Chapter 53

In the morning I got out of the room of Rolling Thunder as I thought of it, as soon as I could. It was a beautiful day, so I had a long run around campus. It is a really nice campus and I would consider going to school here. I wondered how their School of Engineering was rated. More research to do. The only engineering schools I had heard of by reputation were MIT and Georgia Tech.

I met up with Coach in the visitor’s center restaurant as arranged. The whole place was set up like a hotel. After a nice breakfast, we went over to the golf course, our first stop was the valet to unload my clubs, then parking. We retrieved clubs and went to the, you guessed it, white pavilion to register. I bet someone was making a living off of renting tents. It would have never occurred to me.

Mr. King was there helping but when he saw us, he waved us over.

“I’m glad you made it, a certain young lady would make my life not worth living if I didn’t get Rick to dinner this evening.”

Coach just shook his head, and murmured, “Young love.”

Mr. King laughed and said, “Ain’t it grand.”

I wish they didn’t make fun of me, I knew it wasn’t love, we hardly knew each other. I would use words like infatuation or maybe even lust, but not love. I decided not to say anything about what I thought it really was, especially lust. I may be slow and oblivious at times, but not completely stupid.

Coach and I walked the course. I saw what he meant about the sand traps, they had been deep potholes at onetime that would be a nightmare. They had been allowed to fill in over the years and the lips guarding the green had crumbled so you could do a pitch and run to the green. Someday they may restore the course, but I wasn’t complaining today. This course right now was made for my game.

I could see how The Golden Bear could tear this course up. My long game was longer than his, but not by much. He would kill me on the greens. It would still be fun to play with him one of these days. I put that on my mental list of things to do.

I no sooner thought this as we walked off eighteen to return to the practice area when Jack Nicklaus walked by. Of course, he didn’t know me from Adam, so he kept going. Heck even if he knew me he probably would’ve kept going.

Though I had heard he was a really nice guy, so maybe he would’ve said, “Hi,” as he kept moving.

The practice round on the 7455-yard long Par 71 Scarlet course went well, as usual, I didn’t keep score. I was trying to understand how the course played. None of the sand traps guarding the normal landing zones for drives would cause a problem. I would just hit past them. I could roll through the traps surrounding the greens.

If my putting was on, I should do well. This course didn’t give me the same fear that Inverness did, now that was a course you had to respect. This one was like a down on its luck brother.

Thinking “down on its luck brother,” made me think of my Uncle Wally. That gave a pause for thought; even someone like Wally could cause problems. I better not get too big for my britches as Mum would say.

We went back to our rooms and cleaned up for dinner. I had brought my cowboy suit with me this time. Mum had taken it to the tailor to have the pants let down. The coat was a little tight, so I wouldn’t be wearing it much longer, but it would do.

My shirt had cool looking pearl buttons and I wore a bolo tie with a turquoise slide. Of course, I wore my alligator skin boots, belt with the large rodeo championship buckle the size of a small dinner plate, and black hat.

I had several calls of, “Hey Tex,” in the lobby. I had even put my Texas Ranger badge and I.D. in my pocket, more to show off if I could. I was dressed to impress. Coach just shook his head when he saw me.

We made a small stir when entering the restaurant. I removed my hat and followed the hostess to our table. There were comments from other diners as we passed through. None bad, just like, who is that guy. The Kings were already seated and Judy had saved me a seat next to her. She was dressed in a white blouse with a black pencil skirt and a nice set of pearls. I said, “It is my pleasure to sit next to you Ma’am,” in my best western drawl which was atrocious to say the best.

Then the most wonderful thing happened. Two small kids came up and asked for my autograph. They were a brother and sister eight and ten years old. The younger sister told me that I had better be nice to Annette, and not to try to kiss her again!

This opened the conversation up at the table. I worked very hard not to have it all about me as dinner proceeded. Judy didn’t contribute much except for an occasional question. Most of the questions came from her parents. I started to get the impression they didn’t approve of me being allowed to roam last summer.

In an attempt to change the conversation I told Mr. King I was a customer of his. Of course, he wanted to know what I was buying, which led to a description of my control unit, which in turn lead to a description of my hairdryer idea. He liked the electronics, the women liked the hairdryer.