Vista, California

It started with a rush and it wasn't adrenalin. It was water rushing from a hot water heater that had broken. Water was flooding the garage. This was what I heard when I went to the garage at 5:30 in the morning to get a suitcase on departure day of my 50-week, 50-state golf tour.

What a way to start! Was this God's way of testing my patience for obstacles I might encounter during my golf odyssey? Was this a bad dream? Once I realized it was neither of these, I turned off the water to the house and called Sam Homant, the contractor who had done all the remodelling on the home my former significant other Shirley and I had purchased a few years earlier. I explained my predicament and he agreed to come over and fix the problem.

At about 10:15 in the morning., with the rushing water problem ready to be solved and my bags packed, I doubled-checked my car trunk. It held the clothes I would need for a year on the road; the myriad of informative books about golf courses and locales throughout the US; two large, plastic file containers containing an assortment of office supplies I would need; my Toshiba laptop computer; two cameras; my beat-up but still usable briefcase; and two bags of cereal, cookies, and other assorted goodies I figured I would need at the start of my trip. And ... of utmost importance: my trusty left-handed clubs, the new TaylorMade golf bag which TaylorMade had graciously presented me; three golf gloves, two packs of tees, six dozen golf balls, and the rain outfit which I had worn while on trips to all seven continents.

I closed the trunk, backed out of the driveway, took a few photos, said goodbye to Shirley who would manage the house while I was on my odyssey, and I was off to Fountain Hills, Arizona the first stop on my tour. While on the road for the next six hours, I began to realize the long-awaited day had come and my highly anticipated 50-week, 50-state golf tour was underway.

I was excited, not only about the golf I would be playing and the places I would visit during the year that lay ahead, but also the opportunity I had developed to bring awareness to the Wounded Warrior Project during my tour. Let me be clear about this. I was not then, nor am I now officially associated with the Wounded Warrior Project, nor have I ever received any compensation from them. Although I am not a veteran, I felt strongly about what the Wounded Warrior Project was doing to help wounded warriors who had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wanted to give back in some way during my tour, and I felt spreading their message during my travels would be something I could do.

During my drive I hoped that all the planning I had done in preparation for my tour would prove to be correct, all the while knowing that I damn well would have to be resourceful, self-sufficient, and able to adjust to new surroundings and challenges for an entire year. Did I have second thoughts? Sure! Was I going to let these thoughts stop me? Not on your life. ! I had planned, talked about, and desired to make this tour for so long, I wasn't going to let some mischievous mind games hold me back.

I was about to do something that, to my knowledge, had never been done before. That in itself was stimulating. I was headed out to play golf in fifty states in fifty weeks, and I was going to give reports each week on the nationally syndicated golf show Real Golf Radio about golf, places to stay, and things to see and do in the state I was visiting. For me this was going to be an exciting adventure, an opportunity to combine three of my passions: golf, travel, and people. I was pumped!