Friday, August 28, 1998
I flew into Phoenix in the afternoon with my golf clubs and a very heavy duffel bag with all my camera gear and backpacking gear, where I was greeted by a 109 degree afternoon complete with an approaching thunderstorm and dust storm. It was pretty cool-looking, and I took a few pictures. I spent the night with Alfonso Marquis, a former Motorola employee that had moved to Chandler with his wife Rebecca. They had a very cute 7-month old daughter named Anna that I spent a bit of time playing with. I also recall knocking over a beer Alfonso gave me, getting it on his drapes – bad houseguest!
Saturday, August 29, 1998
The next morning, I met up with Duane Nagata, salesman for a Motorola supplier (SMI substrates), who graciously took me out to play golf at the hardest golf course I’ve ever been on, Troon North (I think it was the Pinnacles Course). This course looks like someone made a golf course out at Enchanted Rock, then added saguaros, other thorny plants, jackrabbits, and rattlesnakes. The fairways and greens were beautiful, not that I spent much time there, though! I was spending time out in the cacti with the reptiles. I shot a 57 on the front nine, probably my worst nine-hole score ever. I think I lost 4 balls on the first two holes. Well, it was still one of the prettiest courses I’ve ever seen, and someone else paid for the round, so it was all good. I’m discovering, though, that I tend to enjoy playing well on a mediocre course versus playing very poorly on a very nice course.
I went back to Alfonso’s place to pack my gear for the hike. When I was finished, I think I had about a 65 pound pack. This was my first multi-day hiking trip, and I wanted to make sure I had everything I needed. But there’s a price to pay for that over-preparedness, and that’s WEIGHT. A good 7-8 lbs of the weight was a sturdy tripod, necessary to take sharp landscape photos. I was regretting that amount of gear later, although the steady / sharp pictures I took helped make up for massive weight and pain in my back and legs!
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