Wednesday May 16, 2012

Yep, it happened....7 months later, it all came to fruition.  Oh, there was much consternation along the way, self-doubt, and pity but somehow, someway, 12 of us made it happen (pictured from left to right):

Pat Nelson = nelly
Jeff Cook = cookster
Mark Cragun = iceman
Cort Green = jesper
Jon Hansen = tbone
Johnathan Ord = j.ord
Jon Hendrickson = dro
Chris Bagley = bags
Dave McCleary = dmac
Chad Thompson = shackie
Jeff Stanga = stanga
Dave Kennedy = dk

I'm not sure exactly how but after months of hype, handicapping, flight juggling, emailing, and begging...the trip of a lifetime was here and Bandon Dunes was only a few hours away.

Some of the fellas (iceman, cookster, j.ord, and nelly) decided to get their trip started in style and actually golfed early Wednesday morning at Aviara in Carlsbad.  The rest of us were just hoping that our bodies would hold up with the much anticipated 108 holes of golf that awaited us in the next 3 days.  The one thing about Bandon Dunes that none of us were prepared for was that they do not allow golf carts and therefore, we knew going in, that we would be forced to walk 12-16 miles a day.  It was a scary proposition but one we all still were looking forward to like none other.


Tbone was gracious enough to drive me down to the San Diego airport where we would meet up with some of the fellas.

Tbone's "shuttle" to the airport.

Cookster, Bags, and Nelly looking forward to the trip of a lifetime.

Iceman, J.Ord, and Tbone living it up during the layover.












After a bit of a delay in San Francisco where we drew for teams, hung out, and of course killed the time by playing "Uno," we were finally on our way to Bandon Dunes!

Nelly, Bags, Cookster, Tbone, DMace, J.Ord, Iceman, and Stanga anticipating who their teammate might be.

Shackie, J. Ord, Tbone, Stanga, and Bags kicking it at the airport.

Shackie, Stanga, Tbone, and Bags watching the Uno game.

Dro and Shakie killing time.

DMac, Shackie, J.Ord, Bags, Tbone, Nelly, Iceman, and Cookster saying a silent prayer that they will hopefully arrive in safety.

Stanga and Dro getting ready to embark on the mini-plane to Bandon.  I think Orville Wright was our pilot.

Shackie, Cookster, Stanga, Shackie, Bags, Tbone, and Nelly on the shuttle to Bandon.

We made it!