12th Annual Veggy Open, 2008

As I sit by our pool, listening to 70’s music, having a cold one or two, I’m thinking about what to write about this year’s Veggy Open. I usually write down notes every night and work off that outline to make the ann ual VO letter. This year, my notes were scarce. Maybe playing hold-em until 4:00 am had something to do with it. 

However, as I recall the 5 days we spent together with good friends, I do know one thing. It was an awesome time, just focusing on enjoying each others company. Doesn’t get much better than that. No worries about work or major community losses, just enjoying life at its best. We have a good group of guys and I hope this continues for many years to come. 

It all started on July 30th, with Gil in town early to visit his folks. Scooter and Freck landed in the afternoon. T Wally cut his work day short to pick up his buddies. We went to a sports bar to watch the Cub game while waiting for the Big Guy to land in Veggy. Narke landed and was primed and ready to go. Gotta love those Southwest drink coupons. Life is a bit louder when Narke is around. Everyone loves the big guy.

We checked in at the Golden Nugget, had plenty of beers in the room, and headed for community. As u sual, without Dexter, community, sucked. Even with T Wally carrying his buddies with 2 straight flushes in 3 card poker, we got spanked. It was a late night.  T Wally was up quite a bit playing hold-em until he got busted with consecutive pocket kings and pocket aces to finish the night.

For some reason, Roar, Narke and Wall missed their 7:00 am wake up call. Scooter, Freck, Gil, Narke, Spider and T Wally finall y left the Golden Nugget around 7:30 am and headed towards Lake Mead. We were on the water with a boat and jet ski by 9:00 am, the temperature already over 100 degrees. We enjoyed the morning cruising the lake, enjoying the sights, listening to music while working on our tan.

Travy and Griggy met us for lunch and restocked our beverages with ice cold aluminum bottles. At 120 degrees, you need a lot of liquids to stay alert out there.

We did a lot more tubing and knee boarding this year. I think our physical shape allowed t hat to happen. Round is a shape, right? Travy and Wall doubled up on the tube for some great runs. The big guy enjoyed spraying everyone as he dominated on the knee board.  We tried to pull Narke and Freck at the same time, but the 500 hp engine just wasn’t enough to get these physical specimens out of the water.

Spider made the call for the Earl of Mead and after a ½ dozen life vests propped him up, “Bone” took his place in the middle of the lake. If we were in a forest, he looked like the Lion King surrounded by his subservient family members. The jet ski spent a lot of gas serving as the beer taxi. It was a fun, tiring day that finally ended around 5:00 pm.

Before dinner, Scooter presented the red, 2008 Veggy  Open shirts. He solidified his VP status with his best shirts to date.  We had 8:00 pm reservations at a nice Italian restaurant in the Golden Nugget. Smithers and Roar rounded out the group, totaling 10 of20the finest. It is quite a sight as the Veggy Open entourage sport their loud shirts. Gawkers took pictures and asked for autographs. Most VO members obliged, some charged a hundo for the pictures. We had an awesome mix of appetizers & various pizzas’s and enjoyed our dining experience. After dinner, we were primed for community. Not sure why, maybe we like losing money? Maybe we are masochists? Maybe just really dumb? For whatever reason, we haven’t learned our lesson. We had fun, kind of, got our butts kicked in multiple community games and called it a night.

The group was ready to roll for our early tee off time at Boulder Creek golf course. They had a huge sign as we arrived, “Welcome Veggy Open Members.” We felt honored and deserving of this acknowledgement. 

The first 3-some of Scooter, Gil and Travy showed their skills with 275 yard drives down the middle of the fairway. This was followed by Freck, Smithers and Spider who also showed them what they are made of. Then the real golfers were on the spotlight. Roar, Narke and T Wally nearly drove the gre en from the tee. Although they finished with respectable 7’s and 8’s, on this hole, this group gave up their dream of winning a Veggy Open on the 2nd hole, thus we began enjoying adult beverages. This was quite a 3-some that included a backwards drive and several pool cue putts from? You guessed it. The Big Guy. Words can’t describe what it’s like playing 18 with Narkeburger. An awesome experience we all should witness once in our lifetime.

As we neared the end, it was a 3 man race. Scooter, Freck and Smithers were all on pace to shoot mid 80’s. Although a certain person sent me a 10 page e-mail describing victory, I’ve been asked by other members to keep it short, very short. You guessed it, Scooter eeked out a 1 shot victory over Freck and Smithers. A fine round of 87 on a tough course propelled sturdy Scooter to his 6th Veggy Open championship. Although we hate to lose to this guy, he is the Tiger Woods of the Veggy Open. They have a similar swing and similar bodies, with Scooter sporting a little less body fat than Tiger. A 6 time Veggy Open champ, nobody comes close to this feat. Our hats are off to this golfing stud, he deserves all the accolades he bestows upon h imself.

As for the side bets, Freck won longest drive twice, Roar won longest putt twice and closet to the pin once while Wall nearly had a hole in one and won closest to the pin once. Travy putted like a mad man and had lots of cards to win the putting poker game.

We headed to Gramma Glo’s for the best lasagna lunch on the planet. As usual, we were joined by Al and Germaine Reif, looking as fine as they always do. We chowed down and king of dreaded what was coming up. The presentation of the new award for the Veggy Open winner. Although there never really was a consensus on the future of this award, a certain executive council VP took the bull by the horns and decided to make a draconian change. The result, a prestigious plaque called the “Henricks Cup.” Mr. Henricks simply felt that his accomplishments in the Veggy Open were on par with the accolades of Jack and Tiger. Can we argue? Who else has dominated like Mr. Henricks?

A nice, hand crafted wood plaque, featuring all past Veggy Open winners stole the show that afternoon. An honorable trophy on the plaque, featuring founders Scooter and T Wally, displayed that individuality is not what the Veggy Open is all about. It symbolizes that the Veggy Open is all about multiples, community etc., not just the 5 different names that are etched in the traveling Veggy Open plaque. We had complimentary calls from Dexter and Red. It was a great celebration of food, friends and tiring stories of Scoters 6th VO championship.

Getting back after a long day meant major naps for the aging Veggy Open members. We showered and headed outside, not sure where we were going. Near our hotel, was a bar called Hogs & Heifers. We decided to check it out. It was a biker bar with female bartenders that could drink all of us under the table. It was an experience that was different than any other bar we’ve ever been to, and we’ve been to a lot of bars over the years. Blow horns, very loud, a different kind of fun for a couple of hours.

Across from the Golden Nugget, we experienced fried Oreos and Twinkies that were actually pretty good. Lots of activity downtown made the experience very enjoyable.

Saturday morning we hit the pool early with prime seats. They have a large shark/fish tank that is very cool. Several members took the water slide that actually goes through the fish tank. As usual, we snuck lots of beer down there and also ordered some killer Pina Coladas. Our waitress was commenting how we were drinking Bud Select aluminum bottles, but they didn’t serve that in the pool area. A generous tip from the Veggy Open members and this waitress was on our side! Lots of Euchre, hanging in the pool and relaxing was a great way to spend a good part of the day.

We had a great meal at an Irish Pub that featured good music as well. We gamed quite a bit at smaller casinos. We really enjoyed switchback 21, where you can change cards while playing. We did OK with community here. We also played craps and came out ahead, a rare victory when playing in Vegas. The night ended at midnight for some and for others, well quite a bit later. There were early Sunday morning flight to catch, some members survived with no sleep.

Sunday afternoon, only 4 of us were still standing. Gil, Scooter, Freck and T Wally enjoyed an awesome brunch, compliments of Mr. and Mrs. Reif. Chris Reif and Gramma Glo also joined us. We chowed down and gamed at the tables for a few hours after lunch.

Gil went with his parents while Scooter, Freck and T Wally went back to Gramma Glo’s for the night. I think we were out by 8:00 pm and crashed all night long. T Wally took Scooter to the airport and dropped Freck off at a customer’s early in the morning.

Finally, they all were gone. Sad, but good memories about the last 5 days swirled throughout my head. I thought of previous members who have not been able to join us the last few years. Always optimistic, I look forward to them returning.

As always, this trip was nothing but a good time. We are all fortunate to have remained friends for over 30 years. In a few weeks, many of us will be at our 30 year Wheeling HS multi-class reunion. In October, several of us will celebrate in Macomb for our 25 year college reunion. Reminiscing old times with good friends i s priceless. May we continue to keep our health so this can continue for many years to come. Mark your calendar for next year, our 13th annual Veggy Open, July 29 – August 2nd.

I have a Walter Payton picture that states “tomorrow is not promised to anyone.” We think of Marianne Miele’s 20 year old daughter found dead in a car. At times, life does not seem fair. Although we are with our immediate families nearly every day and acknowledge that family comes first, it is always a good time to spend time with old friends. Especially the group we have.

“Life is precious; spend time with friends while you can.”

Stay well,
T Wally

See pictures here