OFF DAY

I know folks aren't reading this blog as a travelogue, so I'll be brief about how we spent Friday.

My son and I had made reservations to play golf at a desert course located on a Native American reservation. I figured it would be a unique experience. It was. Neither of us are great golfers, but we are NOT as bad (make that terrible) as we were in Nevada. There were two big problems. One was the wind, whipping across the desert at about 30 miles per hour with stronger gusts. I grew up on the coast of Florida and have never played in such wind. The wind was blowing so hard the course was handing out "Wind Checks" - no good for us as we would not have the opportunity to return. The second problem was related to the first - because of the wind the easy 18 we had booked was closed (there are 2 18-hole courses), so we were "upgraded" to the championship course. Ha!

That meant playing a course with single-file fairways (ok, a little exaggeration) lined with desert. We spent a lot of time in the desert.

Here's the bottom line on the golf experience - we quit keeping score after 2 holes and quit altogether after 9. But, we agreed we were glad we'd had the experience and got some great pictures and saw a roadrunner and other native animals.

While my son and I were struggling on the golf course, my wife and daughter joined my sisters (who had flown in for the TOC) for a wonderful day of shopping and touring some of the finest Vegas hotels. Good for them!

We met back up in the afternoon, my daughter had a dip in the pool, and we met some friends for dinner. Then it was back to the hotel for an early night because the next day I'd be playing Jeopardy!

(That brief enough for you?)