3/October 2007

3 October 2007
Hello again from Seaside, Oregon,
I found some people who wanted to play bridge after visiting the “partner table” at the Oregon Coast Regional Duplicate Bridge Tournament. I decided that if I wanted to play some bridge I would have to take the bull by the horns and jump into the fray. I was a bit surprised to find literally dozens of people milling around the partner desk with same idea. The busy lady quickly lined me up with a man of about fifty who had just started playing competitive bridge earlier this year; Stan Roberts from Mercer Island, Washington. He had already accumulated a little over 100 master points so we were in the same ball park in terms of experience. He told me that he was a math major who worked as an actuary for a large insurance company. He was anxious to earn some “gold” points so we looked for another pair so we could enter a “knock-out” game. In this kind of game, teams are paired with similarly experienced players and play twenty-four hands with opposing pairs playing the same hands from a different direction. We found another pair from Springfield, Oregon. Jerry and Janet Walsh formerly lived in Los Angeles where Janet was an elementary school principal.
Our first game was Monday night and we managed to out score our opponents by a slim margin. Tuesday morning we played a second round and won handsomely gaining entry to a third round Tuesday afternoon. In the third round we were knocked-out and thus were out of the competition. We were pleased later to hear that the team that defeated us went on to win first place in our category. At least it took the champs to beat us. We ended up in third place in our bracket and earned a total of 5.12 master points; 1.7 of which were gold. One needs to have 25 gold points to become a life master.
This afternoon our team entered another knock-out session but lost in the first round by a score of 59 to 60. My partner and I bid two hands poorly leading to our demise. Considering that the two of us had never played together before, we decided that we had done pretty well. Stan’s brother will be coming to town tomorrow to play with him so I think I’ll forget about anymore bridge on this trip.
This morning I attended the first of the three session in the Bridge Director’s Class. I’ve been studying the rules of bridge for the past three months but I learned an awful lot in the first three hours. Tomorrow we will continue the lessons with the final day, Friday, devoted solely to taking the qualifying test for the Bridge Director License.
I plan to be packed up with the camper and boat parked at the curb for a quick get-away after the exam. I will return via the coastal route, Hwy 101 south, to New Port and then Hwy 20 through Corvallis back to I-5. With luck, I’ll make it to the Seven Feathers Casino for dinner and a stay-over in their courtesy RV lot. If that occurs, I should be back at home Saturday night.
It has been my habit for years to check the weather page each morning as I read the daily newspaper. The OREGONIAN this past week has predicted rain each day this week, with absolute correctness, and rain each day in the announced five day forcast. When I have commented to locals about the reports, I get the quick response that, “Hey, it’s supposed to rain in Oregon, you know”. What can I say?
You know, this camper life gets to you pretty quickly. I would really like to head North instead of South. I’m enjoying my new life style and am looking forward to more time on the road with ‘lil Big Foot.
Wish you could all be enjoying this with me.
I love you all,
Grandpa Dad