Editor's note: Gilles Samson and his wife, Suzette, always wanted to travel around the United States. So after retiring from their jobs late last year, the two Canadians decided to combine their wanderlust with their love of golf. The Samsons will be driving their RV across the country and attending every PGA TOUR event in 2006. While on that journey, they'll be writing a diary for PGATOUR.com. This is their 34th installment.

From Medinah, Ill.. to Akron, Ohio -- We could not leave Illinois without driving on one of the sections of historic Route 66 and we did before heading to Indianapolis where we spent two wonderful days exploring central Indiana. Our drive through Ohio's rolling foothills of the Appalachian Mountains revealed picturesque farmland and small historic towns. Through the rural back roads, on our way to our campground south of Akron, we followed Amish horse-drawn carriages and discovered their peaceful country. Our weekend at the golf tournament was another exceptional weekend. What a great tournament it was, the same magic every weekend, exciting and unpredictable to the very end.

World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational: Earlier this year we could not attend the first of the two World Golf Championships to be staged in the United States in 2006, the Accenture Match Play Championship. In order to facilitate our travel plans we had elected to attend the Chrysler Classic of Tucson. This weekend though, our travel plans favoured the Bridgestone Invitational over the Reno Tahoe Open, allowing us to experience a World Golf Championships event.

First, it was an opportunity to delve a little deeper into this very complicated world of professional golf. The World Golf Championships include four events presented by the International Federation of PGA Tours, to bring the leading golfers of different tours together on a more regular basis rather than just for the major championships. These tournaments are the Accenture Match Play Championship, Bridgestone Invitational, the American Express Championship and the Barbados World Cup. The first three events are for individual players and are official events on the PGA TOUR and the European Tour, while the last one is for national teams of two golfers and is not part of any regular tours.

The International Federation of PGA Tours was created in 1999 and is comprised of: the Asian Tour, the European Tour, the Japan Golf Tour, the PGA TOUR, the PGA Tour of Australasia and the Sunshine Tour from South Africa. Since March 2000, the CanadianTour has the status of Associate Member. The events are played on different continents, and the prize money is among the largest in professional golf. Winners received 35-39 Official World Ranking points, the most after the major championships (50) and THE PLAYERS Championship (40).

The Bridgestone Invitational was formerly known as the NEC Invitational. The tournament has been held at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, seven of the last eight years. The course is a very compact layout of parallel fairways, with a thin tree line that is very much involved in increasing the challenge for the players. It is quite uneven, going up and down with some narrow fairways and small greens. Keeping the ball in play whether in the fairways or on the green has proven a major challenge. We have seen a lot of birdies but also a lot of bogeys. There were very few bogey-free rounds during the week.

Saturday, I happened to be following Tiger Woods when he made four bogeys in a row (Nos. 5-8) for only the second time since becoming professional on Aug. 27, 1996. The first-two did not attract much attention other than seeing Tiger loose ground to Davis Love III. The next two though, got the gallery worried and the spread between Tiger and Davis extended to five shots. I was looking for some reactions from Tiger that would help understand what was going on. Other than pounding the fairway once with his club nothing showed up, except that he looked concerned. Some of the fans left.

He parred the following few holes and slowly started his way back to the top of the leaderboard ending the day tied for second. On Sunday, he surfaced at the top of the leaderboard in the early goings on the back nine, with birdies on the 10th, 12th and 13th holes, and took a three-shot lead only to finished tied with Stewart Cink, who made two birdies in the final three holes while Tiger made a bogey at No. 16. Tiger was in trouble in each of the first three playoff holes but finally put an end to the contest with a superb second shot on the 17th hole, the fourth extra hole, to set up a birdie while Stewart found himself in a greenside bunker.

Sunday, many of the contenders lost ground to the course but Tiger, despite running in an unusual amount of trouble managed to shoot 2 under and came up with his fourth consecutive victory. It was a great example of his ability to never let down which is a testament to his strong will and determination to win. One of the strongest fields of the year playing on a tough course provided for a lot of entertainment and a great time.

Tiger's victory and the showing of Stewart Cink - one of the choices of Tom Lehman, the U.S. Ryder Cup Captain -- are contributing to the enthusiasm surrounding the preparation for the matches next month. We can feel a definitive desire from the U.S. Team to do their best to repatriate the Ryder Cup in 2006.

Historic Route 66 in Illinois -- Once the classic highway from Chicago to Los Angeles, this old route, crosses diagonally across Illinois to St. Louis, Mo. and beyond. Also called "Main Street USA," "Mother Road" and "Run Away Road", this old route is known through legends, songs and novels by John Steinbeck and Jack Kerouac, to name a few. This route is full of dreams and ghosts and is a lot more than just a national highway.

We had already paralleled Route 66 last January when travelling through New Mexico on our way to California. This time, however, it was a more nostalgic cruise on what is perhaps America's best-loved highway. Before heading east to Indianapolis, we stopped for a traditional burger in one of the legendary Route 66 eateries, took photos of a 1926 gas station and motel and travelled amidst the corn and soybean fields for several miles, remembering what we have learned about the conquest of the west since we started our journey.

Indianapolis and scenic route 46 from Bloomington to Columbus: During the course of recent trips to the Chicago area, we crossed Northern Indiana three times but it was our first time in central Indiana. We started by touring downtown Indianapolis and discovered its Motor Speedway, lively arts and theatre scenes. Our visit to the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art was a nice complement to what we had seen and learned at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth last May. Both museums have impressive collections of paintings and sculptures of the American West by Frederic Remington and Charles Russell depicting Native Americans and their cultures. The gallery on American Art also features some beautiful works by the group "Taos Society of Artists" as well as our favorite Georgia O'Keeffe's painting "Taos Pueblo." The Museum also features the history and culture of all Indian tribes from Arizona to Alaska's Inuit, including Indian Tribes from British Columbia.

After a picnic on the banks of the White River, we drove south to Bloomington, a lively university town, where we toured its historic downtown and the Indiana University campus. There we were attracted by the triangular-shaped University Art Center -- designed by architect I.M. Pei -- and by its collection of masterworks by European as well as American renowned artists. It was another surprise for us to discover that Bloomington is also home to a Tibetan Monastery and Cultural Center. Our visit to the temples and the gardens allowed us to have a better understanding of the history and culture of Tibet.

We then travelled to Columbus, another remarkable small town, on a hilly route mottled with forests. We passed by some charming villages and beautiful landscapes and came across several old Auburn touring cars. Columbus has over 60 notable buildings and is known as one of America's great architectural cities with schools, banks, fire stations, churches and private builings designed by some of the world's best architects, including Eero Saarinen, Richard Meier and I.M.Pei. When we reached Columbus, it was too late to catch the last architectural walking tour. However, the Public Library -- another I.M. Pei design -- was still open, so we borrowed their file on the city's architecture and had a wonderful time reading about it and browsing through brochures and magazines. The "Hoosier State" had a lot more to offer that we had anticipated.

Central Ohio, Amish and Mennonite Country: This is our second time in Ohio this year but different landscapes and discoveries reveal the state's rank as third in the nation's greenhouse products and its leading role in industrial products such asrubber hose, sponge, scouring pads and rubber adhesive. Friday afternoon we visited Holmes County, the heart of Ohio's Amish country. We saw ample evidence of the lifestyle of Amish and Mennonite communities -- horse-drawn buggies; Amish farmers plowing the land with horse-drawn implements; distinctive men's attire of straw hats, white or blue shirts and black suits; white prayer caps for the women, houses without the very familiar electrical hook-ups, open air drying clothes and the little light available in houses after dark.

We visited the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center in Berlin, where we were introduced to the history of the Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite sects. These sects trace their roots to the Swiss Anabaptist (adult baptism) movement of 1525 and are an offshoot of the Protestant Reformation. Most of these sects bear their name from their original founder/leader and today the Old Order Amish is the most conservative -- declining any device that would connect them with the larger world including electricity, phones and cars. Most of the Amish forefathers came from Germany and Switzerland. Some were driven from their homes by religious persecution and hundreds of them immigrated to the United States and Canada during a period of 125 years starting in 1720. They live a simple life based on the Bible scriptures that has remained unchanged for hundreds of years. They believe that the modern lifestyle of an open society tends to break down the cohesive family structure that they value so highly. Many of those choices and practices only make sense within the context of a unique historical and religious setting. Amish education has its own curriculum. Formal schooling concentrates on the basics of reading, writing and math skills, along with vocational training and socialization in Amish history and values and is terminated after grade 8. The school year is adapted to the requirements of the farming activities of the community. Some of the sects are less conservative or more liberal and entertain a closer relationship with the larger world. An incursion into the densest Amish concentration in the U.S., which was very interesting and informative!

The next tournament is the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Mass., and our campground is located west of Plymouth which should be a nice spot to explore history-rich south eastern Massachusetts.

Trip statistics: The PGA Championship in Medinah was our 33rd tournament and we have covered 75 percent of our schedule. With the Bridgestone Invitational behind us, we are left with 10 tournaments before the end of the year.

The third quarter and cumulative mileage:

1 Motorhome 7,480 miles - 21,200 miles
2 Tow car 5,000 miles - 12,300 miles

The fourth quarter forecast: (11 tournaments)

1 Motorhome 12,130 miles*
2 Tow car n/a
*including mileage to return to Canada

Suzette and Gilles Samson