Okay... 105 Open men played at the 2000 Discraft Bob West Memorial in Phoenix, AZ. Dave and I played the random draw doubles and tied for last cash. $12.50 each.

We played two courses at the Bob West. The first was Fountain Hills, a park that uses reclaimated waste water to grow grass and create a lake (don't go in it). In the center of the lake is a HUGE fountain. It erupts every 45 minutes for about 15 minutes and shoots a three foot wide stream of water about 300 feet into the air. A brisk wind will blow the water across the course and into homes a quarter mile away.

It was fairly calm at Fountain Hills on the first morning, and we faced a long course with water hazards everywhere. Stokely shot an incredible -13 during the first round. Al was close behind at -10, I shot -6, and Dave managed a +2. During the afternoon round the wind picked up considerably. The fountain sent people running for cover on several occasions. Stokely shot a windy -2, Al had the best round of the afternoon at -5. Todd hung in for a -1. Dave shot a +6 which really wasn't too bad. Sue was tied for 3rd after the first day.

The second day of playing saw us shooting a course in Scottsdale. One round in the morning followed by a final 9 holes for the top 4 open players. It was windy and rained hard. Stokely shot a -12 to surmount a large lead on Al who shot a -7. Todd shot -5 and slid down to a tie for 13th with Steve Rico.

Going into the finals it was:

• Stokely -27
• Schack -22
• Wisecup -20
• Russell -20
• Dr. Rick -18
• Rico -18
• Dorius -18

We won some checks and Dan was kind enough to turn mine into cash so we could head out of town and buy gas.

Al and I took turns behind the wheel and drove the 1800 miles to Mobile, AL in about 48 hours. If you've been paying attention to the price of gas you'll know that this was not cheap: final cost of the trip was about $500. We have been staying with Lesli Herndon (Sue's partner for National Doubles) the past two nights and she has been a great host. She rode in the Winnie with us to a couple of local courses that we would be playing on the weekend and hardly complained when we stopped at a hardware store for a couple hours to buy wood, gas line caps, screws, and tape for fixing some nagging problems with the ride.

Last night we went to a laundromat to catch up on some much needed laundry action. Dave had just enough change to do his wash and stuck his tokens in a nearby machine. The coins fell through to the bottom of the machine, after which a helpful person nearby informed him that "That washer is broken." Now Dave didn't have enough money to do his wash.

I suggested that he climb in behind the washer and see if his (and other) coins had fallen into an accessible spot where he could get them back. Dave optimistically traversed the junk required to gain access to the rear of the machine and shined his flashlight in. Jackpot!! There was a trove of tokens sitting just out of reach. I went to find a stick that he could scoop them up with. When I got back, Dave had nearly electrocuted himself trying to stick his arm into the back of the dilapidated machine. BZAPP!! I handed him the stick and he scooped out $4 in tokens and got his wash done.

Dogs are doing well. Storm stole my soft tacos last night and is on my list.

Winnie: She's a trooper with 3,500 miles logged in about five weeks so far. Minor problems include a broken bed (being fixed), a turn signal short that blew a few fuses but is now under control via the 'bigger fuse' method. A propane leak that I hope I fixed last night. Last but not least, the choke sticks, sometimes requiring us to pull off the road and adjust about once ever 500 miles.

I talked to Disc Golf World News about our article some more and Rick Rothstein had assigned people to get pictures of us on two occasions. The first photographer forgot his camera and the second photographer's camera was broken. Ah well, he'll try again at National Doubles. Hopefully Brian -- the best in the biz -- will send DGWN some good pictures.

- Todd

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