Welcome Back, Mate!

Once upon a time, many years ago...so really, 22/23 years ago, I had a good friend! Nathan Pene came to Charleston High School on Foreign Exchange. It was the first golf practice of the season, and Coach called me over and asked if I could help get him set up with a set of clubs. And a lifelong friendship began.

Over the course of the last 20 plus years,Nathan has been back to the states to visit me 4 times now. I desperately owe him a visit. And it will happen. But the memories that we've had made over the course of our friendship are truly priceless.

This trip started out with Ellen and I heading to Chicago. The New Zealand Maori All Blacks were playing Rugby at a US Rugby tournament in Chicago so we went up to join Nathan for a game on Friday. He came back down to Central Illinois on Sunday and stayed with us until Tuesday. I can only imagine the fun that would have ensued had his two daughters been able to join him on the trip over. My goal is to go to Auckland for my 40th birthday...we'll see.