Welcome to retirement trip # 2*. My buddy Ron Potter and I have been on several golf trips together. Our golf trips usually include 2 or 6 other golfers, however we have been on 5 other trips as a twosome and have sometimes played alone or are often paired with other twosomes. It's always an interesting experience for me to travel with Ron as many of you who know him will understand. Ron's exposure to new things especially on culinary spectrum can be somewhat of a challenge. Our newest destination, Tucson (not pronounced Tuck's On as some of our confreres would have us think), will be a golf challenge but should not extend Ron's palate comfort zone too much.

Arizona is a first for both of us for a golf destination although I have been to the northern part of Arizona before on a one day whirlwind trip to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas. My previous golf experiences of traveling solo with Ron have been in Toronto, Dominican (twice), California and Florida. I call this one the 'experiment' based on the new location for both of us and that although we had lots of fun in California in 2007 (see link), Ron seems to be getting a little harder to travel with. Also with Clary's passing in January, it will be the first time Ron is preparing a trip on his own. I always had a sense that Clary would be helping Ron as he left for his trips, probably (and gladly) anticipating a week of having the house to himself.

During this trip, I will be posting pictures and comments that will be accessible through the icons on the left. The diary portion is there mainly for myself in order to download some memory cells onto virtual paper. This is to leave some room for new information as my memory is already limited. Almost 54 years old and having been set out to pasture by the corporate world, apparently our (people my age) brains have atrophied to a point where they can no longer function to help the bottom line. If your are lucky enough to work for a company that thinks this way AND that pays you to enjoy retirement early, then the result is this extra little last minute trip. As usual, I digressed.

The icons on the left also are direct links to the 8 courses where we will be playing golf (we are playing the 2 Arizona National courses). Manon Lafontaine of Gendron Travel arranged the entire itinerary as she is very familiar with the area. As an avid golfer herself, the trips that she has planned for me have been well designed. One thing she always does is build up in the quality of golf courses as the days progress. In Tucson, she also made sure we played in different areas in order to enjoy the various landscapes that Arizona can offer. The kicker with Gendron Travel is that they always include free parking at the airport. This relieves the pressure of finding someone to take you to and from the airport. I must admit that with the traveling schedule that I have had since retirement, I feel a little bit guilty about having people drop me off on yet another adventure.

The weather in Tucson in late April is usually pretty good with highs around 30º Celsius. Rain is rare but nights can get cold as in the desert environment single digit lows are common. If you are checking the temperature in the morning, you will probably see low numbers but remember that they are 3 hours behind in the summer as they do not observe Daylight Saving Time. This is also why the sun sets there around 7:00pm. Our tee off times are all within minutes of 9am, so we will be finished before 2pm every day. Even with the early sunset, we might be able to sneak in an extra 18 holes where there is availability.

This is also Myrna's first vacation from me since my retirement. I think she is looking forward to this more than me. One little trepidation that I have about this trip is that I will be missing the New Tartan Pub's first days of business. Actually, with high speed Wi-Fi and the 10 foot HD screen, I might set up the biggest Skype session ever held in Two Mountains to virtually visit from Tucson.

For those of you who followed my January/February down under trip, I don't expect to have pictures like we had in New Zealand but they might interest the golfers quite a bit. Enjoy and see you at the official opening of the Tartan when I get back.

In case you are wondering, this trip which includes airfare, full-size car, hotel for 9 nights with breakfast and free internet and all the green fees is costing just under $2300. Add the baggage fees which I rant about in the diary. Of course suppers and bar excursions are extra, but that's nothing we wouldn't do around here.

* retirement trip number 2 is really number 3 but I am not counting Florida as a trip. It was more of an escape of winter although we didn't really escape anything.