Better than amazing.....

 8:00 am - Monday - August 18th - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 30%, wind 4 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 85° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were taking a walk around Harrington Lagoon.....

.....on Whidbey Island, near Coupeville, WA.

'Sleeping in' is something I have missed this summer.  Last winter we slept in every day, and now we only 'sleep in' four out of eight mornings.  That's still pretty nice, but I am of an age when one really just wants to 'sleep in' every morning, not just half the time.  I say that to say this....we 'slept in' until 8 am Sunday, and when we did finally regain consciousness we just lay there in bed trying to shake off the sleep induced coma for 15, or 20 minutes.  Now that is the way one should begin every day.

Sunday was the fourth, and final round of the BMW Championship (Owings Mills, MD), which is the second of three legs of the annual FedEx Championship series.  You will recall that Scottie Scheffler finished second last week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship held in Nashville, TN.  Once again Scottie found himself trailing by 4 strokes entering the final round, but within 5 holes he had completely erased that four stroke lead to be in a tie for first place.  By the end of the 7th hole he had a two stroke lead, which he never relinquished.  That was his 5th win this year.  To seal the win he holed out a chip from just off the 17th green, and about 81 feet from the hole.  That chip was Tigeresque....amazing.....

....one of the greatest clutch golf shots I have ever seen, and right up there with so many Tiger Woods clutch shots over the years.  Just before that chip Robert MacIntyre, second place, still had a chance, but that amazing chip ended any and all hopes he had of tying Scottie to get into a playoff.  I saw it, and I still do not believe it.  That being said, that was not the best part of the day.  Not by a long shot.

Around 4:15 pm Tom and Darlene arrived at our site with four salmon steaks for me to grill.  This salmon was just caught, cleaned, and frozen a few weeks ago in Alaska.  While I grilled them on the Sea-B-Que we talked, as we always do, none stop.  The salmon steaks were delicious and so flavorful.  After dinner we adjourned to the 'lido deck' to continue our conversation, which kind of came to an abrupt end when we realized how chilly it was getting.  I glanced at my phone to find that four hours had passed since they arrived. It seemed like half of that.  And that, my friends, was the best part of the day.  We have spent countless weeks over the years with Tom and Darlene since we met them back in 2008 when they were on a long Newell trip in their 1990 Newell.  Since they moved to Wittmann from Mesa, AZ we have pretty much spent time at their Wittmann property every single year, except 2024 when we spent the winter at The Wilson Wilderness.  Having them stop by for 8 days on their long trip home from Alaska has been the highlight of our summer so far, and this has been a very nice summer....

Courtesy Tom McCloud

.....as is oft the case when I am engrossed in conversation, I neglected to memorialize our time together, but Tom did not....thank you Tom.  Life is good....that's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.  Thank you so much for stopping by!