Some days are simply better than others. In the end, sitting in a Motel 6 Room in Brattleboro, Vermont, using a $2.99 wireless card, looking back on a 6.5 hour trip, a 3-hour course review and photo shoot, and a running-on-fumes dash through the Massachusetts countryside, it certainly was all good. Let us break it down:

6.5 hour dash from Buffalo to Brattleboro to drop son off for summer job. Lunch with son and son’s girlfriend at funky sandwich shop with view of New Hampshire across the way. Quick run up to Motel 6 to check in solo. Drive to Crumpin Fox, a Roger Rulewich design just across the border in Bernardston, Massachusetts. Holes played in this order: 11-17, 2-9, 10, 1, 18. 160 high-resolution images shot. One draft beer in pub and directions to closest gas station, as only locals can give them! Gas, McDonalds, Motel 6.

These are the highlights and revelations.

1: GPS is irreplaceable. Dagmar (my chosen voice) may be a little light on the instructions, but she gets me there. It’s so damned easy now! Who needs a map?

2: I finally found a Rulewich I like! Fox Hopyard in Connecticut was too tough, with too many forced carries. Saratoga National was too tough, with too many forced carries. Crumpin Fox was supposed to be more demanding than the Hopyard but…guess what!! It was fair. I recommend it to any and all.

3: 102 FM Classic Rock out of Springfield, MA is beyond delicious. These were the sets I heard from C-F to Gas to Mickey D’s to Motel 6: Three from The Cars, Three from Hendrix, Three from The Door. Can’t imagine a better way to enjoy the DAID (Day After Independence Day.) I just needed Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum to make it perfect!

I believe (I’ll correct me if I’m wrong) that the golfers at C-F might have been the most polite and accommodating of all that I have encountered in the last five years. A family fivesome at 6:30 invited me to play through; at least 60 percent of the golfers were walking the course (instead of riding the gas hog that I needed for my camera equipment); the young man from the pro shop was out with his kid brother for a few holes after work, but still took the time to guide me from hole 13 to hole 18, so that I could finish my round. There’s not a lot to do in Bernardston, but who cares. Crumpin Fox could fill my days for a long time.

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