The last two days have been spent at some fine golf courses, one in New Brunswick and one next door to our campground. We have been blessed with fine weather for these outings, and while the nights have been chilly (temperatures in the high 40s), it has warmed to around 70 in the daytime, giving us optimal days for golf.

Below is a photo of the Little Guy at our campsite. You can see that we are fairly removed from the masses at this location, probably more a matter of luck than anything.

Here’s the view of our campsite looking in the other direction. You can see the playground and, beyond it, the main mass of RVs stretching off into the distance. We have been very happy with Arndt’s and would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a comfortable camping spot in the Presque Isle region.

Yesterday we drove north to Hamlin Plantation (just north of Limestone, Maine) and crossed the international border there without incident to play golf at Grand Falls, New Brunswick. Note that this crossing is only open from 6AM to 6PM; if your plans do not fit this timeframe you must cross either at Fort Fairfield or Limestone. Grand Falls Golf Club is located in a delightful small town of the same name (we really enjoyed exploring the town and having dinner there last night) which we would gladly visit again. The Grand Falls golf course is an excellent layout with many thought-provoking dogleg holes to challenge one’s distance control. Here are some of the better views around this course:

The photos above are very typical of the views you see everywhere in this part of the world. Spacious vistas over potato fields and forests stretch all the way to the horizon, sometimes making photography difficult because you just can’t capture within one frame all that there is to see.

The first hole, as you can see from the above photo, is sponsored by McCain’s, a local company which is a major producer and national distributor of French fries. In fact, I would be surprised if you couldn’t find McCain’s fries in your local supermarket, sourced from potatoes grown right here in northern Maine. You might also gather from the above photos that this course was quite hilly, and proved a challenge to walk it all. In fact, we were once again complimented by strangers on the fact that we did not need to take a cart in order to play the course. I find this funny, because of course I would walk the course, just like my grandmother did — teaching me the game as she walked along, carrying her golf bag, almost into her eighties.

Today we played the course next door to the campground, the Presque Isle Country Club, another fine layout although not quite with the challenge and interest of the Canadian courses we played earlier. PICC’s layout is more straightforward, with most of the holes laid out right in front of you — drive it as far as you can, hit to the green and then putt. However, this course was (like the others) in excellent shape and well worth the reasonable greens fee we paid.

You might infer from these photos that it has been dry here, and you would be correct. All of Maine is currently in a drought, but we do not fault the golf courses for their burnt-out appearance; it is the rare (and expensive) golf course in Maine that can afford to water the fairways in addition to the tee boxes and greens.

Tomorrow is a down day as we take a break from golf. Arndt’s offers kayaks for rental, to be used on the adjacent (and lovely) Aroostook River — they will transport you and your kayak upstream to downtown Presque Isle (or even Caribou) and you paddle back down to the campground. However, the cost is somewhat prohibitive, so we have decided to head to nearby Aroostook State Park and rent their canoes on the Park’s lake. I hope to do one more post from Aroostook County before heading home!