were.  Good thing for smart phones.  We had a pretty good laugh about it once we figured it out..... I almost wish we had made it all the way to the game though.  The rest of the night consisted of putt-putt, batting cages, Chinese food, and an invasion of Canada.  Okay okay, that hasn't happened yet.

Oh and on a side note, who is in charge of the roads and tolls in New Jersey.  We had to pass $13 to cross a bridge in New Jersey and ended up paying about $40 total to drive in New Jersey.  Plus, the toll lines had no order to it... there was complete chaos.  There were no lanes drawn on the road once we neared the toll station and people were crossing over 5 lanes to get in the lane that best suited them.  New Jersey, what the hell are you doing?  Whoever designed that should be fired.  Sorry for the rant, but it was the tolls were a little outrageous.  

The next morning we checked out of the Sketchasaurus Rex motel and headed for Atlantic City.  A 3 hour ride from Long Island to Atlantic City and then we officially check in for the weekend at the Borgata Hotel. (Dave Matthews Band were also staying there.)

Our hotel, the Borgata

The View from the Borgata

We put $25 apiece into the roulette pool and decide to take our chances on red to start the weekend.  2 minutes later, we are out $100 total.  This should have been a sign.  We took our chances at BlackJack, and found a $10 minimum table that had 4 seats open.  I ended up winning about $300, Bub and Yoakum ended up even, and Ryan hit the Jackpot on side bet and won about $350.  (In BlackJack, your two cards are face up, while the dealer has one card face up.  You could make a side bet whether the dealer's card would be in between yours and got different payouts for how many numbers there were between the cards- but if your two cards and the dealer's card were all the same, you got 30-1 odds.... Ryan hit this within 30 minutes of playing.)  Maybe this was a good omen for the weekend, or maybe we used all of our luck in the first 30 minutes of the trip.

We headed out to the concert site on an old military base to see the Dave Matthews Band play on Friday night. Luckily, we bought a package that included free transportation back and forth from our hotel to the concerts. There were 3 stages set up on the site and there were bands from 1 pm to 11 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but we only cared to see a few bands.  Bub and I checked out the Flaming Lips (Crazy name, but cool music) before DMB and then walked over to the other stage shortly after.  We all agreed that the first night was the least exciting of the 3 main shows, but still a fun time.  For any DMB fans, some personal favorites from night one- You Might Die Trying, Satellite, Cornbread, Jimi Thing into Sexy Mfers, and Crash.  We regrouped in the hotel after the concert, and decided to hit the casino again.  (Like there was a 2nd option for the night)  Night one did not go as well, as Ryan and I were back to even and Bub and Yoakum took a plunge into the red.  Ryan and I met a gunslinger at the BlackJack tables.  We will simply remember him as that guy with the backwards hat screaming at the dealer.  He got up to $3,200 and then proceeded to lose it all in a span of 5 hands.  This was at a $10 minimum table too.  Man, was this guy pissed.

Day 2
We woke up, went to eat McDonalds and then to get some drinks at the store instead of paying $10 for a beer at the concert.  This took longer than expected and we missed most of the Dave and Tim show that are usually really good. (Sorry Ryan and Yoakum.  Bub said he would take all the blame for that one.)  We hit the casino again in the late afternoon (See a theme here) where I won $300 in the span of about 30 minutes.  We took the bus back to the concert to see OAR at 7 and then DMB at 8:15.  OAR was awesome- they played Night Shift, 52-50, and Crazy Game of Poker to name a few.  DMB night 2 was much better than night 1.  Some highlights- Crush (My all-time favorite Dave song), Gravedigger, Dancing Nancies, Everyday (with Vusi Mahasela), #41, and Two Step with Damien Marley, a great finish.  There isn't much to say about night 2 in the casino.  Ryan and I walked away losers and made it to bed after the sun came up.  What an awful combination.

      Great Atmosphere, and how can you not like Vusi, he was having so much fun

Day 3
On one end of the spectrum, Sunday was the best day at the concerts.  Bub and I watched Bass Nectar, a DJ mixing songs with a lot of bass that was nothing but fun, and then over to DMB.  Bub claimed we had to check out this guy, and he didn't dissapoint.  Try jumping up and down for an hour and see if you have fun, it's hard not to.

                                                  Bass Nectar


Dave played the best concert in recent memory and ended with a bang.

Highlights
Warehouse, So Much to Say, One Sweet World, Raven, Granny, Lying in the Hands of God, Watchtower, Halloween, Ants Marching and Thank you for Letting me be Myself.

In the encore the crowd started chanting for Halloween, a fan favorite, and the band huddled for a second and clearly changed their plans.  They played Halloween and then Ants Marching- their trademark song and then went into Thank you for letting me be Myself.  The crowd sang this one for 5 or 6 verses and then everyone was singing it on the way out, 10 minutes after the concert ended.

                                          Halloween into Ants Marching (About 2 min in)

And then there is the other end of the spectrum, the casino.  All of us didn't even come close to winning.  You know, it's like the casino has better odds than the players do.  What a minute, is that how they make money?  We met a guy in his late 20s on Sunday night playing $1,000 hands at a $5 minimum table where we were playing.  This guy was either crazy or a pathological liar, or maybe both.  He provided us with a few good laughs but in the end, we all lost our money.  On Sunday night, the legend of Herminia was born.  She was a Hispanic dealer at the BlackJack table and spoke broken English.  None of us actually remember what she looked like and she is like this mythical creature a week later.  She took every chip we had and had trouble pronouncing numbers too, so you almost had to count your cards to make sure she was telling the truth.  Herminia roams the Borgota casino floor as almost a ghost-like creature and takes your chips, so if we ever make it back to Atlantic City, we will hunt her down.   

So we all walked back to the hotel room on Sunday night feeling down (No pun intended) and decided to catch a few hours of sleep before the long ride home.  Dad, I know you would have won all of our money back for us and more and showed us a thing or two in the casino.  (The gambling gene was definitely passed from father to son)  We departed Atlantic City about 11 am and arrived home about 10 pm on Monday night.  Any flight or ride somewhere is much more exciting than the ride home because about halfway home, the minutes seem to drag by and you just want to get home by that point.  Besides getting rocked at the casino, we had a blast, and I hope we sent Ryan out in style.  His wedding date is July 30th and I'm honored to be in it.

Next up is a trip to Washington D.C. starting next Thursday.  After that Ryan's wedding, and then the big road trip.  Thanks for anyone reads my posts, because without you guys, I am basically writing a journal to myself.  If you have any suggestions of places in the United States to visit on the road trip, let me know, I want to visit as many cool places as possible.  Other than California, I haven't been further than Wisconsin and Texas in the United States so the western part of the U.S. is not my area of expertise.  (Wait a minute, do I have an area of expertise?)  So long for now and stay tuned for D.C.

The U.S. Open

So I arrived home from Asia on Tuesday night, June 14, at approximately 11 pm.  I got two good nights of sleep and headed out to D.C. and Maryland for the U.S. Open (Golf) on Thursday morning the 16th.  I stayed with my buddy Rob (Aka Rob on the Cob) in Northern Virginia and commuted back and forth to the golf tournament.  Not only was it one of the biggest golf tournaments in the world, but it was also Rob's birthday.  Awesome combination for all parties involved.

My journy started from Raleigh on Thursday morning.  It was about a 4 and a half hour drive to Northern Virginia.  The plan for the weekend was to meet up with Rob and his friends for Happy Hour (Yes, it deserves capital letters) on Thursday night and go to the golf tourny on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I arrived an hour or two early on Thursday afternoon and his parents were nice enough to give me a ride to the Pentagon Memorial commemorating the 9/11 attacks.  The memorial was right beside the Pentagon and was a really cool place.  It was a oval shaped area with a walkway around the outside.  On the edge of the walkway are year numbers engraved and there were rows of benches in honor of every person who died in the Pentagon attacks.  So for instance, if there were 4 people who died in the attacks who were born in 1960, there were 4 benches across on the 1960 row.  Also, there was water underneath the benches that added to the memorial.  I sat down on one of the benches for a minute for a rest, but a guard came over and said that the benches were reserved for family and friends of the victims.  He was really nice about it and talked to me about some of the logistics of the memorial.  The wall on the outside was built in a very complex manner, there were walkways going across the memorial that coincided with the plane and its wings, and there was a special water regulator underneath the memorial to ensure that the water beneath the benches stayed at a certain temperature.  (I can't remember the number but it prevented it from freezing in the winter)  We only saw what happened on tv, but to talk to people directly affected and ones who were around it gives you a different perspective.... this is the defining moment of my generation and one of the most infamous moments in US history.  Rob's mother said that she could feel the ground shake when the Pentagon was hit and knew some of the families affected.

The Year of Birth of the Victims

Benches

After the Pentagon Memorial, I met up with Rob and his co-workers for Happy Hour.  Jet lag was in full affect from Asia and I couldn't hardly keep my eyes open after 2 beers.  We roamed around Arlington for a few hours and went back to catch some sleep before a 6:45 wake up to go to the golf tournament.  The plan was the drive from his house to the Dulles Airport in D.C. to catch a shuttle to the golf course in Maryland.... about an hour and 15 minute trip total.  (And no cell phones allowed past the airport.... try it for a day, it's weird.  If you lose someone, you can't get back in touch with them)  The tournament was at Congressional Country Club or better known as Congressional (pretty good ring to it, huh) in Bethesda, Maryland.  Rob found out that the initiation fee to be a member there is $950,000 and then $2,000 a month after that.... and you can only be invited in.  It used to be for Congress members but they aren't allowed anymore.  Now it is for attorneys, lobbyists, and anyone with an extra million dollars to spend on golf.  This course was nice, but a million dollars nice?  Nah, not quite.  The course had two memorable holes, number 10 and 18.  Number 10 was a downhill par 3 right by the clubhouse.  The clubhouse at Congressional happened to be 4 stories and the largest one in the United States.  (Hell, for a million dollar membership it better be the biggest and nicest)  Number 18 was a long par 4 that is one of the best finishing holes in golf.  The two are beside each other and share a pond. 

The Clubhouse at Congressional

A view from behind the # 10 green looking up to the tee box and clubhouse

So the crowd Friday.... Rob, his dad Ralph, Ryan Kelley, his dad Bob, and myself. On Friday, everyone who started the tournament was still in, so we got to see some contenders as well as some personal favorites who weren't making it to the weekend.  We roamed around the back nine in the morning, saw Ricky Fowler play, along with Bubba Watson (A certified gunslinger) among others.  The afternoon featured more prominent golfers like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, the eventual winner Rory McIlroy, two of my favorites Jim Furyk and K.J. Choi and my new favorite golfer Robert Rock from England, see below.  (And if you're wondering, Tiger wasn't playing, he had some females to tend to..... oh, I mean he was hurt and unable to play.)  Some other golfers I saw in person on Friday.... Hunter Mahan, Matteo Mannasero, Anthony Kim, Sergio Garcia, and Miguel Angel Jimenez and Alvaro Quiros (Two Spanish Golfer and without question, 2 gunslingers)  The first day, I was just amazed by how good these guys are at golf.  I am a decent golfer but watching it on tv does no justice.  These guys are at least 45 shots better than I am at golf..... I'm not even 45 shots better than my sister at golf.  Friday night, Bub joined the crowd and we went to eat at Ted Turner's restaurant in Arlington that had all beef choices available in Bison, which if you have never tried Bison, is awesome.  We met up with one of Rob's friends for the evening and then decided to call it a night.

Robert Rock became my favorite golfer for 4 reasons.

1. He was the only person in the tournament who didn't wear a hat while playing.  
2. Without a doubt, a gunslinger.  
3. He had a permanent 5 o'clock shadow

And then there is the story of him qualifying for the tournament.  He won a tournament in Europe the week before the US Open to qualify.  However, his visa was not up to date so he spent thousands of dollars to speed up the process to get here before the tournament started.  He arrived to Newark, New Jersey on a flight Wednesday night (the tournament started Thursday) and paid $1,000 for a cab from Newark to Maryland.  A thousand dollar cab ride, now that's impressive.  Not only did all of this occur, but he didn't even play in the practice rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday that the rest of the field played in.  Practice rounds? Who needs em, he just slung it around and actually made the cut.  And during the round, while he was walking up the fairway to his ball I yelled at him and he acknowledged me.  A couple minutes later I yelled at him again.  He looked again and smiled at me.  It was pretty cool, and I might have a man crush.  Bob Kelley gave me immortal hell for it, but he was probably just jealous.  We nicknamed him "The Rock".  Alright, let's get back to the golf tournament now.


On Saturday, the cut was made and about half of the field was eliminated from competition.  Rob and I arrived at about 8:30 and only two groups had teed off.  We followed Bubba Watson around for about 4 or 5 holes and then caught some of the front 9 that we hadn't seen the day before.  On Saturday and Sunday, the remaining competitors teed off in reverse order, so the person with the worst score went first, and the leader teed off last.  We met Ryan and Bob in the afternoon at the first tee to see a few guys tee off and then walked around with some of them before the leaders teed off.  Some notable golfers from Saturday, Rory McIlroy, Y.E. Yang, Robert Karlsson, Sergio Garcia, Davis Love 3 (Not a fan of the UNC guy), Luke Donald (The #1 ranked golfer in the world), Brad Benjamin (An amateur who almost hit us with a ball off a tee shot), Lucas Glover and his beard, Steve Stricker (The top ranked American right now), Matt Kuchar, the gunslinger Quiros and of course "The Rock".  We stayed until the leaders had finished their 3rd round and got to see the leaders come through on the par 5 16th hole.  Lee Westwood and Jason Day made some big moves on Saturday, but Rory still had an 8 shot lead heading into the final round.  It was his to lose.... as long as he shot a decent round, maybe anything near par, someone would have to play out of their minds to win it.

Bubba Watson

Alvaro Quiros

Steve Hunter joined Rob and I for the last day as a birthday present from Bub.  Sunday was the final round, and many of the players were in the same position as they were on Saturday.  We saw many of the same players as the day before, and followed around Bubba Watson and Luke Donald in the morning.  We spotted both of their wives, who were together and following them around.  Watson's wife was about 6 foot and blonde and Luke Donald had a very attractive wife to say the least.... although Jason Day takes the prize for having the best looking wife, plus he finished second.  We followed Steve Stricker around for a few holes on the back 9 and then waited for the finish as Rory tore apart the field.  On hole 14 we watched while Quiros and the amateur, Russel Henley waited to tee off.  Henley was from the University of Georgia and qualified as an amateur.  He had to wait a few minutes on the tee box and him and his caddy came over and talked to us.  They were both really nice guys and he was having a great time out there, just living in the moment.  They were joking with each other and going back and forth, giving us a few laughs.  And to solidy his gunslinger status, Quiros sat down on the tee box while his caddy smoked a cigarette.   On the back 9, we got to the last 10 groups and would watch one group come through, follow them for a hole or so, and then stay with the next group.  We did this until we saw Rory McIlroy and Y.E. Yang, the last group on about hole 15.  We then jumped ahead to hole 18, where we sat by the number 10 green to see Rory's last putt on 18 to win the tournament.  Everyone knew going into the last few holes that he had won, but we had to see the last putt go in.  Everyone was behind McIlroy this weekend and to see a 22 year win the tournament with the best score in U.S. Open history wasn't a bad way to finish my first golf tournament.  I also got a salute from Scott Van Pelt, one of my favorite Sportscenter anchors on ESPN right before Rory got to the 18th green.

Tiger Woods is the only person in the past 10 or 15 years to dominate golf, and America loved him for it.  He is one of the most well known athletes in the world, and since his scandal and drop-off, everyone is looking for the next big name.  No one has the following Tiger does, and no one can bring ratings to golf like Tiger does.  His game has fallen off, but no one has stepped up to take his place.  (I'm talking to you Phil Mickelson)  Golf has been described as a Broadway show with a different lead every night since Tiger fell from the number one ranking.  You can tell that fans want what Tiger brought to the tour.  The whole crowd was behind Rory this weekend, even though is from Northern Ireland.  Golf fans just want to see something great from someone.  We don't care who it is from, we just want to see memorable moments and exciting golf.  Rory McIlory destroyed the field this weekend, and no one in the last 15 years has put on a show like that except for Tiger Woods.  Is he the next big name?  I think so, and I have only been wrong like three or four times in my life.  He is only 22 years old, and has a beautiful golf game.  Unless Tiger starts having flashbacks and comes back strong, my money is on Rory to become the next guy.

It was a great experience and what a first golf tournament.  JHW3, wish you were there with me, I know you would have enjoyed it.  (By the way, my dad was a scratch golfer)  I know this post is 2 weeks late, but I haven't hardly had any time to work on the blog.... Stay tuned for the post from New York and Atlantic City in the next couple of days.  I know some people have said they couldn't post comments on the blog if they didn't have a gmail account, so I tried to change the settings to allow for anyone to comment.  I want to hear everyone's thoughts and ideas for anything I'm doing so I hope this will let everyone have their say.  The big road trip is about 5 weeks away and a trip to D.C. with Rachel, my exchange student from high school Fabio, and my cousin Lindsey is in the works.  For now, enjoy the 4th and stay tuned.