Daddy's 1st visit to the Woodshed...

One year in January (1996 or 1997)I convinced Daddy to go with me to the Ice Bowl that Dave Steger was holding in Paw Paw (this was also Daddy's first visit to the Woodshed). The whole day was a comedy of errors. It was slightly above freezing that day so coming in was a little slushy, yet nothing to worry about.

Apparently, I drive way too fast on Detour Road coming into the woodshed or at least that is what Daddy said. He was so nervous that I was going to drive off that mountain road...I'm sure there are still fingernail marks on the "oh jesus bar" of my Honda Civic. Every time I would take an right hairpin turn, Daddy's weight in the passenger seat, caused the tire to rub in the inside of the wheel well and Daddy would punch me in the arm and tell me to slow down! He punches really hard! I was laughing so hard I was crying trying to look for the next right turn to scare him agian! To this day I thank God I'm left handed, because my right arm was jelly when we arrived.

Shortly after arriving the temps started to drop and everything froze up, the round was just silly. Discs would not stay where they landed and Daddy was getting quite frustrated. On hole 12 his approach kept sliding down the hill and didn't stop until it cam to rest in the swale next to 17's tee. We were using 4 discs to sled on...one under each hand and one under each knee, this would allow us to side across the crust at lightning speed! Except Daddy, his weight would cause the discs to crack through the crust and he would just sit there, again getting frustrated by all the fun we were having slipping around...poor Daddy he doesn't get to have any fun! Dave Steger also lost his car keys somewhere on hole 13's sledding run (to this day those keys haven't shown up) and Spencer had to hot wire Daves car so he could get home, not sure whether he had to use a fork to start his car, as that is how I had to start my truck for a while after Spence hot wired that one!

Needless to say that Daddy was not too impressed with the Woodshed after all that fun.

Then it came time to leave, remember that the temps dropped, and there is a major hill on the gravel road (Gaither Road) leaving the woodshed and not one of us had four wheel drive except Spence. We all had ended up at the bottom of that hill unable to leave. Spencer had to come and tow us up the hill indiviually. So, then it was mine and Daddy's turn to get towed up the hill...Spence got us about a 1/4 of the way up and we started slipping backward, I yelled at Daddy to get out to lighten the load, as soon as he popped out of the car Spencer's truck got a grip and we went to the top of the hill...um, without Daddy. Due to the ice Daddy had to walk the hill and HE could not grip to climb the hill! He had to crawl up the hill on his hands and knees in order to grip the ice.

Big Daddy swore he was NEVER coming back to this frozen wasteland in the middle of nowhere!

I still laugh about this when I think of it....I don't think Daddy ever did.

And yes he did go back to Paw paw eventually, just rest assured, it was not winter time.

We'll always love you Daddy.