disc golf roadtrip thru the south - spring break 07

so! i ended up taking a week and a half long roadtrip hitting 28 courses in 8 states, and i took courseguide pictures to a lot of them. an absolute ton of pix, over 900. organizing, naming, editing, mapping, etcetc took me like two days!

on the way down i hit several courses in bloomington IL, which was largely not worth it. PJ Irving was a fun little one, but that's about it. Maxwell was flat and open, the wind being almost always strong. Miller Park was a pretty area, but the baskets were pulled for a while, and State Farm was a POS (and it's hard to get me to say that about a course). then, just as it got dark i got to play Douglas park in springfield IL, and THAT is a fun and scenic course. i wish i'd gotten to play the other one in town, Lincoln park. while perusing the town, i was able to see lincoln's grave from a great distance, as the cemetery was closed.




i got west of st louis for next morning and started working my way back east into town. i played Quail Ridge, which was fun and balanced, Creve Coeur, a LONG flat course next to a big lake, and White Birch, which was missouri's first disc golf course, shorter fun woodsy elevation. then Sioux Passage, on the north side, had some great down and uphill shots over pretty land.




i stopped for dinner and drinks at a great blues club in downtown st louis, just south of the arch, called bb's jazz blues and soups. there was another blue club right across the street i wish i'da had time to check out too. then i got back east into illinois for the next morning, meeting up the 4 vans full of guys from steven's point to play Foundation in centralia, which has a couple great holes, and is overall a very tough course.




on the way back to st louis i hit a course just east in illinois, Woodland, which had a lot of scenic, fun but challenging holes. though there are easier courses in the area, i'd bring a beginner here just because it's cool.




the next day we got to tour gateway disc's home base just off of the Jefferson Barracks course, which is probably st. louis's best. great buncha guys at their leagues.




some of the guys from Jefferson Barracks took us down south a while to play a new course, West City in festus, MO, which is a great course with a lot of vicious pin positions.




i got travelling ahead of the group that night to get to northern mississippi and meet up my friend matt, where we played Spring Creek and Turkey Hollow, two great wooded courses at Wall Doxey State Park in holly springs, MS.




then we got back up into TN near memphis near where we were meeting the other guys to camp and played two GREAT woodsy elevation courses at Meeman-Shelby State Park. Then we camped at a private disc golf paradise just south of there, called Bud Hill. Totally sweet course, and the friendliest people around. The kind of place that makes you quit your job and stay.






matt and i went downtown and i fell in love with memphis. we found the rum boogie cafe, and the best gumbo ever made. i didn't even like gumbo before i found this place! great music, great food, guitars from everyone hanging around, (cute bartender), this place has it all. we even came back the next day before traveling on and beale street has got kickass musicians just out sitting on the street playing on a nothing-going-on tuesday afternoon!




matt and i got ahead and down to west-northern mississippi to play two of the best courses i played the whole trip: Chickasaw Trail and it's meaner younger brother, Warrior Ridge, both at Tishomingo State Park. Killer rock formations and some evil-genius pin-positions at Warrior Ridge made for a hugely fun time.










back near nashville, the guys had rented sweet cabins at Cedars of Lebanon, which has a decent wooded but flat course. we played two scenic nashville-area courses, both of which i had hit during last year's spring break roadtrip: Seven Oaks





and Cedar Hill






then i separated and started my own way home, skipping bowling green n favor of louisville. there's a string of about 5 courses within a short stretch just south of louisville near west point and fort knox. i hit Otter Creek, which was a decent little woodsy course, and Muldraugh, which was not very well taken care of, but i immediately fell in love with it's crazy angles and weird terrain that came into play almost as much as the trees.










Meade Olin was a great championship-caliber course




and i swung by Iroquois park closer to louisville proper on my way out. it's a good and obviously popular course. I checked out an old civil war battlement, fort Duffield, near west point, and I swung by lincoln's birthplace too. I had hit this place once before in the middle of the night years ago on a roadtrip home from college, looking for a quiet place to sleep in my car. imagine my surprise finding this in the dark, in the middle of booneyville kentucky!




reaching indianapolis just before dark, (and indianapolis appears pretty crappy if you ask me, lots of abandoned houses nearby the courses..) i got to take a peek at Brookside




..before deciding i only had enough time to hit a shorter course nearby, George Washington park, which was decent.




i got home and slept for about a day! crazy like i am, i actually ran out to baraboo, WI and photo'd the course out there playing with some buddies on the advice that the course may be removed due to construction soon. now i'm going through a million things left undone now that i have free time, and am about to begin my jobsearch and decide where i might want to live~


as for the photos, there's so many that there's a couple different ways you might want to go at them:
there's just the meat and potatoes in pages from my best of album
there's the roadtrip album with all 900+ pix
and there's my pix on a map, which is buggy and you have to zoom around to get it to load different stuff.