Spending The Day With Old RV Friends In Pinehurst Area

                    Saturday 4/5/2014

         We came to the Pinehurst area, because one of the bloggers I follow blogged, "On The Road To Retirement" at http://zeetraveler.blogspot.com/2013/04/southern-pines-north-carolina.html about this area and it looked like an interesting place to visit. Plus we needed to spend some time for at least another month before moving further north. I also follow another RV blogger, Dawn at http://dawnandjeffsblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/here-we-are.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DawnsBloggyBlog+%28Dawns+bloggy+blog%29
I knew  her sister lived in Carthage, and they come to this area a lot, but the last I knew they were still in Texas when we decided to visit this area. A few days before we arrived in Carthage, I saw that they had left Texas. After a few days in the area, I saw on FB that Dawn and Jeff drove long day and night hours and were in Carthage a few days after we arrived. What takes a couple weeks for us, took days for them.

I FB Dawn, and told her we were only a couple miles away, and hoped we could get together before we left. I had told Dawn, We were planning on going to Weymouth Woods, so we decided to go together.

Dawn & Jeff are big birder's, so we looked for birds while on the hike. (Unfortunately, Joe and I are not early birds so we didn't get to the preserve until around 11:00). Birder go birding early in the morning or late in the afternoon, so we didn't see too many birds.

The preserve is a 900- acre longleaf pine forest. It is home to the rare and endangered red cockaded woodpecker, but we didn't see one.

The preserve does controlled burns to help provide the right environment for the red cockaded woodpecker. After our hike in the preserve to went to lunch at the Panera Bread Restaurant in Southern Pines.

After lunch Jeff drove us over to the Pinhurest Country Club. Here we saw people playing bocce ball.

As we walked the halls of the Country Club, we saw many exhibits of US Open trophies.

This is a picture of the 1999 US Open winner Payne Stewart.

Arnold Palmer said Pinehurst is the Golf Capitol of the World.

The US Open is held on Golf Course #2 at the Country Club. This is a picture of hole #1 of Course #2.

From that picture, you can look down the wall and see a picture of every hole of Course #2 if you are a golfer!

The last US Open that was held at Pinehurst was in 2005.

We walked out to the back deck of the Pinehurst Country Club, and I took this picture of the flower bed and the golfer statues off in the distance.

Joe and Jeff standing in front of the statue of Payne Stewart.

A look back at the Pinehurst Country Club back patio decks.

Payne Stewart was killed a few years later after winning the US Open in a plane crash.

The statue on the left is of Donald Ross the "American father of Golf Course Architecture".

Jeff goofing off  with the statue's

View of hole #18 on Course #2. The Pinhurst Country Club had 8 Golf Courses. In the Pinehurst, Southern Pine, and Aberdeen area there are 40 golf courses in a 15 mile radiance. Pinehurst will be holding the US Open in June of this summer. Maybe I'll watch it for the first time since I can say I've been there!

As we walked around the Country Club, we saw some of the other courses as well as the outside cafe .

We finally see a bird in a tree at the Pinehurst Country Club. Dawn told me what it was, but I have forgot the name. I looked through my bird book, but I couldn't figure it out. Help!

Next we went to the Carolina Inn. Dawn introduced us to her brother in law who manages the restaurant and her nephew who works in the bar. At 4:00 we had tea and cookies in the lobby before heading home.

Before leaving Dawn and Jeff, I got a picture of them in front of Homey, that is parked at her sister's home in the side yard.

Dawn and Jeff are special to Joe and I because they are the first friends and Full-Timer Rvers we met. My blog would not exist either, if it had not been for Dawn. I had never heard of blogs,or how to start a blog. She helped me start it and was a teacher to me the first year when I needed help. Our thoughts will always be with them. Safe travels Dawn and Jeff, who are going on their 14th year of full timing. Your the greatest!