One thing we have learned over the years in coming over here is to go with the flow. Our favorite places and often our fondest memories stemmed from changes in itinerary etc. Today would prove to be no different. As you may recall from our last post, Kristen and I were set to play The Old Musselburgh Links Course at the race track today. However, having seen it yesterday and not being impressed I was up for some other options. That being said, Kristen posed a request to head back to St Andrews for "wee" visit to the spa if I could find somewhere to play golf up there. She spoke my love language there with "St Andrews" and "Golf". I called the spa and much to her delight, they would be expecting Kristen as soon as we could get up there. Once she heard the news, we were off to the races. Since there are few speed limit signs here, we made good time to say the least in getting her to her "mothership."
As things generally due, they worked out for me too and I was able to secure a tee time within the hour on The New Course here in St Andrews. The course was designed by Old Tom Morris and was opened for play in 1895. Clearly, "New" is a relative term. I was paired with a retired gentleman from West Virginia. He was so excited to be in St Andrews, much less playing golf there. He was chattering away like a kid at Christmas the whole way down the fairway. I could tell we were going to have fun, and indeed we did. The weather was sunny and bit breezy. The forecasted rains and high winds were set to start coming in that afternoon so I was thrilled to be able to get out on the course early. While the winds did indeed pick up before we finished, the rain held off. Thankful for that....
After my round I was back fireside at The Jigger Inn. While I was waiting for Kristen to pry herself from the spa, I received word from our ferry service on Saturday that there was weather coming on and we would not be able to cross to Northern Ireland as previously planned. Our plans and the back half of our journey were now officially up in the air. Based on some guidance from some gents there in The Jigger, I was able to call an audible and change some things up a bit. I called off our plans to head to Machrihanish Dunes and go straight to Northern Ireland instead. I booked us on a car ferry out of Troon that would take us across, which was a blessing in and of itself. That wasn't originally going to be the case. Instead of forging across on the SS Minnow we were well tended to on a much larger ship. I was also able to move our arrival time up a day for the Bushmills Inn. We had heard a lot about the place and were looking forward to seeing her firsthand. Next stop, the seaside town of Portrush and the Bushmills Inn.
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