The Good Life

After a fun night in Austin for M's bachelorette I headed back to Houston to begin my journey to central Illinois.  I flew into St. Louis and drove 2 hours north through cornfields to Springfield for my next tournament.  Luckily, the tournament's weather went well -- pretty stressful at times, but no delays and I met a lot of interesting people (and even got a hello from my favorite golfer -- although I still think she thought I was someone else).

Springfield is small-town USA in a nutshell.  Filled with farmers and small shop owners, it's the capital of the state, land of Lincoln, and home to just 100,000 people.  It doesn't have a ton of personality and is filled with mostly chain restaurants, but the town thrives on the lively-hood of this golf tournament that has taken place for the last 36 years.

I drove down to the capital one night -- it was huge!  A statue of Lincoln was outside of it

I secretly snapped this photo at Panera one night of a couple that was dressed super strangely-- then later realized they were dressed up for a Lincoln exhibit. 

I was extremely happy to get home yesterday, especially after turbulent weather getting out of STL.  I'm still figuring out my way traveling the country alone, but I'm slowly meeting people in the league and learning more and more.  I feel truly blessed for this opportunity and know that this is the only chapter of my life it could happen.

I'm venturing to upstate New York next week for one of their major tournaments hosted by Wegmans (an apparently awesome grocery store).  I'm really excited to see the city of Rochester and the inner foodie in me is squealing with excitement to see one of those grocery stores.  Apparently the weather near the lake is very bipolar, so I'm sure it'll come with many challenges...but I'm praying for sunny skies!