Breakfast was the usual Hampton thing, wholesome,
filling, forgettable.

The sun was forecast to be intense, so we went to the
St. Vincent de Paul thrift store where Bill found me a
cap that said USGA Member US Open 2012 on it. It was
labeled $2 but appaently clothes were on sale 50% off.

Our game was at the fairly pleasant Camelback Ranch down in
the far reaches of Glendale. Our handicap placard got us
free parking in the VIP section.

We entered the media/ADA gate, where the metal detector
detained me for a couple minutes. I showed the guard my
device, and he said, got anything else, and i said, no,
so he waved me through.

There was a place right nearby selling mostly crap beer
but with a spigot of Odell's 90 Shilling Scottish ale,
same price as Bud Light, so I had one - rich, malty, a bit
sweet, but why they were selling a Colorado beer that
tasted very like the local Kilt Lifter I don't know. The
genial vendor (a black guy) asked for my pick for the US
Open. I said I didn't have one. Maybe I should have said
Tiger Woods, who is second in the advance betting (I looked
it up afterward).

The visiting Giants whupped the White Sox 5-2, and from the
sounds and the motions on field it appeared to have been a
good game. One amusing contretemps was that the announcer
announced the end of the game after the top of the 9th,
inadvertently trying to deprive the home team of its last
ups. So the field cleared, and it was several minutes before
the players and personnel (umpires!) realized that the game
was in fact not over, so eventually everyone was shooed back on
the field for what turned out to be a last futile half inning.

Our seats were in the 10th row just to the first base side, in
the area often stuffed with scouts and stuff, so I saw the
baseball for the first time in two years. Twice. The first
time was when someone had rolled a ball toward the dugout and
it hadn't made it there, and it rolled to a stop about 50 feet
from me. The second time, the catcher cocked his arm, turning
his hand outward but not actually making the throw, so I saw
a blur of white in his hand.

Out of there and off in the wrong direction, straight into
the sun, because the roads from the stadium toward Phoenix
were blocked (crowd control measure, I guess), so next thing
we knew, hundreds of cars were trying to correct having been
led several miles west into terra incognita. Eventually we
found our way back to I-10, which was a breeze until we got
to the east side, where it became a parking lot. Still, it
took us only an hour and half to go 30 miles.

Carl and Ellen like La Fonda on Baseline for Arizona-Mex,
so we said we'd meet them there at 6:30 (I allowed for
extra innings (no) and a traffic jam (small), so we showed
up more than half an hour early, so we slid into a table at
the bar and took advantage of happy hour. $3 Mexican draft
pints, $2 Margaritas. we were on round 3 when Carl and
Ellen showed up, the former more cheerfully addled than ever,
the latter as lovely in a Morticia way as ever. Turns out Carl
had totalled the famous cliff-climbing jeep, and Ellen hadn't
been in it. Carl has had 8 surgeries in the last year, which
beats pretty much everyone I know. They're still reasonably
jolly, though, which does my heart good.

For dinner I got a Machaca chimi, very resilient but very
tasty stew meat in a too-doughy fried flour tortilla crust
(these guys are real Mexicans and therefore don't know how
to make chimichangas), good guac and (nixed) sour cream on
the side; pretty good though salty rice and refritos.

Carl and Ellen both got things with machaca, knowing what's
good here. Swisher had a cheese enchilada platter, which he
polished off thoroughly.

There was plenty of food, and some of my chimi went back for
Carl's lunch (good thing, because our room turned out not to
have a fridge), and half a pound of machaca went back for
a later supper for them.

We've stayed at the Hampton Scottsdale Riverwalk before and
liked it. The price was reasonable because there was nothing
at the adjacent stadium that day. They gave us an almost
identical room to last night's, except there was no fridge.
It was fine and did the job.
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