Herman...is Human

Written on 3-19-25.

     We are at the City of Rocks Campground between Deming and Silver City, New Mexico. We spent two nights here, and we just had a yummy breakfast over at the Edgertons’ RV (bacon, over-easy eggs, and cinnamon rolls).  We fed them breakfast yesterday (waffles and sausage).  Danielle came over for the first night, and then we went to Silver City for lunch before she headed back to Albuquerque.

I texted Herman (not his real name) when we were there and sent him some pictures of the campground, because he was...

curious about it.  Yesterday was incredibly windy (more on that later), but he played with Richard at Pinon Hills anyway.  

On to golf…

When I played with Herman and Val (not his real name either), Val really gave Herman a hard time.  They banter much more than even Herman and I do.  I barely exist when they play each other, so I end up as an invisible bystander.  They speak Navajo, and Val is much more fluent, so he gives Herman guff about that, too.

When we came to hole #13, the competition was pretty close.  I wasn’t competing, but they were.  That was fine with me; I was practicing for playing in Deming against Eric.  Herman played well at the beginning, but Val charged back on the last holes of the front nine.

Then Herman had a spectacular blow-up hole.  I got stuck in the bunker on #10 for a few shots, and he teased me about it.  I commented on how it seemed nobody raked the bunkers, and he joked that all of those footprints were mine.  That was a good one, I thought.  He ended up in the water on #13, though, and then he flew his next shot over the green to the back bunker.  I asked him to show me how to play out of the bunkers properly, because of what happened to me on #10.  

He didn’t, though.  He skulled his ball back into the water.  It was shocking for me to witness this; I had never seen Herman in a meltdown before.  After his drop, he duffed another chip.  Because the conditions were so dry, his ball stopped, thought about staying up, and then rolled back into the water again!  He flubbed another chip next.  All in all, he scored a 13!  Or, maybe it was a 14, because I remember him saying it was nine over par.  Whatever it was, it was horrible.

In his defense, he hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before.  I remember feeling terrible for getting a nine on hole #9 when playing with Herman, but this certainly beat that.  Val got the better of him that day.  Even he can be human sometimes.

We need to start breaking camp here, but when I write again, I will recount my round with Eric in Deming two days ago.  I got two birdies!  Also, I want to write about the campground and the crazy, windy day we had yesterday.

Until next time…