October 29 - Update from July 2006

I shouldn't really be surprised that we have not updated the blog since Eddie and Beth visited in July, but I guess I have to be in order to have an excuse for not doing so.

Joan and I are in Las Vegas right now where I just finished playing with the South Dakota Pheasants, an Over 60 baseball team with players from the Sioux Falls area (and one from Minnesota), in the National Adult Baseball Associations annual Fun Tournament. More on this later - hopefully not six months from now!

I will now catch up on goings-on with the Smith family since early summer.

For the third year, I worked in the pro shop at the Chaska Town Course. And Joan again volunteered at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.

We visited our lake cottage as often as possible and enjoyed sunsets such as this one.















At the end of July, along with brother Dave and sister-in-law, Wendy we drove via Denver to New Mexico to meet up with sister Deb and brother-in-law Mike. We had been hoping that brother Mark and sister-in-law Wendy and brother Jonathon would be able to join us, but that did not work out.

We spent one night on the road and one with Kjirsten, Scott and Zach, and then headed for Santa Fe, NM.
















After leaving Lakewood, we got only as far as Castle Rock - about 30 minutes down the road - when we noticed smoke coming from the right rear wheelwell. Turns out we had an axel seal leaking, as well as the emergency brake hanging up, probably because I had engaged the brake at the Wallaces and it had not been used for some time according to Dave. Six hours later - which we spent, fortunately, with Joy and Curt Jensen who live there - we were on the road again. We got to Santa Fe about 1am Sunday morning where Deb and Mike (I lost the bet; Mike WAS still up!) met us at their friend, Syd's, beautiful house in the hills near Madrid.

Sunday we had lunch and looked around Santa Fe and Monday morning, Dave and I drove to a beautiful golf course called Cochiti while the others took back roads to Truth or Consequences, our ultimate destination. Here we are sitting in front of one of the T or C restaurants which always seemed to be closed when we wanted to eat.

Wendy, Joan, Deb, Mike and Dave

While in "T or C" we spent a lot of time reading, lounging, and exploring the various art galleries in town. And the ladies visited some of the spas. I was surprised that this was sort of a bohemian town.

We also took a day trip into the hills with a guide, Eddie, in "the Pinzgauer", a Swiss or Swedish off-road military vehicle that will go just about anywhere. We visited some mines, swam in a strip mine lake, and generally bounced around the hills for several hours.

As is usually the case, our time together went too fast and we were soon on the way home.

As we headed east on the interstate out of Albeuqueuqueuquruerque, we came to a grinding halt. Turns out a drill rig truck heading west overturned and squashed a compact. Most unfortunately, all occupants of the car were killed. Trying to pass the time during our 4-hour rest, Dave and I practiced some golf shots.



Soon after returning home, I got heavily involved in last minute preparations for the US Amateur Championship which was held at both the Chaska Town Course and Hazeltine National Golf Club. I was one of two Scoring Chairmen, and spent quite a few hours scheduling and rescheduling and rescheduling our approximately 55 volunteers. Joan also worked several shifts during the event on our Scoring Committee at both CTC and Hazeltine.

We had the pleasure of hosting one of the players, his mother, grandmother and caddie. Jordan Irwin is a junior at the University of Houston (TX) and hails from Calgary. Unfortunately, Jordan did not shoot a low enough score during the 2-day qualifying rounds and missed the cut to match play. They all departed on Wednesday. Jordan, on the right below, to school in Houston and the others back to Calgary.

At the end of the week of the Amateur, Kjirsten, Scott and Zach arrived for a week's visit. We had a great time at the lake cottage and visiting the rellies in the area.

Zach is certainly all boy, and this is about as still as he was the entire visit.

In early September, we drove to Peoria for the annual Caterpillar Overseas (COSA) reunion at the Peoria Country Club. We stayed with our friends, the Durflingers, in Morton and visited other friends in the Culture Club and from Cat days.

At the end of September we drove via Mound City, MO - where we stayed a couple nights with our friends, the Northups - to Denver for Zach's baptism. Pics of this can be found on Kjirsten's and Laura's blogs.

The week of Oct 12, Northups came to MN a few days early for a weekend conference and they and Joan headed for the North Shore...in the snow. I could not join in this as I was on call for two weeks of jury duty. (Never did get a call!) In spite of some not so nice weather they had a good time. BUT, Joan came home with a bad recurrance of the sinusitus and laryngitis she came down with on our way to Denver.

And that brings us to Las Vegas and the NABA tournament with the South Dakota Pheasants.