Seeing wildlife on a golf course is nothing new. Deer, alligators and good ol’ Mister No Shoulders (snakes to non-golfers) are liable to show up at any time. But Friday brought about one I haven’t seen before.

We all knew that Day 2 of the annual Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail trip was going to be long. We just didn’t know just how long.

This was one of the 36-hole days of the trip. Those have become less frequent as the years go by, but we get asked by friends what would compel us to play two rounds of golf in a day (and do it multiple times). The answer is simple: We have nothing else to do. It’s a golf trip, for goodness sakes, so why stray from the mission statement?

We teed it up at Oxmoor Valley Friday at 7:50 a.m. There are two courses here, so we played them both. Played 18 in the morning, had lunch, then when we were about to go bite off 18 more holes, the sirens started going off like it was a 1960s air raid scare. We waited it out the rain and lightning and finally brought it home just before dark.

In the middle of the morning round, while I was waiting to miss yet another putt, I noticed two turkeys strutting out in the field next to the 7^th hole. Two members of our foursome are veteran turkey “observers” (read: hunters) and the only thing the other two of us know about turkeys are when they show up on our table at Thanksgiving and/or Christmas.

Our two turkey aficionados immediately started with the turkey calls – what did they think the turkeys were going to do, ask to play through? – but the turkeys didn’t seem too interested. But when we drove to the next tee, these guys did act like they wanted to play through as they high-tailed (high-feathered?) it across the green behind us like they were late for their tee time.

I believe this was my first live encounter with a turkey and I gotta say, these guys were much bigger than I expected. I got the whole explanation about the beard rot and the differences in the males and the females and how Alabama turkeys are different from other turkeys. Come to find out, Alabama leads the nation in turkey population. (Today’s DW fun fact!) That might also explain why we saw turkey tracks in the sand trap on the other side of the course eight hours later.

Saturday we drive to Gadsden for a late morning round, then get back in the truck and head to Muscle Shoals in the evening.

The opening hole at Oxmoor Valley

Here we go again: (from left) Mike Bassett, Pete Gunter, JJ Marshall, Craig Ebarb about to tee off at Ross Bridge in Hoover, Ala.

It’s a long story as to how all of this got started, but to paraphrase George Costanza, welcome to the Summer of John #6. Having a “real” job in the education business, it affords me the time to basically do whatever I want for summer months, up to but not including a large block of cheese the size of a car battery (only Seinfeld-ers will know that reference.)

Anyway, a big part of SOJ is the annual trip to the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. (Let me stop right here and let you know this will not be a daily dissertation about what club I hit into the 14th green or how I could have shot 75 without all those three putts.)

This annual trip is all about male bonding with a side order of golf. (This year, it is seven rounds in five days; one year we did 11 rounds in seven days.) We’ve done this so much that we have played all of the courses on the Trail and will soon be eligible to vote in elections in Alabama.

We leave a Bossier City driveway at 6 a.m. and are on an Alabama tee box by 2 p.m. It’s always four of us in one vehicle — with assigned seating (I’m always back seat, left side) — and as we make our way down Interstate 20, it basically becomes a college dorm room. There is the usual talk about things I can’t mention as well as usual talk about things I know nothing about and the other three know everything about. This year’s drive was particularly clueless for me as there was some kind of discussion and which new truck had a Hemi or a powerstroke or something else I couldn’t understand. When the conversation turns to hunting, I reach for the headphones. They usually only bother me if they need to know something about the Angels’ pitching staff.

In the previous five editions, we have opened the trip with the traditional tee shot on the #1 hole at The Judge in Prattville — it’s the hole you see on EVERY television ad for the Trail — but we changed things and started at Ross Bridge (in Hoover) instead. It is the newest of the courses and is considered the showcase of the Trail.

It’s also a ridiculous 8,100 yards from the back tees, which we need binoculars to see after we moved up to a pedestrian 6,800 yards. Everything about Ross Bridge is oversized but well worth the somewhat expensive price tag.

It was a great opening day for this year’s trip. Everyone played well and the winning team netted $1 (after rallying from $8 down after the first seven holes). When it was over, the bagpipe guy was doing the nightly medley right by the 9th green. Kinda cool. (video below)

Friday, it’s 36 holes at Oxmoor Valley, which is just down the street from Ross Bridge. Another day, another tee box!