Spent part of the morning cleaning up stuff in the garage. Worked on the newsletter project for Koop. Had to hurry lunch so I would be ready for our 1:00 tee time at Dinosaur Golf Course. Robert and Arlene arrived at our house at 12:30 — Sue and Arlene would while away the afternoon reading at the pool. Robert and I met Ed and Art and their wives at the golf course. We hit a few balls on the driving range (turned out that I wasted ALL my good shots there!) and then rode our carts up to the tee blocks at Hole #1. Rudy’s up first. Ka-BANG! The ball flies low into a cactus bush. Mulligan. Ka-BANG #2. The ball slices right over the nearby hill of desert bushes. Hmmm… off to a rip-roaring start!

As the afternoon progressed I became more and more convinced that the spectacular scenery on this course is in fact a HUGE distraction. I was losing at least one ball per hole. I was seeing A LOT of the course — WAY more than Robert, whose drives were ALWAYS straight and on the fairway (and hardly saw any of the interesting flora and fauna that I was discovering along the way). Well, as I so often say (lie?) after a game like that, ‘I may not have had a GOOD game, but I had FUN’.

We said adieu to Art and Wendy — they’re heading home tomorrow — and went back to our house. After drinks and a short skype with Alex and Max, we got the barbecue going. Robert checked on the pork and Sue apologized for the potatoes. Arlene rested her cast on an upside-down pail and I talked way too much. After bidding goodnight to the Dycks we barely made it into bed before sleep overcame us.

(Thanks to Ed Peters for the great photo!)