here we go...
the trip begins at 5:20 am, wheels up, portland to pheonix to baltimore. if you're familiar with some of the troubles the hill's have traveling, this trip was a dream. a 30 minute delay in pheonix, circling for 1 hr before landing in baltimore were just enough delay to allow me to finish the book bourne ultimatium before landing. (read the book if you like, great book, but the only things in common with the movie are his name and background, the storyline is completely different.)
just like clockwork, jeff tapkas is there to pick me up, we have known each other through our mutual employment with nike for 25 years. jeff provided housing, taxi service and unbelievable hospitality for the duration of my stay in baltimore. he reminds me of the odd couple's felix, his home is beautiful, the grounds and setting pristine, every room beautifully furnished and emaculate., which is what you'd expect from 2 type A perfectionists who have never been blessed with children. you feel a little guilty sleeping in the bed for fear you might wrinkle something, but i did my best to wipe down the shower, do hospital corners on the bed and replace all i touched in the exact position i found it. a couple simple examples of their hospitality; upon arrival i found 2 perfectly folded suvenior guthrie t-shirts revealing the orioles logo and guthrie name and number on the back and then when leaving saturday morning, gabby had packed a small travel cooler filled with water, diet coke, protein snacks and a red sox baseball for me a die hard red sox fan. they were the perfect hosts...
back to the thursday night activity... with my flight being late, we went directly to camden yards for the oriole/mariners game. jeremy had 2 tickets for us at will call, it was raining when we arrived so jeff took me up to the orioles corporate box. his wife gabby works for the orioles selling corporate sponsorships, we walked right into a 1st baseline suite, had some bbq pork, veggies, fruit and ice cream as we waited out the rain delay. game highlights included a tejada grand slam, a brief oriole comeback before the mariners strung together 3 hits and and error on tejada to complete a three game sweep of the orioles.
friday was just about, almost, but not quite a perfect day. first we picked up the car. we were standing at the door when it opened at 9:00. i had an 11:30 tee time so wanted to give myself enough time to learn the navigation system and finish the transaction. i love professonalism and efficiency, this dealership did not disappoint. everything was in order and the instruction crisp. it took us longer than anticipated because of my learning disability, still don't completely understand the navigation system causing me to take all the backroads from cooperstown to palmyra, but more on that later. i walked away completely satisfied and so far am extremely pleased with karen's new car.
i got to the course just in time to have my partner pick me up at the car in the cart and drive directly to the 1st tee. we played chartwell country club, which was the second time i'd played it, the first time being 9/11. it's a tight course which doesn't play to my strength, but i keep it reasonably straight, took a couple OB's and still shot an 85. we played the course in just over 3 hours which gave us enough time to get in another 9 just for fun. yeah ha!! a quick trip back to jeff's house for a shower and change of clothes and we're off to the ball park to watch the orioles play my beloved red sox. a classic pitcher's duel between bednard and matsusaki with bednard taking a 1-0 lead into the 8th only to have the red sox score 5 off the oriole bull pen... we thought we were safe to leave thinking the red sox bull pen would close the orioles out, only to leave and miss a oriole come back of 5 runs in the 8th, 1 in the bottom of the night to beat the red sox by 1. nice trading deadline pick up for the red sox... gagne, all he's done is blown 2 games in the 8th in the 4 he's been in. you can feel the sox fading as the "damn" yankees put on an late season push. so my near perfect day was tainted by a sox loss, but the golf more than made up for it.
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