Hello everyone, i havent been around her too much. But this place looks like a nuclear winter has set in. i only see Hips posting. i think JJ said he was going golfing in the arizona desert. Cobra still looks like he is still M I A. i hope he is ok. Well its that time again for me. Time to head to las Vegas and Mesquite. We leave this comming saturday. We are staying at the southpoint casino. We have stayed here before. its pretty brand new and we got a great rate of $106.00 for saturday and sunday per room. its just off the strip No plans for saturday . Just getting settled in and probably some gambling im sure.
Sunday again just taking it easy although my buddy is thinking about taking the skyfall at the stratosphere where you take a step off this platform and drop over 108 stories and over 800 feet in a free fall.its sounds like the ultimate adreneline rush. he is trying to talk me into it but i told him no thank you. Ill just watch him pee his pants i told him lol.
Then monday we start golfing. This year our vegas course is going to be Pauite. it has 3 courses.we are playing Snow Mountain.its a Pete Dye course. so it ought to be challenging. Then we drive up to mesquite like we usally do monday night.
Tuesday the first course we play is the Oasis course. Home of big break mesquite. Its one of my favorites.its got a couple of box canyons holes if you watched the big break that are quite unique. Tuesday we are playing a new course in mesquite called Conestoga. Its a Del Webb retirement course. it looks to be again cut out of the moutains and buttes like the other courses so it should be fun hopefully.
Thursday we go to Falcon Ridge which is a tough cookie to play and then finish off the week like we always do the Wolf Creek. We save the best for last. so im ready and looking forward to this trip as i always am. its finally here.

Have fun and hit em straight and long!

Thanks tom.

Well i just got back from Las vegas and Mesquite. I had a great time as always and if anybody is interested ill give a recap of the trip like I did last year. I got to get caught up with things around the house for a couple of days so maybe in the middle of the week ill let everyone know how it went.

Gary

Hope it wasn't as hot as Puerto Vallarta

Well its been over two months and I completely forgot to do the recap for this years Las Vegas and Mesquite trip. Better late than never i guess. Well my buddy never did go do the skyfall at the Stratosphere. We end up going to the Hoover Dam on Sunday and then went to this little casino called the Hacenida. We did well there in 2009 playing blackjack but this year they got some of there money back lol.
Well Monday we headed out to the Pauite golf course complex. Well to tell ya the truth for a Pete Dye course, we were just a little more than disappointed . It was a pretty much a straight forward desert course. i kept waiting for the nightmare golf course he usally designs but this wasnt it. But one thing I was warned about was the wind comes up in the afternoon and sure enough it did. It was ripping about 30 to 40 miles per hour. That wasn"t too much fun coming in on the back nine. It had the railroad tie bunkers that Dye is noted for but not too hard to get out of. We might give it a try again next with the Wolf the newest one of the 3 courses there. ill have to see what the gang wants to do as i always try to play a new Vegas course every year on Monday. Well on to Mesquite Monday nite
Tuesday we start out with an old favorite of mine the Oasis home of the big break mesquite. Its got a lot of very unique holes starting with the box canyon holes . You had better hit your driver straight or your screwed. I just never get tired of playing this course. It just a lot of fun to play.
Wedesday we played the new Del Webb course called Conestoga. well another gorgeous course to add to the Mequite courses. It had a few elevation changes just like the rest of the courses down there . Just missed a hole in one on the first par 3 on the back side stuck it to about a foot and my buddy hit the flag and stuffed it to abour 5 inches. needless to say i lost out the closest to the pin money. i wasnt a happy camper lol. we are going back there next year everyone liked it so much.
Thursday we again go back to an old favorite Falcon Ridge. The first couple of times we played this course i and a few others didnt care for it but it grows on ya after each time ya play it. Again like i have said in the past ita wannbe Wolf Creek. A ton of elevation changes and just real nice. the only thing on the back side there is a couple of holes that have a blind shot into the greens but once you play them you know where to hit it. Its a tough course but very scenic becasue it cut out of the mountains.
Then of course we always finish with the big bad Wolf Creek.This is a course like nothing you ever seen.Its cut out od canyons and mountains too.go to golfwolfcreek.com and check it out.Like I said in a previous post if i could only play one courses the rest of my life this is it. And thats saying a lot as much as i like the Bandon Dunes courses.
After we played Wolf Creek we drove backed to Vegas friday nite and took in a concert the Southpoint Casino which is our headquarters when we stay in Vegas.We went a saw Gary Puckette and the Union Gap. one of my favoites groups in the late sixties. Gary still has those pipes . What a great concert he put on.If anybody has a chance to go see him i would highly reccomend it. then we few home Saturady afternoon. So there you have another great year down in the desert. This was my 8th year going and wouldnt miss it for the world. Like i said before any of you guys looking for something diffrent and lots of fun vegas and Mesquite is the place you wont regret it. Hips have you ever got down there? Your quite the traveler lol Hope this makes up a little bit for not posting and not being around too much.

Gary

I made the mistake of eating the yellow snow while high in the Sangre de Cristos. After wandering snowblind for several weeks i was picked up standing on a corner in Winslow , Arizona by the great grandaughter of Georgia O'Keefe. She lived on a communal ranch with several other women. They all wore long dresses , sombreros , and dusty black combat boots. They sang lusty songs to their pagan spirits at night and my strength slowly returned after they treated my illness with a combination of herbs , yams , and Irish whiskey. It wasn't long before my strength returned and i was able to take part in daily ranch life. Carlos Casteneda's son was working on the ranch as an ostrich wrangler. It seems they were running ostrich on the range and a firm hand was needed to herd these pesky beasts. Manolo Casteneda was just the man for the job. He had learned his craft on the great rancheros of Mexico . His riding skills were legendary , and he used them to conquer the unruly birds by day and searched the very limits of his soul with peyote by night. The dude was really cool , but very tired. Sleep had eluded him for weeks and even the daily regimen of ostrich wrangling and satisfying combat booted wenches at night , while flying high on peyote , was not enough to put out the fire in his Spanish soul . After he was taken away by ambulance one dusty day i was offered his job. Still feeling some of the effects of yellow snow fever , i politely declined. This was , evidently , the wrong thing to do and i was cast out of the coven by the angry women. They rained foul yam skins on me as i ran for my life down the dusty ranch road with the clomp of their boots pounding the sand , as they chased me careful not to spill any of their early afternoon chardonnay from their perfectly held wineglasses. It was really quite frightening.

Next week : I wander into indian territory and become a member of a lost tribe of single digit warriors who double as blackjack dealers at night.

Oh yeah.........good recap Gary. I will sample some of the golf out there as soon as i can. I played a Pete Dye course just last weekend. Hard.......tight .......thinking man's golf. 82-85 for the two rounds and the Stella was really good on the deck.

STELLA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JJ, I wouldn't doubt that it is all true coming from you

Deep, trying to talk MisT into a Vegas trip in November. Can't believe it's so hard considering that I can't keep her out of the Indian casinos up here. Have never golfed down there though. Will have to try it.