After departing Windsor, Colorado after a sub par week for Jed Barish in golfing, we headed for Moline, Illinois where we will stay during our DeafNation Golf Classic in nearby Silvis at the TPC Deer Run Golf Course, where the John Deere Classic, a PGA tournament, is held. The Barish brothers are excited about playing in a course where the top PGA players recently participated at the major PGA sports event.

Jed didn’t make the top 8 to qualify for the World Deaf Golf Championships (WDGC) which will be held in St. Andrews, Scotland. He wanted to face walls now so that he could prepare himself mentally for the tougher PGA sanctioned golf courses. He had been in training working on his stroke before focusing on the putting fundamentals and other techniques. Once he hits all areas of golfing, he will be ready to add more consistency to his game.

Said Jed, “There are many different angles on putting, the toe and heel, I have been focused on the mechanics of my stroke and driving,” which explains why he had struggled with his putting game. He takes private lessons, and as he puts it, “I will touch this area as soon I complete my private lessons on other golf skills.”

But he is the player to watch when he is hot. And he is a good practice player, sometimes people play better practicing alone. It’s playing around other people that gets to him, he needs to play in a tournament setting regularly to become hardened to any distraction.

Arriving in Iowa, we settled down in a KOA campground, which is an RV place for travelers. We had just drove through Nebraska passing by the baseball stadium where the College World Series takes place, and glimpsed the huge PayPal headquarters as we passed by on the highway. People had been heading to Nebraska thinking it is where farm hands carrying haystacks become huge football players, a NFL breeding ground, but we realized there is more to this state than we thought.

We settled for the night inside the RV, watching a movie called “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” which was a pretty good movie, with a Dr. Frankenstein theme. Jed said, “X-Files is forever mutating with a new ending each movie,” shaking his head, “I watched all X-Files movies and there is always a new plot with different ending.”

Now this time it has a surgical plot by “Dr. Frankenstein,” and we went to bed having nightmares about being iced and sewed up before we woke up all in one piece.

We survived through the movie.

We awoke and got dressed, setting up the RV for departure. Jed is a “human clock,” because he announces how many hours we have to drive and how much more before we get there, so traveling is always fun with him. We can draw up a map visually in our minds as we are on the go. On road trips there are business discussions, joking around, and even times of solitude as we get into our own world, text messaging our friends and family.

“I have touched every major interstate in the United States,” his hands drawing jagged lines up and down, “in my DeafNation Road trip travels since DeafNation purchased the RV,” his finger swooping from East to West.

Except Hawaii, unless new technology allows us to drive the RV over the Pacific Ocean, which isn’t going to happen anytime soon, either. Or did Jed?

After meeting up with Joel Barish, we arrived at the Stoney Creek hotel, winded down for a while as our friend and fellow tourney player James McDonald went to pick up the Barish brother’s father Harold at the airport. Once everyone, including upcoming golfer John Ramirez was together, we all took a walk to TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) restaurant to have a good meal together as giddy-happy golfing buddies.

Moline is a significant town because it is where the Deere & Company World Headquarters is located. If you see John Deere tractors, Moline is the headquarters! Every town we go to or pass through have something relevant to talk about, that is the beauty of travel.

Say a prayer for us as we go do practice rounds tomorrow where the DeafNation Golf Classic will be held, there will be daily blog on the annual event.

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