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.

going to st. louis

so a half a month ago i was planning with my friend to go somewhere south on a weekend to discgolf in better weather. several options were on the table, most realistically st. louis. then 2 weeks ago i hear from another buddy who works at UW steven's point, that he and 19 students are taking a week long roadie to the south for discgolf, and were gonna be in st. louis this upcoming weekend. i couldn't get off work, but was planning to trip down fri eve and back sun eve.

but i got laid off; my last day was today. ^_^ not unexpectedly, my industry's in a downturn, and when i heard last week they were turning a branch into a shell office, i figured i'd be a worthwhile cut, since they really mean it. it's smart for the company to survive till the market improves. i'll still be in and out for minor work on a contract basis, and i hope they do well. they've been gracious and kind in letting me go, too. (and you wouldn'ta believed how rocky it was when i got hired from being a contractor) so now i need to figure out what's next, and hope maybe i can even be picky about where and get somewhere new. i'd like to score an interview in st. lou if i can, but i'm also gonna look at austin, raliegh, philly, ny, boston, and maybe ca. but i'm not concerned until monday. in the meantime, i get to enjoy a long st. patty weekend in st. lou with a truckload of other discgolfers. not too shabby.


st. louis blues, by w.c. handy, as sung by jimmy witherspoon

i hate to see the evening sun go down
well i hate to see the evening sun go down
that woman of mine, she's done left this town

i'm feeling tomarrow like i feel today
i'm feeling tomarrow like i feel today
gonna pack my bags, make my getaway

st. louis woman, she got a diamond ring
lead that man around by her apron string
if it wasn't for power and a store-bought ham
that woman of mine, she wouldn'tve gone nowhere, nowhere

got the st. louis blues, blue as i can be
that woman of mine, got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
if she hadn'ta been alright, she wouldn'ta gone so far from me

st. louis woman, what are you doing to me
st. louis woman, what are you doing to me
i beleive to my soul, you're trying to hoodoo me

well, st. louis woman, i'd better let you be
well, st. louis woman, i'd better let you be
i better leave you woman, before you make a zombie out of me


the original version has a great line, "Like a Kentucky colonel loves his mint'n rye"

Did everything just taste purple for a second?

Synesthesia

i bet there's a lot left to learn about/from this

phoenix AZ area disc golf courses

I tore through all the phoenix area courses on vacation. i messed up getting all the photos i wanted, but i still have enough to show the gist of each of the courses there. here's a link to the pix

Fountain Hills is pro-difficulty and very easy to lose discs on.








Buffalo Ridge is more what i expected, rocky dry terrain and thorny bush. played on a big hillside.






Thunderbird-Paseo is a nice course in a big drainage canal, fun for longer arms.






Mesquite Grove, while far south and supposedly to be pulled, is a really fun use of a bunch of tall thorny bushes. holes play backwards from alt tees for 18.




one of the dudes i played with got his second hole-in-one here on a hammer toss, the very last hole i played this vacation




Vista Del Camino is another championship course with multiple pins on just about every hole. fairly flat and grassy with a river in the middle. A good disc golf store is in a shopping center nearby.








Moeur is a great 9er near ASU, rocky and thorny terrain in a small area with decent elevation change make for some very tech holes.






Emerald is a decent beginner's course with good holes playing around a lake non-threateningly.




Conocido is a fairly open and nearly flat neighborhood course with multiple tees to make 18 on 9 baskets.




I also had fun doing family stuff


an HDR pic of the superstition mountains (made by combining several exposures)



and lastly, a video of a couple angles of the new two finger distance flick i'm trying to tame. unlike most flickers, i don't make any effort to keep my arm low or elbow in; i chuck it like a sidearm pitch

then the flight back sucked ASS. first northwest airlines cancels my flight from AZ to MN is canceled and i get rescheduled separate from my 8yearold niece. deal with that with a ticket agent that can't do a single thing without having to grab the lady next to for an explanation of how to do the job. i later learn NWA doesn't have employees there or something and someone else takes care of it. i also later learn she only checks my bags as far as MN and not all the way to WI. once in MN it's a blizzard and again, flight canceled, rescheduled overnight for 7am sun. i asked people about my bags, and without looking at my claim, they told me they'd be held and probably get to WI ahead of me. i had a place to stay, but when i wake at 5 to call and affirm my suspicions the 7am was canceled (it was), i spent an hour and a half waiting on hold to try to reschedule before giving up and going to the airport. (i HOPE airlines have the foresight to call in more operators in such scenarios..) thankfully there was a line at the airport just for cancellations, and i got to talk fairly fast. after learning i was rebooked for yet another overnight NEXT 7am, i was able to get onto a 3pm flight without having to do standby. after wasting all day on that, i learn my bags never left MN. the lady at the WI bag-check was the only one all day who obviously knew her stuff. i'm told i'll get it in a day, but it takes until wednesday for me to get it; not even getting a call about it until tue. thpppt. 2nd worst flight experience after sleeping on an airport floor on xmas eve.