We stayed another day at Fortenberry estates in Birmingham before heading up to Nashville to hold a MaceMan doubles event in Nashville. This one drew about 35 players for a round of fun and prizes, thanks to the help of our local pal 2Na (pronounced 'Tuna') and Brian Mace's pre-event flyer distribution. We spent the night with our pal Steve Ivy who Dave and I hung with for a couple days during a Nashville winter tournament last year. Steve donated a coffee maker to the Winnie. From Nashville we drove to Bowling Green and held a doubles event at Keriakes park. We got about 20 players on a Thursday nite for that one... not bad.

The whole crew was pretty psyched up about the upcoming Bowling Green Open, knowing that the competition would be top notch and the payout would be big. Linda made a last minute decision to come and play. She joined forces (and wallets) with George Smith and Robo from St. Louis and drove out for the tournament. Luckily our host for the weekend, Steve Bowera, didn't mind us bringing four extra guests. Randy Fortenberry joined us for the weekend. We were happy to have an opportunity to pay him back a little for the generosity he showed us when we were playing the Tax Tourney.

At Steve's house we took over the cabin out in the backyard. The Bowera's gave us full run of the grounds and house we all had a great time. Hal "Halbaby" Kurz was also on hand and made it out to Rocky Russell's house for the annual ping-pong bash. I passed on table tennis due to the fact that my right forearm was killing me after I was hit by one of Avery's drives from about 400 feet away. I was pretty worried about how it would affect my play during the tournament but didn't let on so that he wouldn't think about it too much.

As it turned out on Saturday my injury didn't really affect my game much. My forearm was sensitive to touch but I could swing around all I wanted.... cool.

I was one stroke off Russell's lead after the first day. Dave and Avery, on the other hand, were floundering near the bottom card... 17 strokes off the lead. It was really windy on Saturday... Ron was phenomenal.

Sunday morning I missed about ten putts by a combined total of about one inch. I was pretty unhappy about it. Dave and Avery on the other hand each shot near the course record and blasted up several cards. The final round at Keriakes saw me and Eric Tracy jumping into the finals from the second card. Dave and Avery both climbed back into a cashing situation and Ron Russell won the tournament by many, many strokes. It was windy all weekend and Ron was hitting puts from all over the place.... he was out of his mind. Eric Tracy finished 2nd... he was pretty out of his mind too. Climo was 3rd, Shawn Sinclair was 4th, I was 5th, Dr. Rick finished 6th. Barry Schultz, Al Schack, Mike Young, and Doug Chilcotte also finished near the top. Linda, who had been practicing a lot now that the time changed in St. Louis, developed a sore on her throwing finger and had a painful time. She says she had fun and I tried to supply more fun for her through the weekend. We had a great time and I hope to see her again in Peoria, Illinois.

Today we're spending one more night in Bowling Green and heading to Kingsport for a doubles event on Tuesday. Then we'll drive back to Bowling Green for an appointment at a garage for the Winnie. Hopefully we can get her back to smooth sailing at a minimal cost. From there we head to Maryland for the Seneca Creek Soiree.

-Todd and Crew

Got a question or comment for Todd and the Winnicrew? Send it here. Be sure to include "2001 Tour" in the subject header.