Weekend Disc Golf

Have at least tried to get back into the swing of things by doing a little more activity to test the feet. Given that the NFL was off last Sunday, we decided to go play some disc golf over in Burlington. I couldn’t remember exactly how far away it was, but I knew it had to be reasonable. After all, Burlington is between Raleigh and Greensboro, and I know from many trips there that’s only 1.5hrs. Besides, a friend told me from N. Raleigh it’s only about 15-20minutes.

Which is exactly why it took 3 hrs. Starting from S. Raleigh (ie, close to the equator), we drove up to pick up the guys. Not ready. Finally we leave and head out. About an hour later, we’re finally across Raleigh. Damn this city is a serious victim of urban sprawl. Eventually we get to an Exit. I don’t know if it was the right one, but I was tired of driving on the interstate, so we took it.

Nothing. Well, I guess grass is something. Obviously the inhabitants of this barren land were part camel, because I’m pretty sure there wasn’t even running water. We kept driving though of course. The direction said it was 6.1 miles south of the Shoney’s, and although we never saw a Shoney’s, we sure as hell weren’t going to let that stop us. When just about all hope was lost (we were there without a map of course), we saw a gas station.

Since we were basically starving and not up to the Survivor challenge of ‘Bare-handed Cattle Strangulation", this appeared to be our best bet for food. Remembering Raleigh’s own convenience gas stations, we figured we were in luck. We figured wrong. But at least they had Little Debbie Snacks. Which appeased Chris because they had the Giant Fudge Round. Surprisingly, he was not up for the Double Stuff Giant Fudge Round challenge. "No one needs that much Fudge Round." Fair enough.

Just about the time I thought I was going to have to starve or vomit from fudge, I was saved by the holiest of unnatural foods – processed, pre-packaged, vending machine sandwiches. Egg Salad Sandwich even. Score! It was like that hilarious News Radio episode all over again. No mold though. Now we were off to the course (finally found a sign).

There are actually two parks side by side here (which is odd given the vast expanse of nothingness to get there). The first, Cedar Rock, has a nice, open disc golf course (not as open as Boone Woods – Cincy). Short, Medium, and Long distance holes, few trees obstructing the flight path. They actually have multiple tee and hole configurations to give a variety of challenges. One challenge is finding the basket.

Now let’s talk about hurricanes. Playing in this open, windy space, I now know why mid-western towns don’t have disc golf. But that just added to the challenge. We did well actually. Now on to the next course.

Wellspring Park, has a closed course. Ie, you play through a tunnel of trees. It’s not as bad as Reedy Creek (Charlotte), but it ain’t pretty. Although there are no ‘water holes’ on this course, Chris and I both almost managed to put a disc into a pond (well off the fairway of 18). We finished up, sore arms, elbows, shoulders and stomach (don’t ask me how that happened) and all.

Since this has been a week long journey by this point we finally stop and get semi-real food. And now back to the "3hr tour" of getting home. Actually the weather was nice and the whole day was quite pleasant. Except now my feet were definitely hurting again. Oh well.