Day Six: Boyne Mountain – Alpine and Monument (Jerry Lee, and mimosas)

August 08, 2022

Day Six: Boyne Mountain – Alpine and Monument (Jerry Lee, and mimosas)

This morning I “slept in” since we don’t need to take the drive to the Highlands or Bay Harbor. We’re “on property” at the Boyne Mountain’s Alpine and Monument. And breakfast doesn’t open until 7:00 a.m.

They gave us a bottle of champagne so we bought orange juice on our way home so we can make mimosas on the course. Couldn’t figure what else we would do with it. We also grabbed plastic cups for our mimosas.

Before we head to breakfast, talking scorecards.

Pete: “My index has dropped to a 5.6.”

Tom: “Because you’re a stud.”

I haven’t looked at my index to see if it’s changed since the trip.

Breakfast buffet at the Mountain is good, but doesn’t have the big bowls of berries like the Highlands or Sagamore’s. And, while I would think they use the same coffee, the coffee isn’t as good (but I still take a to-go cup). On our way out of the lodge to head to the course, guess who was there – Jerry Lee, the cart girl on the Mountain. We’ve been talking up Jerry Lee forever! She says she’ll see us out there! As Tom puts it: “she’s very effervescent.”

Jerry Lee!

This is Oz. He's seven months old and sat nice for his picture.

They need to trim the ivy a bit.

Headed on the road to the top of the Mountain!

They are building a sky bridge.

When I check in for golf, I meet a new puppy. His name is Oz (some sort of doodle) and he’s seven months. And he even goes and gets and brings me a toy. When I decided to get a picture of him, Oz sat like a good boy. I’m driving Levi around today on the Mountain. We load up with “ammo” for the ride up the mountain. As Tom puts it, we’re dorks. We like our little games of tossing balls at each other as we head up the mountain. The objective is to hit the cart (or go into the cart) if you’re tossing. But to try to catch a ball if you’re the recipient.

Tee off on the dewy Alpine. Tom starts us off with a birdie. We break open the bottle of champagne and OJ and make mimosas to celebrate the birdie. I rattle off a par on #2 – a picture hole with the fountain in the pond and the little covered walkway/bridge to #3. I par #3 as well. On #4, Frymire calls me (supposed to call Tony, not me, but Ashley says she doesn’t have Tony’s number. BS).

Mimosas! (champagne courtesy of Boyne in our cabin)

#2 Alpine (short par 4 with pond and fountain)

Apple picking on the par 5 #5 (they were "kinda red").

On the long par 5 uphill #5, I don’t play well, but Levi finds us apples to try. Not bad if you only eat the reddish part. On #6, we encounter Jerry Lee – she even has her cart with her name. She talks us into local seltzer with Michigan cherries. Not bad because it’s not overly sweet or seltzer-y. We’ll see her again in the afternoon on the Monument.

Tony texts me on #11 to call when I get a chance. Good news: because I have a maintenance agreement there is no charge. Bad news: it’s not the AC, we need an electrician because of a “voltage thing.” Now Tony is trying to track down an electrician. Great.

Lunch in the field – nothing fancy about the Mountain with pretty much just a halfway house for brats (and panini for Pete because he doesn’t like pretzel rolls). I head over to the pro shop to see if we can get on Monument earlier than our 1:30 pm tee time. 12:50 pm, so we head on up the mountain again.

Monument #1 is one of my favorite holes in Michigan. It’s a dogleg right par 5, with a bunker in front of the green with railroad ties – that you can putt up. All four of us end up in this bunker (Tom says I did it on purpose). And all four of us putt. Levi is the most successful. Tom, well his went backwards over his head on the first try (in all of the years in Michigan, he’s never tried it).

Barefoot golf!

After #3, my shoes come off. Ditto for Pete, Tom and Levi. This afternoon is barefoot golf. I need to get a pedicure (the chemo got my nails kind of yucky, but I’ve been waiting for a year to get a pedicure).

On the hole over the road, Tony texts me again. It’s not the electricity – it’s the AC. But I’m out $350 for the electrician to come out anyway. Now Tony has to get Frymire back. I am going to try and get them to pay the $350 – if they hadn’t told us we needed an electrician, we wouldn’t have gotten one out! Frymire is coming back. Tony and Abby are miserable in the house – it’s 89 degrees inside. Tony’s put the kiddie pool out, but Abby won’t go in it.

On the #8 hole with the bunker down the “middle,” Levi finally hits one down the middle – but makes par from the bunker. He’s played well out of the bunkers. The next hole #9 has a bunker in front of the green, with railroad ties (these I’ve never tried to putt out of).

I told Levi about this bunker all the way to the hole. He still found it.

During barefoot round, Levi and I start talking about playing more golf after this round. Tom is in. Pete, kind of in, but not as enthusiastic about it. We’ll see when we get done with the round.

I don’t love the holes from #12 - #18 as much as the first holes. But, they are still fun. When we get done, I head to the pro shop to see if they can get us back out – they can, on the Monument. So, off we head up the Mountain again!

Tony calls – AC is working! I don’t know all of the details, but it’s working. He also told me that of everyone, Javan offered for us to stay with him since we didn’t have AC. That was sweet.

Levi thought it'd be a good idea to jump out on the ride up the mountain and hide from Pete and Tom.

#1 Monument (you can putt up the railroad ties).

You can't really putt up #9 rail road ties (par 3).

On #13, we lose Tom and Pete and Levi and I say we’ll play a couple more holes. We end up finishing the round. Meet up with Tom and Pete at the Beach House where they are having drinks. Levi and I don’t need anymore drinks after our 54 holes today.