Good Times in McAllen

I couldn't resist sharing some of my comical happenings while I was in McAllen. I realize that some of these (ok, maybe all of them) will probably not be funny to any of you who were not present. That old "you probably had to be there" thing comes into play. Nonetheless, I thought I should still share my funnies with you!!

• I volunteered for this week's junior clinic in McAllen. The Duramed Futures Tour holds one every week at each tournament site. It was approximately 96 degrees with the intense sun beating down on us. Mind you that this was after a 5 hour practice round and an hour of practice. I was given the task of teaching putting. My first group was about 10 kids around the ages of 6 or 7. No joke, after 2 minutes, they asked if they could sit down. Who am I to tell them that they can't sit? So, they sat. Now what? There are only so many things you can tell 6 year olds about putting without them actually performing the act. Imagine what our tournament rounds would be like if we could just stop and sit down whenever we felt like it.....Now there's a thought!!! I also should note that it's a little on the challenging side when a large portion of the kids you are attempting to teach do not understand English.
• On Thursday there were 2 pro-ams (which I am not allowed to play in yet as a rookie) which meant that the course was closed. After a morning of practice at the course, my friend Kelley and I decided to have an afternoon of "girl stuff." This is turning out to be a bit of a tradition when we can't play a practice round on Thursdays. I guess you could call it a preparation day for Friday's round. Anyway, we were given coupons to receive a complimentary service of choice at the local beauty school. They were given to us at registration, and we figured that Thursday would be the perfect time. The comical part of this story is when we walk in only to find 4 Asian golfers, a golf mother, and Julie Wells, another girl from Oregon. As I sat there getting my pedicure, I observed the beauty school students (who didn't speak English very well, but attempted) trying to communicate with the Asian golfers, who spoke even less English. I found myself trying to translate what the other was trying to say...wait a minute...I don't speak Spanish or any other language for that matter. Was I kidding? Luckily, my student understood and spoke English. We had a very nice conversation, although I think she is still confused about the whole golfing tour, traveling around, my being from Oregon thing. We then went to a movie and we were the only two people in the theater. The movie was just released not even a week ago. We practically started gagging the minute we walked into the theater as the whole room smelled very strongly of mildew or must or mold or something. We had a good laugh about it, although at the end of the movie when we could still smell it, it wasn't so funny!! When I told the employee of the movie theater about the awful, nearly unbearable smell, she literally laughed at me, followed by an assurance that she would let her manager know. Yeah...and I'm going to fly to the moon tomorrow!!!
• Each week we have many volunteers to make these tournaments possible. They kindly give up their time during the 3 day tournament and it is greatly appreciated by the players. Each group has a volunteer cart driver. The players who do not have caddies are allowed to put their bags on the cart (a cart caddy) and their other task is to keep score and they report our 3-hole scores to the live-scoring. Anyway, this week during one of my rounds I had an elderly guy (I'm guessing around 80-85) and he did a fabulous job. However, at one point, I was putting my club back in my bag and he sat back down on the cart and actually farted!!! I had to keep myself from laughing out loud, but if nothing else it lightened the mood for that hole!
• After Sunday's round, my friend Kelley and I ventured to Progresso, the Mexican border town that is 15 minutes from McAllen. In my defense, we were going for a purpose. I was looking in the pharmacies for my special sunscreen (dermatologist recommended) and my Dad's gel for his shoulder. Much to the dismay of my parents and friends, we went and what an experience it was. First, did you know that they charge you to walk across the bridge? Yeah, it's a quarter to go into Mexico, and here's the real kicker...it costs 30 cents to come back into the United States. Wait, you mean to tell me that I have to pay money, (not to mention 5 cents more than Mexico charges), just to come back into my own country? Wow!!! Well, it was a partially unsuccessful trip as I found out that they don't believe in Sunscreen in the pharmacies in the border towns of Mexico. You can buy Viagra by the case loads and you can have a filling done for $25, but you can't buy sunscreen. Interesting!!! I found my Dad's stuff and off we went, very thankful when we stepped back on U.S. soil. I found it amusing as we walked past a guy offering to shine our shoes. When he realized that we both had flip-flops on and would not require a shoe shining, he quickly offered a pedicure!!! Really, you can just switch and perform something like a pedicure that easily? HMMMMM!!!!!
• And lastly, our trip ended with an adventure as we made the 12/13 hour drive today from McAllen to El Paso. As we entered San Antonio we were concerned we might be driving into a very large hurricane or tornado-ish storm. I can't express how black and scary looking it was. I hope to figure out how to get pictures on here soon...stay tuned!! Anyway, we were going 15 mph on the freeway, with everyone driving with their emergency flashers on as you could not see 3 feet in front of you. This lasted about 45 minutes. Yeah, and we still had about an 8 or 9 hour drive. Fun times, let me tell you!!!

I am in El Paso and am very ready for another fun filled week of golf on the Duramed Futures Tour. I am really enjoying myself and am especially excited this week as my Dad is coming in later in the week and will have the privilege (yes, privilege) of caddying for me. In addition, my college coach (and very best friend) is coming down to watch. I always enjoy having fans!!!